Tag: aphids

Pest Problem

Something is eating holes in my baby bok choy, but leaving the surrounding veggies like the spinach alone. I spotted a ladybeetle hanging out with these pests (going to assume it’s feeding on them). I washed everything off but they came back the next day. So did the ladybeetle. They kinda look like aphids, but these tiny bugs are dark brown, can’t get a really good pic of them; they are turning my bok choy into swiss cheese. I may have to cut these boks down to the roots and start all over if I can’t get rid of them.

They keep coming back but in smaller numbers. I am checking my bok choy regularly now because I’m growing paranoid. Even when temps dipped down in to the low 30s, the buggers hide out under the leaves and in between the stalks. You’d think planting these in a stock tank garden would keep them off the pest radar, but apparently not. I even spotted another caterpillar looper trudging through the cedar mulch.

I plan on starting a new crop of boks soon, but for now, I will keep monitoring how these 2 specimens do. Sadly, I think I’ve lost my appetite for these.

Ugh bugs!

Slaving away in the high 90s…it might as well have been 100 degrees in the shade. This was a searingly long hot day to be working in the garden, but worked (and sweated aplenty) I did. I managed to plant many that had been waiting quite a while for their new homes: both Dixie Chip ajuga, variegated geranium, 3 more Origami Red columbines, all 6 of the red spider lily bulbs, 8 Lanai Purple Star verbena, 2 Calico ornamental peppers. I also transplanted a few of the Navona lily bulbs closer to the back wall, relocated the 2 Charmed Wine oxalis, tore out 3 of the under-performing azaleas (Delaware, Macrantha and Crimson), and cleaned out much of the dead/dying pansies. I also gave the red and white dianthus in the lily bed a good haircut, while pulling out as much of the weeds as I could. After intermittent breaks and drives to the local Home Depots, I also picked up another bag of compost and MiracleGro garden soil, and 3 bags of cedar mulch. The cedar went to the lily bed and part of the purple bed, including my delicate geranium. I hope to use some of it to protect the hostas in front.

Of course, some of the gardening had to be interrupted by some unwelcome guests. Wooly aphids and nest-building wasps caused me a great deal of stress–especially after I came close to smashing into the wasp nest while moving the lilies. Of course, I just had to take the soap to the wooly critters–but the wasps did send me running after I tried (and failed) to jar both nest and wasps in one fell swoop. Luckily, my man fetched a wasp killer from the grocery store–thereby ending the rampage.