Battling Bugs

So I'm becoming something of a fledgling entomologist in pursuing this organic gardening thing.

The first thing to know about bugs in the garden is that there are good ones (ladybugs and spiders) and bad ones (squash bugs).  Then there's also the neutral ones that act as indicators of overall environmental health, like this Bluet Damselfly I caught perching on a leaf.

Confused yet?  Good, me too.  But that's what we have Google for, right?  I don't know what I'd do without the image search and the wealth of information found in the multitude of gardening forums.

Anyway, the good insects help pollinate flowers and devour pests.  The bad insects, on the other hand, devour plants...and then hatch villainous offspring who continue to finish the task their dastardly forefathers failed to complete:  killing my plants!

Obviously, any gardener is NOT a fan of bad insects in the garden.  But where a conventional gardener heads to the nearest garden supply center to purchase a broad-spectrum insecticide, I'm at a loss.  What's an organic gardener to do when faced by a seemingly endless army of ravenous six-legged creatures?

1:  Learn to identify the insects who crawl, climb, hop, or fly around your garden.  All is NOT what it seems!  For example:  this little guy I caught pollinating my basil:

Contrary to popular belief, this IS NOT a bee!!  This is a syrphid fly, also called a hoverfly.  Like bees, the adult likes to pollinate flowers.  But unlike bees, this fly species eats garden pests during its larval stage.  Then, when it metamorphoses into an adult, it mimics a bee's coloring to protect itself from predators...and becomes a pollinator.



2:  Keep it clean.  As is said in any athletic sport, the best offensive strategy is a good defensive one.  The same can be said of gardening; healthy soil begets healthy plants, which are less appetizing to detrimental insects and their voracious offspring.  This means pulling weeds and  keeping mulches away from the base of the plant; as weeds, grass, mulch, and cracks in the soil surface offer protective places for the bad insects to hide.




3.  Never underestimate the power of mechanical controls.  Yes, by "mechanical control" I mean hand-picking the insects/eggs/larvae off the plant and squishing them.  Or drowning them in soapy water.  Either option works; it just depends how much time you want to devote to bug hunting and their systematic assassination.  :-)

HOWEVER...if the infestation gets to be too much for your plants (as what has happened with my squashes), there's always home-made insecticide.  Just be careful with it; even the home-made stuff can kill the beneficial insects in your garden!

I'm testing a garlic spray now, made of a garlic/castille soap/mineral oil concentrate diluted in water.  More on how that works later.

So how do I know about those little bits of advice?  Easy...I didn't follow the first two, which led me to know the value of Tip #3.  I let my weeds grow up around the edges of my squash, and am now faced with an offspring of these guys:

Squash bugs.  Horrible little monsters!  The adults are immune to just about everything on the market, even stomping with your foot.  Squishing by hand is effective, but very stinky work and only as effective as your ability to catch them.  Squash bugs make a perfectly healthy squash plot go from this:

To this...nearly overnight.  And actually, my plot looks even worse now.  :-(..  

So now I'm stuck with the end option of spraying my squashes with garlic.  After all, I've got nothing more to lose at this point.  Check back for an update about how that works and a recipe in the next few weeks!