"Red Bird Pest Control"

  To my way of thinking, the best pest control is free pest control.  In the past, I used all sorts of sprays.  I admit it.  It was terrible but I did it because that was what I was told to do.  How do you get rid of caterpillars in the garden?  "You spray them."  It was ridiculous, expensive and probably killing a lot more than caterpillars...me included.  So...I quit.  Then I went the whole routine of companion planting, herbal sprays and soap.  None really accomplished what I wanted.  I wanted the caterpillars to stop eating my plants not be clean, smell like garlic and live in a flowery world.  I wanted them gone!

  

  Today as I was planting squash seeds, I heard a fluttering of wings.  Just a few feet from where I was working, a male cardinal flew to a tomato plant.  I knew there were some caterpillars already munching the leaves so was elated to see the bird there.  Yep, that fellow snatched a caterpillar and flew off to the east.  I figure there is a nest of little ones somewhere near the greenhouse.  Within a few minutes, the bird was back!  Oh, this was great!

  All in all, the bird made about a dozen trips to the tomato plants.  Each time, he flew back eastward so I think he was successful in finding food for his offspring.  This...THIS...is the type of pest control that I have been wanting!  Effective, free and pretty!  My goodness, it cannot get any better!

A Day Too Late

   Last week, I made a mental note to pick and dehydrate the parsley as it was flourishing.  I put the plant in a hanging basket which seems to be the brightest idea I have had in a while.   The plant was dark green and very lush!  How nice it would be to have a Mason jar full of dehydrated, homegrown parsley!  From the looks of it, I should have gotten nigh on a pint jar full of the dried herb!  From the looks of it last week.  Canning figs got in the way of dealing with the parsley and, now, I am too late!

  Early this morning, I was out picking figs.  This chore has to be done at daybreak before the birds start to feed.  They will clean a fig tree in a matter of minutes!  While I was picking the figs from the small trees on the west side of the house, I checked the herb tower.  This is a large arbor with lots of shelves for pots and lots of space for hanging baskets.  This is where that parsley WAS!  Yep, WAS!  It was gone.  The hanging basket was there but instead of being filled with lovely, curly parsley, it was now filled with caterpillars!  Forty-seven caterpillars to be exact!  

  The black swallowtail butterflies that visit the zinnia bed decided that my parsley was the perfect nursery for their little ones.  In only one day, the critters munched the plant down to little nubs!  Now they are in a fine fix!  There is nothing else to eat!  Even though the critters ate my best plant, I felt sorry for them and tried offering them other herbs.  They are having no part of that and keep wandering around on the stripped parsley.  Thankfully, most are large enough to pupate so perhaps some will survive.  The tiny ones, however, had better get to changing their eating habits and stop being so persnickety!  Yes, it is sad that I did not get to dry my lovely parsley but I am not too upset as I do love my pretty butterflies.

Let The Worm Turn

   Yeah, I know the title does not exactly fit the story but, if you really think about it, the worm is turning...or in this case, a caterpillar so maybe it does.  I went to the vegetable section of the Small Gardens this morning to do a bit more clearing of the spent plants.  As I went to pull a ragged tomato plant from the ground, something caught my eye.  Oops.  Can't pull that one!  Right on the tip top of the tallest stalk was a tobacco horn worm.  Yes, I do usually pull the worms off of the plants and get rid of them but, this time, it was different.  The season is gone.  There are no more tiny tomatoes on the plants so why not let the critter have its fill of the last few leaves?  The worm can then change into a moth that will help pollinate plants.  Yes, I know that this caterpillar will change to a moth that will then lay eggs and make more caterpillars....that eat my plants!  Still, that "live and let live" motto started buzzing about the head. Go for it, caterpillar!

  That said, the garden will have to wait a bit before being fully cleared and prepared for a fall planting. One caterpillar just changed the whole plan for the day.  One caterpillar postponed a chore.  One caterpillar will probably come back to haunt me by laying a billion eggs that will eat next year's tomato plants!  One caterpillar...oh, well.  It is what it is.  Chow down in peace, little one.

Fried Green Tomatoes, Anyone?

  The gardens were doing so well.  You noticed "were"?  Yeah, well, they were doing so well.  The tomato plants had outgrown their crates and were so heavily laden with green tomatoes that it seemed that we were to have a bumper crop.  The squash plants were three feet tall and had dozens of blooms and tiny squash on them.  We were already enjoying daily meals.  The bell peppers were full of blossoms and tiny green peppers.  The key word in all of the statements is "were"...past tense.  Today, Son and I pulled all of the squash plants, cut back our beautiful four o'clock flowers, picked all of the green tomatoes, snipped every leaf off of the bell peppers and literally mowed the sweet potato vines to the ground.  None of these things were to my liking but were necessary.

  Tiny caterpillars first attacked the four o'clock plants and then quickly spread to the tomatoes and bell peppers. Finally, they made their way to the sweet potatoes.  Every leaf on these plants were riddled with holes.  This happened within a span of three days and during those three, I sprayed with numerous "organic" pesticides.  I refuse to put toxic chemicals on my vegetable gardens so found several things that touted to do the job safely.  None worked.  Sadly, the plants had to go.  Since the sprays contained nothing but herbs that are non toxic to fish, the plants (with caterpillars intact) were tossed to the frogs.  They loved them!  Hopefully, that will get rid of a lot of future moths.  The squash plants met a similar fate due to the squash bugs gnawing the stalks.  Nothing works on them other than to eradicate each larva...one by one by slitting the stalk and removing the critter.  Nope. Gone.

  The tomatoes were not only being attacked by caterpillars, the squirrels have taken a liking to them.  Every day, the thieving critters would steal ten or fifteen green tomatoes.  I could have lived with that but when they started knocking off dozens and dozens to get one tomato for one bite, something had to give.  All remaining tomatoes were picked and are in trays in the entryway.  Now, every table, shelf and even the floor is covered with green tomatoes!  Hopefully, the squirrels will not figure out how to open the door!

  Now the gardens look barren.  It saddens me but, at the same time, I am thankful for what we did harvest.  I told Son that I am going to plant flowers for the remainder of the summer then try again with a winter garden.  I am not adverse to spraying insecticides on non-edible flowers and during the winter, there are no caterpillars!  Oh, well.  Things are what they are and we cannot change that.  On the bright side, fried green tomatoes are always tasty!

Flowers and Veggies!

  I have a bad habit of planting flowers in the vegetable gardens and veggies in the flower gardens.  Here on the Bayou, the gardens are one big mishmash of whatever!  Anything goes.  If it grows, then it grows wherever it wants.  I have morning glories and moonflowers in the tomato patch.  I have squash in front of the moonflower fence row.  There are nasturtiums in with the radishes and bell peppers in between the tea olives.  Chives blend right in with the roses and zinnias!  Marigolds are everywhere!  Wherever there is an empty spot, there is a plant of some sort.  That suits me to a capital T!  Perhaps the gardens are fine and it is me that is discombobulated!

  It is this habit that caused one good thing and yet one bad thing.  Bad thing first.  After I put in the new garden fence, a bright idea struck. On one side, tomatoes were planted and on the opposite side, four o'clocks lined the fence.  Wow!  That looked nice! All was well until some moth decided to lay her eggs on the four o'clock leaves.  About a week later, caterpillars were turning the leaves into a lace!  Holes were everywhere!  Not good as these caterpillars simply took the jaunt across the fence to attack the tomatoes.  Oh, no you don't!!!  While I do not mind spraying flowers with insecticides, I am a stickler about keeping the veggies pure.  I do not want to eat a bunch of chemically laden garbage.  It took a while before the answer came.  Wasps! Yep, those same critters that make the nests up under the eaves of the house seem to love caterpillars. Paper wasps were feasting on the tiny leaf-munchers. That was good enough for me!  Wasps are now off the bad list and onto the good guys of the garden list.

  The good thing about my four o'clock/tomato arrangement is the early morning/late afternoon blooms sure make the place smell delightful regardless of the copious amounts of cow poop lying around under the tomato plants.  The sweet-scented blooms fill the air and mask the stench quite nicely.  If you do not know, cow poop stinks when wet.  The nighttime hours on the Bayou are rather humid which gives the manure the idea that it is ok to start reeking.  Thankfully, the four o'clock blooms have that covered.  Four o'clock blooms are stronger than poop!  Their scent completely blocks the otherwise stinky garden smells.  Four o'clocks for the win!

  I am sure Pop looks down from Heaven and cringes when he sees my patchwork gardening style.  His fields were impeccable and his flower gardens were to perfection.  He probably wonders where he went wrong when raising me!  Nah, Pop was easy going and would certainly agree about the four o'clocks.  He may have something to say about the morning glories that have their own tomato crates in the garden but, all in all, he would enjoy seeing the plants regardless.

You Cannot Eat My House!

  I finally have new siding on the Little Bayou House thanks to Hubby and Son.  They have been renovating the place for quite some time due to an infestation of my enemy, termite.  Yep.  The place was being eaten from inside the walls.  So...the walls came down.  New walls went up.  I am a happy camper because termites are gone!  Now it seems as if other critters want to "try out" the new siding.  For the past few weeks, I have found adult antlions, grasshoppers, spiders and wasps nosing around the siding.  While I adore my siding, I am not sure what the great attraction is for bugs.  This stuff is not wood!  The siding is some stuff called cement siding.  It is supposed to be termite resistant at least....termite proof at best.  I am hoping for the latter.  But these other critters are driving me crazy with their affinity for my house.

  The other morning, I noticed what I thought was a smudge on my new paint job.  The siding seemed to have a blotch of something high enough to be just out of my reach.  A few days later, I noticed that my blotch was moving.  There were little squiggles "worming" their way away from the original smear.  Uh, oh!  I do not need more critters.  I climbed a ladder, took photos and sprayed the teeny-tiny, siding-dwelling critters.  After killing the mass of them (there was clearly hundreds), I decided I had better determine the type of critter.  It appears that my house was the host to a couple of hundred moth caterpillars.  Ok, so I have seen caterpillars on plants but never cement siding.  There cannot be much to eat on the side of a house.

  I feel better after eradicating the critters even though I usually follow a no kill motto.  I suppose that strategy only applies when the critter is not trying to literally eat me out of house and home.  Nope...we are not going that route again.  I have had enough already.

Here's Mama!

  For the past several years, I have been noticing some pretty elaborate caterpillar looking critters happily munching on the leaves of the Groundsel bushes near the shore end of the pier.  Groundsel bushes are also known as salt myrtle as they grow in or around salt marshes.  They are low growing, thick bushes that make a plethora of fluffy, white seeds that look a lot like swarming termites when they are being scattered by the wind.  (Yes, termites are bad down here so anytime there is a "swarm" of anything, we think termites.) The caterpillars munch away on the leaves until the bushes are pretty much stripped.  Then, the little buggers go into hiding until they do their larva-changing-into-adult thing.  

  Today, instead of caterpillars, I found the adults.  The adults are beetles that look quite different from the caterpillars or larvae   Where the young are brightly colored and iridescent (almost metallic looking), the beetles are bright yellow and black.  The beetles were so busy eating that they were oblivious to my attempts at photographing them.  Dozens of the critters crawled about the bush and I am sure there were just as many on the other bushes along the shoreline.  We have an infestation of cute, little bugs!

  Long story, made short.  It seems that the beetle was introduced to keep the invasive Groundsel bush in check.  While I cannot vouch for the veracity of the story, it may make sense in a weird sort of way to whoever thought of it.  Why not introduce yet another possibly invasive species into an area that is plagued by so many?   I will say, if the bush is invasive, the caterpillars and beetles are doing their part of stripping the leaves and perhaps weakening it but who is to say that these critters are not going to move on to other plants?  Oh, well.  At least they are cute!...but I could do with the invasive part.  Maybe if they ate termites....just saying...

Twins!

  About noontime, Mark and I headed over to our daughter and son-in-law's place for a Father's Day cookout.  Robbie was grilling hamburgers which was the perfect meal to have for his father-in-law.  You just cannot go wrong with a burger for a guy!  After we ate, Elizabeth and I took our usual stroll about the place.  We checked her gardens, the spot she chose for a shoofly and the trimming job that Robbie did on the oak tree.  All looked well kempt.  

  She then showed me her satsuma and grapefruit trees. "Caterpillars ate my satsuma tree." she bemoaned but then looking at the bright side "But look!  I have twins!  Sure enough on the trunk of the little tree, two fat chrysalides were suspended by thin silk.  Elizabeth informed me that there were more caterpillars on the little trees but she smashed them not realizing just what they were.  When I told her that these caterpillars will change into Great Swallowtails, she was all for leaving them.  So the bush got pruned until it was nigh on devoid of leaves.  The "Orange Dogs" were fat and happy!  Twins!  

  The Giant Swallowtail butterfly lays her eggs on citrus trees if available, hence the name Orange Dog caterpillar.  These caterpillars bear a striking resemblance to fresh bird poop.  This is not their only defense, however.  If threatened, bright red "horns" called osmeterium emerge from their head and emit an odor that is quite convincing of the bird poop camouflage.  Not too many critters want to go around eating stinky bird poop so the caterpillars munch away unmolested.

  While the menfolk decided to do a bit of mechanical work on the lawnmower, Elizabeth and I had a grand time exploring her place a bit more.  All in all, it was a delightful way to spend the afternoon!