I am, in general, quite in favor of insects in the garden. After all, bees and moths and butterflies are my pollinators so that I don't have to bend over all day and try qtip my way into plant reproduction. I've found that most of the insects I see are actually eating the little buggers I can't see that would kill my plants. For example, even though I dumped out at least 8 earwigs from a lettuce plant last night, I'm not going to go hog wild and start dumping pesticides or try to kill the entire earwig population. The fact is, I'm pretty sure they're just eating aphids and during the day happen to hide from the sunlight in the nooks of my lettuce plants. I will admit, though... I had the creepy crawlies all over my skin for a good 10 min. And the earwigs did die a garbage disposal death.
I have had three exceptions to insect coexistence in two years of gardening. This year I found ants farming aphids on my fava bean plants. I just clipped off the tips of the infested branches, squashed 'em and haven't seen a problem since. (I actually keep the squashed bugs near or on the plant; I've heard a dead bug often gives off a chemical signal that tell other bugs to stay away. The exception to this is bees. Do NOT kill a bee and stick around... other bees come and will sting you.)
Earlier this year I also found cabbage caterpillars. Squashed 'em and moved on. No significant damage.
Last year, though, it was tomato caterpillars. I got most of them when they were young, but at the end of the year when I was cutting down the plants, I found the huge guy above. He was a monster of a caterpillar, and I knew if I didn't get him he would come back in butterfly form next year to wreak havoc on my tomatoes.
The kids were enthralled. They just wanted to sit and watch the poor bugger. I didn't want them to watch it die, but I couldn't get them to stay out front. So, I made them stand a good 4 feet off to my left. I placed the unfortunate on his brick execution table, raised the spade, and slammed it down. Then came the screams.
No, my kids are not so sensitive as to scream for a caterpillar's death. Somehow, I'd angled the spade just right so that green caterpillar guts squirted all four feet over to my four year old. She screamed for her now goopy clothes. My two year old just stood there, also covered in green guts, wondering what all the ruckus was about.
P.S. No, I don't know how to identify insect gender. Is there some psychology to the fact that I identified the executionee as a he? :P I am so totally kidding!
No comments:
Post a Comment