Garden bugs....
I have been planting out a lot more perennial fruit trees and shrubs, than other seasons.
One of the new additons to the garden has been a Cape Gooseberry plant Physalis peruviana. This is the first time I have grown a cape gooseberry, so it is abit of a learning curve for me.
Anyway I noticed a few 'bugs' (to be general) on it a few weeks ago, but was unsure if they were goodies or badies.
Well the were badies I have since discovered.
This is a 3 striped potato beetle or a common 3 striped beetle. They are bad. ie. they eat all the leaves of a cape gooseberry.
Since increasing the gardens and the plant numbers I have been dealing with a larger number of pests, (than other years). Thrips, white fly, vegetable bugs, grasshoppers, just to name a few. I grow everything using organic methods, (how easy would it be to grab that bottle of poison and spray every plant in sight!) and am finding the pests are becoming a real problem this year. *sigh* So I am on a mission to learn more organic treatment methods.
Here is a few of my favourites
- squashing
- freezing (pop eggs and bugs in to kill them and then feed them to the chooks)
- giving them to the kids to 'play with' (grasshoppers are good for this leave the bitey ones for the freezer)
- white oil
Have a great week - Em
As our camera is broken the Photo is from :http://www.pbase.com/tmurray74/image/53137933
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