# Self Sufficiency/Living off the Land or Off the Grid > Gardening >  What's eating your garden?

## LowKey

It's been a banner year for garden pests.

Started with having to pick the grape-leaf-folder worms off the Concord grapes.

There is something on the Frontenac grapes that are eating the vine ends and leaving them hanging by a strand. Haven't caught that bugger yet.

I grow fennel for the black swallowtail caterpillars to eat, so they're more pets than pests. But something ate the caterpillars this year. I don't think it was a bird. Some animal that broke over the plant tops to get at them.

Never had anything get through the chain link fence into the garden, but this year one baby bunny figured it out. He only ate the clover on the pathways. Had to chickenwire the whole inside of the chain link to keep that little guy from figuring out what kind of paradise he was missing beyond the clover (too close to the road for anything resembling an oh-my-gawd-a-gun.)

Broccoli worms were so bad this year had to chop it all down. Tried saltwater but they just died in the flower heads and didn't even fall out when boiled. At least not all the way. I don't mind a few as long as I don't see em but this was bad. Didn't have the money for bug fleece this year.

Flea beetles got the first round of cucumbers that were direct sown. Started a new set in pots in the cellar under lights. Planted them out when they were big enough to not mind the flea beetles.

Chipmunks got the cherry tree out front. They also got under the cover on the strawberries and took those away green! I found a stockpile of green strawberries neatly piled under the sump cover. I have tunnel traps for those critters. Silly state passed a law you are not allowed to drown _any_ animal and I'm not taking a chance on my bleeding heart neighbors seeing the bucket traps. Tunnel traps work fine. Rat traps inside a  2' long wooden box made out of 1x6. The box keeps the neighborhood cats, skunks, raccoons, possums etc from getting their paws broken. There is no hunting season on chipmunks like there is with gray squirrels and rabbits.

A catbird moved in. I only got about a pint of cherries off the tree out back. Bird got the rest. I'm sure it's going to be a fight for the raspberries too. I do have netting to keep it out of the grapes. Gotta choose your battles, right? People tell me they've had birds get trapped in the netting and die. That would be just horrible.......wouldn't it?

Picked a whole can full of potato beetle larvae off the potato plants today. Killed em with soapy water. The plants are stressed so they are probably a bug magnet right now. Growing in boxes and it's been too hot and dry even with watering. I think next time I'm going to put a section of drain tile vertically in the box so I can deep water better.

Picked a whole can of pine worms off one of the ornamental Mugo I have in the front yard. Always just the one though. They don't seem to find the others tasty.

We won't talk about what the adelgids have done to the Hemlocks. Lots of standing deadwood in the 20 acres behind the house, owned by someone else. I consider it a fire hazard. I'm just happy the gypsy moths aren't out here yet. They're 2 towns over though. Only a matter of time.

On the upside though, the summer squash and lettuce have been tasty. There's a bumper crop of paste tomatoes and onions out there. I see a couple pumpkins on the vines even though the vines are short this year (too hot and dry.) The carrots and cabbage are doing ok. The cranberries have been flowering like crazy. It's late for them. We'll see if they can ripen fruit fast enough to beat the snow.

Sorry for the opus. I'm bored tonight.

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## Pol090

Two years ago I had a very big problem with snails. They were everywhere. But when I started using preparation to get rid of them they disappeared. Due to the fact that I live near the forest sometimes it happens that does or mooses visit me but fortunately they have never did so much harm to my garden!

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## old soldier

go to Lowes or any store that sells  Diatomaceous earth and spread it around the plants and even the garden, it'll chop up the slugs

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## rebel

Tiny green leaf worms.

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## Rick

Look for Thuricide. Bacillus Thuringiensis (BT). It's a bacteria that consumes the caterpillars. 4 teaspoons per gallon of water sprayed directly on the plants. No more leaf eating worms.

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## RaquelMontes

I had a similar problem last year and in the end I put aside home solutions and had to hire a pest control company.

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## Rick

For you garden?!

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## johnlemon

Few months ago cutworms infested my garden. So instead of hiring a pest control I decide to purchased a backpack sprayer to get rid it from time to time. So far there is no cutworms in my garden and I just use it for watering my plant. If you are curious I got mine on this website >> SPAM BE US!

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## Alan R McDaniel Jr

Next year I'm planting SPAM.  Do you think I should just plant the cans whole, crack them open a little or remove them entirely to get the best germination rate?  I wonder what kind of fertilizer is best for SPAM plants, how much water do they need...? I need to know because I want to have a goo crop of SPAM to eat fresh and maybe can some SPAM  to have throughout the year...

Any suggestions will be helpful....

Thanks in advance.

Alan

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## Rick

Lordy, be careful. Just plant one. Only ONE! I know you've heard the story of Jack and the Spam Stalk. They grow big and you being in Texas there's no tellin' how big that rascal might grow. We don't want things to get out of hand. (not to be confused with ranch hand). Or the story of Johny Spam Seed. There never used to be Spam in the this country (the old days were not so good) until Johny planted seeds all Willy Nilly like. Now, everyone can have Spam anytime they want. There should really be a Johny Spam Day in his memory.

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## Alan R McDaniel Jr

I need to get summa those Jack and the spam stalk seedlings!  I dont climb so good any more so I might have to just ride it up as it grows. The prospect of outwitting giants to get golden egg laying geese seems doable compared to mental jousting with liberal mental midgets out after my money!  And, I use the term midgets only in the most positive context!


Alan

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## Rick

I wonder what the tax on a golden egg is these days. We seem to be taxing trillionaires quite heavily last I heard. I did gas up today. I found out a gallon of gas is actually worth more than two golden eggs. Imagine that! Whoda thunk? Why just last year a gallon of gas....I digress.

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## Alan R McDaniel Jr

I've been putting it off for a few days now.  My truck told me today that I had 35 miles left, so tomorrow for sure I have to get gas.  It has a 30 gallon tank.  I trying to decide whether to rob the convenience store first and pay for the gas or just try a drive off...  

Alan

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## Rick

When I was a kid we lived a couple of blocks from the switch yard on the wrong side of the tracks. Both sides were the wrong side but that's a different story. We lived in coal country so you could mosey down to the switch yard and "gather" up some coal in the winter. I wonder if a fellah could mosey to the wrong side of the tanker and gather some gas while he's fueling the station? I did read about some ingenious, enterprising guy that would pull into filling station at night to deliver gas then proceed to pump their tanks dry. I suppose the po lice would find me post haste if I had a semi tanker parked in front of my house for an extended period of time. Even so, the HOA would have a conniption if they didn't get a piece of the pie.

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## Alan R McDaniel Jr

The oil and gas wells in South Texas produced "Distillate" The much lighter ends of oil/gas production. young men in search of free gas (gas was 17 cents a gallon then) would drain off the distillate and mix it with motor oil.  It worked just fine in the cars of the day but burned a bit hot and valve and ring jobs were common.  The practice wasn't really frowned upon as long as nobody got greedy.

Alan

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## Rick

Yeah. Same here. As long as a hopper car was half empty no one seemed too worried. It was always a bit hard to explain if you got caught. You'd be standing there with that oily coil dust on you saying "not me. Just cutting across the yard to get home." Then you'd have to go back and get your buckets. Either than or you'd go running down the street with two full buckets in hand. That was always a funny sight. No one could track you in the snow either.

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