If you have a vegetable garden, there is a good chance that you are growing something in the Brassica family. If you are growing something in the Brassica family, there is a good chance that you will have pest problems. If you have pest problems there is a good chance that some of these pests might be the problem (in a general order of appearance in the season): Cutworms, Root Maggots, Cabbage Loopers, Aphids...
Early in the spring, maybe your broccoli or cabbage started to wilt and look like it was not getting enough water? Maybe it wasn't getting enough water, but maybe it had been munched on by
Cutworms, which had eaten a ring around the base of the plant, cutting off the nutrient and water flow from leaves to roots and vice versa.
Maybe your spring broccoli instead took on a yellow color and never seemed to grow, maybe you decided that you needed to fertilize more...maybe the roots were being eaten by
Root Maggots.
Here are some suggestions for control of these pests (although a little late for this spring...).
We have taken to applying beneficial nematodes at the first sign of damage in the spring...
Just maybe, you had no problems until early June when all of the sudden there appeared large holes in the middle of all of your broccoli leaves and some of the newer leaves were bitten off entirely. Slugs? More likely you can now proudly consider yourself part of the
Cabbage Looper club. Look all over your brassicas for little, bright green catapillars (also look for brown, wet, squishy looking balls of muck. This is frass, or catapillar poop.) Squish the loopers immediately between your fingers and notice that their innards are much darker green than their exteriors. Take a quiet satisfaction in learning this new piece of natural history.
Loopers are out and about right now and, if neccesary, can be organically controlled with Bt, but in a small garden it may be just as effective to look over your plants every day for a week or so and eliminate every green catapillar that you encounter. The coolest way to manage your loopers is to attract beneficial parasitic
wasps that will lay eggs in the catapillars and eat them from the inside out... seriously. The added bonus is that the adults are attracted to a lot of flowering plants, including
Valerian, which theoretically could also be used to make "calming teas"...
If your plants are healthy and you catch the damage early, there should be no long term repercussions from their damage.
Lastly, watch out for
Aphids which are just now showing up and going to town on just about everything in your garden....when caught early, aphids can be managed with a combination of
soap sprays and hand squishing. You can also bring in more beneficial insects such as
ladybugs and lacewings...
But if you can't tell, regardless of which pests you have and which remedies you apply, I think it is best just to get used to squishing bugs...
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