Controlling insects in the vegetable garden

Whether it’s tomatoes off the vine or leafy greens, you can enjoy your own vegetables from your garden. Find out what varities grow best in your zone and plant seeds according to their instructions.

A sunny spot is essential; some veggies require full sun while others thrive in shade. Space plants appropriately to prevent overcrowding.

Do you know why the vegetable band sounded a little off at the concert the other night? They were missing a beet.

On any given summer evening, you can usually find me in one of two places. I’m either in the front yard, working in the flowerbeds, or in the backyard, weeding the vegetable garden.

I don’t remember a time I wasn’t in the vegetable garden. I grew up gardening with my mom, and my wife, Mary, and I have gardened our 39 married years.

During these years of gardening, there have been two constants: weeds and insects. There’s never been a year we didn’t hoe weeds, and there’s never been a year insects haven’t attacked.

Luckily for gardeners, there are effective, safe remedies to save our vegetables from being decimated by insects. And crops can be decimated. Take potatoes, for example. The Colorado potato beetle can ruin plants in a matter of days if unchecked.

Let’s discuss the most commonly encountered vegetable insects, and then examine the insecticides that are handy to keep on the garden shelf.

Flea beetles. They often go unseen because they’re so small, and it’s usually their damage that reveals their presence. These small, black, pinhead-size beetles cause small shot-hole damage to the leaves of radish, kohlrabi, cabbage, cauliflower and broccoli. Because their activity begins early in the season when plants are young, flea beetles can cause significant damage.

Bean leaf beetles. Although they’re larger than flea beetles, it’s usually their extreme feeding we first see. The quarter-inch tan beetles with black spots feed on the undersides of string bean plants, causing large holes, and plants can be quickly skeletonized and ruined.

Colorado potato beetle. These fat, round, half-inch beetles are easily spotted on potato plants, with their yellow bodies and black stripes. Newly hatched larvae are brick red with black heads. Adult beetles and larvae can quickly turn potato plants to skeletons. My Dad talked of walking their potato patch and handpicking beetles and dropping them in a can of kerosene, which is still a control option.

Cabbage worm. Also called cabbage loopers, these green larvae hatch from eggs deposited by white or yellow cabbage butterflies that flitter through the garden. The hungry, green worms create holes in cabbage and its close relatives, cauliflower and broccoli.

Striped Cucumber beetle. As the name describes, these yellow-bodied beetles have black stripes, are about one-fifth inch long and are longer than wide. They attack cucumbers and their close relatives squash, pumpkins, watermelon and muskmelon. Besides feeding on the leaves, they can carry bacteria that cause a wilting disease.

Squash vine borer. Extremely prevalent, these insects quickly ruin a crop of squash and sometimes melons, pumpkins and cucumbers. The adult moth begins laying eggs on the basal stems of squash plants in late June or early July. The eggs hatch into larvae that tunnel into the squash stem, causing vines to quickly wilt as though they’re dry. They might recover at night, but vines soon collapse and won’t recover. Preventative insecticides are applied to the lower 12 to 24 inches of squash stem from soil level upward. Butternut varieties carry some resistance.

Luckily we don’t need separate insecticides for each of these common pests. The following products are handy to keep on the garden shelf, since they’ll safeguard vegetables from a number of the pests listed. Always read and follow the label instructions.

Sevin and Eight. I’ve found them to be somewhat interchangeable in managing many of the insects described, so I keep one or the other on hand. Insects controlled are listed on the labels.

Spinosad. This will be listed on the label as the active ingredient, and there are several brand names. Besides controlling many other insects, it’s currently the most effective control for Colorado potato beetle, which has become resistant to many other insecticides. Spinosad is an organic compound.

Malathion. Although it’s been around a long time, it remains an effective product.

Bacillus thuringiensis. Abbreviated BT, this organic material is effective against cabbage worms and other larvae, if applied when larvae are young.

Other organic insecticides. Neem oil and insecticidal soap can control many insects, but they must contact and coat the insect’s bodies. They generally don’t have the residual of other insecticides that remain effective as insects eat leaves.

A note about dusts versus sprays: Both can be effective, but sprays can provide better plant coverage. Liquid concentrates are easily mixed and applied with small pump-type sprayers.

Source: inforum.com