Thanks to the post about squash borers, we were able to extract them from our plants.  Since half of our box is squash and zucchini, we set out to tackle them this past Saturday.  We cut open all of the stems and found 2 to 4 borers in each of them.  In some cases, the borer would be found in the stem exactly where it was "rotting", but in other cases, they would be high up in the stem where it was still green.  In most of the plants, we also found little black beetles that are more than likely pollen beetles.  We then covered the cuts we made with soil and watered.  We checked on them yesterday and only found one more borer in one of the plants.  We hope the stems will heal!  It may just be my imagination, but the plants looked healthier after 24 hours with no borers!!

Thanks again!

Daniel White

Attack of the Squash Borer

Julie,
I have found some squash borers. I noticed some of my squash that was looking limp looking and got to checking it and found a white worm in the stem. I didn't check everyones but the box that is labeled Want a Be Gardener has them really bad.  Jim Ault was down there and he has them also. Randy came by and we checked his and he also has them. You might want to notify everyone. Here is a link to some information I found. You might also have some information.
Charlotte 

The below pictures are from this site, which also has helpful information.

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Veggie Thief?!

Last week my son picked our first purple pepper.  It was an exciting event.  There was another we left on the plant, to pick later.

When we came back a few days later - it was gone!  A friend of mine said a squirrel could have picked it, or maybe even a raccoon.

Charlotte and I discussed this traumatic turn of events and later she emailed me to say:

I went down to the garden this afternoon and I was missing a little small eggplant that had just started to form.  I forgot that I did have a squash go missing while I was gone to Natchez.  I had a patty pan squash that was pretty big and was expecting it to be almost big enough to pick when I got back.  However it was gone when I got back.  That's why I put the wire cages around them.  Don't know why something would choose a small undeveloped eggplant over several big peppers right in the same area.  Guess it's just one of those things we're going to have happen from time to time!  I may look for some more netting like I have over my strawberries.  I've had it for a long time but I'm thinking I probably bought it somewhere like Home Depot.


Anyone else had veggies missing?

Very Hungry Caterpillars

Some of you may be endeared to Eric Carle's book The Very Hungry Caterpillar.  I'm in that stage of life where I probably have it memorized.

Nonetheless I do not think real caterpillars are cute.  I squish them at every chance.

For caterpillars will eat my veggies, herbs or flowers if given the chance.  I'd rather they eat a cupcake (like in the book and get a tummy ache.)

Recently I've squished two caterpillars in my garden.

The first one looked like the dreaded tomato horn worm in miniature form.  If you squint just right you can see it on the tip of my finger.  I picked it from my tomato plant and it appears to have a horn growing from its head.  However, I've never seen one quite this small.  I squished it anyway.  No caterpillar is a good caterpillar in my book.

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FYI - tomato horn worms can do a LOT of damage to your tomatoes in a little bit of time.  A friend of mine suggests going to the garden at night with a flashlight to find and squish them.  They like to hide in the day and munch at night.

According to this site, the below caterpillar is a kind of moth (scroll to the bottom of the page.)  I found it on a pepper plant.