Critters and bugs are eating my stuff before I can. The 'coons are getting the sweet corn, and cabbage worms are decimating my cole crops. I dust with dipel, and then it rains! I dust again, and it rains again! Ima gonna trap 'coons this fall/winter! Regulations be damned! Coonskin cap anyone?
Go to the dollar store and get some Sargeants flea and tick spray for dogs. Add about an ounce to a quart of water or a little more and a squirt of soap and spray the cabbage and anything else bugs are getting on. No more bugs, worms or anything else.
I've had to battle all sorts of critters this year... coons in the cantaloupes, birds in the strawberries, armadillo in the flower beds, stink bugs on the pears. Latest pests... darn worms in the pecan trees! Grrrrrrrr..... :twisted:
That spray will take care of stink bugs if you can reach them. Rest of the critters,,,your on your own. Good luck! All I am having problems with are squirrels in the apple trees.
Mart.. I keep "the spray" on hand and it does work on the stink bugs, I was just a little too late noticing them. For the armadillo, a friend suggested I spread Bloodmeal around. I was doubtful, but there's been no more digging since. Coincidence or it really worked after just one application? As far as the coons in the cantaloupes (at least I'm pretty sure they were the culprits) I did find something that would protect the fruit from them. I was growing them vertically and had mesh bags for support. They did not mess with these. The one's that were either on the ground or in wire basket supports - they clawed and tore open. Next year... all fruit will have the mesh around them. Good luck FBG.... all these worms/bugs/varmints sure are a pain in the rear!
Then get the cat flea and tick spray. Pyrethrin is the ingredient it the cat spray and is approved for organics. Its made from chrysanthemums. Permethrin in the dog spray is the man made version of it. It takes so very little of either to keep bugs and critters off the garden that its some of the safest things we can use. I look at it this way,, I can either feed me or the bugs,,I won !
I had a customer just tell me (and she is quite elderly) that they used FLOUR to dust their cole crops and the loopers wouldn't come near it. You can just try it and see if it works. She said it was great.
The dipel I've been using works like a charm, except when the rain washes it off in the AM while I'm at work, then I don't get it dusted again til I get home. Then of course it rains again the next AM, while I'm at work.
Cabbage moths swarm around all our kale / broccoli/ brussel sprouts/ cauliflower. After smashing the first litter of their offspring, we made up a batch of garlic spray. It works wonderfully. A batch of baking soda/cooking oil/ dish soap/ water sprayed on squash/ zucchini/ cucumber plants does a fairly good job of ridding them of powdery mildew. Now if only critters will stay away from the tomatoes.
I'm not sure if I mentioned planting Cukamelons in a previous post? My first time with them and today I find three teensy cukamelons. They're supposed to have a sweet/sour taste. Has anyone tried them? The spelling may be incorrect. I have a question regarding pickling cucumbers. After cutting the old plant to ground level, will it regrow?
