Your Home Vegetable Garden, A Great Entomology Course

I am sure at some point in your life you had, even for a brief moment, some kind of science class where you studied insects, better known as entomology. Without going into great biological classification details, just know that insects make up the largest part of the Animalia Kingdom. So why is this important and what does it have to do with home vegetable gardening? Because there is such a wide variety of insects (in the millions) your home vegetable garden becomes a wonderful habitat for literally thousands of different species.

Besides the large number of species you can encounter, there are some amazing things that occur in your garden that you may not even notice, or are even aware of. For example, you can plant some broccoli which may attracts aphids. I’ll get into good and bad bugs in a moment. The broccoli is a food source for many species of aphids. In turn the aphids are a food source for ladybugs, however just because you have aphids does not necessarily draw in ladybugs, but you can see from the example the whole “circle of life” thing going on here.

This same example is replicated many times over with various insects and as your garden grows so does this process. This creates a perfect environment to walk and talk with your kids in the garden about not only the importance of what you are growing, but what you are seeing, and what happens on a smaller level. Think of it as a field trip to your backyard.

If you are skilled in the art of insect classification, that is wonderful, it will make the learning curve for your children that much easier, however, if you are like me, and have not memorized all of the one million plus insects in the world or even the few hundred thousand in your neighborhood, then there is a great tool you can use.

This handy tool, called Mac’s Field Guide, is available on Amazon. You will notice there a number of field guides to choose from as there is one for each part of the country. The guide is a large laminated sheet listing good garden bugs on one side and bad garden bugs on the other side. It doesn’t list every single insect you may encounter, it will list the most common ones that you will see in a typical home vegetable garden.

The simple definition of a bad bug is basically an insect that will eat or destroy your crops while a good insect will eat or destroy bad insects, contribute to the pollination process, etc.

When you know and understand the role of the insect you are looking at, it will help improve your home vegetable garden, as you know which insects should be removed and which ones you leave right where they are.

If your kids are anything like mine then you will see how amazed they are at how many insects they can identify from the field guide, and the questions they will ask. This backyard field trip will be educational for you and your children, and to think it’s not far away and you don’t have to pack a lunch.

About the Author
Mike Podlesny is the author of Vegetable Gardening for the Average Person: A Guide to Vegetable Gardening for the rest of us, the moderator for the largest vegetable gardening page on Facebook and creator of the monthly Seeds Club.

Watch the video below to learn more about Mike`s Seeds of the Month Club:

An Organic Way to Get Rid of Stink Bugs

Here in the Northeast with our seasonal weather, we have issues with certain species of bugs but they are easily remedied since it gets narrowed down to just a few we need to take care of. Up until last year I have never had any issues with the stink bug. Somehow they found their way into our society and now we need to get rid of them if we have any hope of successful crops.

First let’s talk about what a stink bug is. A stink bug, also called a squash bug and even sometimes a shield bug, are about the size of a thumbnail with a triangular back that is usually brown and/or gray in color.

They are harmless to humans. In other words they don’t bite or spread diseases, at least none that have been reported. But what they do well is attack broadleaf vegetable plants. Not only do they do it well, but the underside of broadleaf plants is a perfect breeding ground for their offspring. And because it is perfect for them they can breed at a very fast pace.

About the Author
Mike is the author of the book Vegetable Gardening for the Average Person: A guide to vegetable gardening for the rest of us. He can be reached at his wesbite: AveragePersonGardening.com where you can sign up for his free newsletter and he will send you a pack of vegetable seeds to get your home vegetable garden started.

Do not fear though, there is help. You can eliminate these pests without the use of chemicals that could not only harm your plants, but the surrounding environment as well. The downfall is this technique will require you to actually do some work. If you are willing to put in the time and effort in, you can get rid of these bugs each growing season.

The first step you can take is to never plant your broadleaf vegetables in the same location each year. Of course you should be exercising plant rotation regardless of a bug problem, but most bugs actually hibernated within the soil and when they come out as the weather gets warmer if your broad leaf vegetables aren’t around, they won’t have an immediate food source close by. They may go elsewhere or may simply die from starvation.

But let’s say you did that and they have still found their way into your squash crop. If that happens, roll your sleeves up, put on some gardening gloves, grab yourself a coffee can and a lid, and some honey, syrup or molasses (something sticky) and let’s get to work.

Your first step is to coat the bottom and the sides of your coffee can with something sticky. Syrup, molasses or honey works well. You will see in a moment as to why we do this.

With sticky coated coffee can in hand (don’t forget the lid), put on your gardening gloves, and take a walk over to the area where the stink bugs live. Remember they won’t harm you. Now start flicking the bugs into your coffee can. The sticky substance will help keep them in the can. Just keep taking them off the leaves and putting them into the can. Don’t forget to look on the underside of the leaves. That is where the egg sacks are. You need to get rid of them as well, otherwise the problem will continue.

Once you have all of the bugs in the can, put the airtight lid on and place in an area where the sun will shine on it. I think it goes without saying what will happen to the bugs inside the can. Now all you have to do is stay on top of them by checking the plants every other day and repeating this process. If you do this you will get rid of these bugs and their destructive nature form your crops.

Vegetable Gardening: Help My Squash is being Attacked!

I have been growing squash (zucchini variety) for 7 years in my home vegetable gardening. They are easy to grow and the few plants I do have produce a harvest that supplies my entire family as well as being able to give some away to neighbors, friends and family.

For the first 6 years of my garden I never had any problems with my squash. That is, up until last year. That is when a species of bug showed up out of nowhere and decided to set up shop on my squash and live in the area which is probably the equivalent of humans living in the middle of a supermarket.

My wife was the first to notice the insect on my squash and came into the house to tell me about it. I didn’t think much of it since I never had any issues in previous years. I went out the next day to take a look and low and behold these ugly gray and brown looking bugs were everywhere. Well everywhere on the squash. They had no interest in any of the other vegetation in my garden, only the zucchini.

After doing some research I found that the bug in question, the ones on my squash plants, originate from Asia specifically China, although I could not find the exact region. They have been given the name “stink bug” in our area but are also referred to as squash bugs and even called shield bugs. They are part of the hemiptera order.

Although the ones I saw in my garden were brown and gray, they can also be green in some parts of the world. They are recognized by their color but more so by the triangular shape “shield” looking backs that they have.

Most stink bugs are plant eaters and are harmless to humans. They reproduce at a very fast rate and are active from the late spring to early fall. Early studies indicate they do not fair well in cooler climates but are quick adapters to the environment and when the temperatures drop will look for ways to get inside warmer areas such as a barn or a person’s home.

The bad news is they are resistant to many pesticides which make them hard to control. The good news is you can get rid of them without pesticides but you will have to work at it. Because stink bugs are harmless to humans the best way found to get them out of your garden is to remove them by hand.

Put on a good pair of garden gloves and with an empty coffee can in tow, remove the bugs and more importantly all of the egg sacks by hand and put them in the coffee can. When you have removed all of them put the lid on making sure no air can get in. This will suffocate them and they will die. Sure it’s not the most humane way of doing it, but neither is squashing them.

A very important note and that is there is a reason these bugs are called stink bugs. That is they emit an odor when they feel they are in danger or threatened. Although the odor they emit is small, it can get onto your skin and be there a while, which is when you are handling them, make sure you where good gloves and a long sleeve shirt.

There are home remedies I have read about, none of I which I personally used, so I can not comment on as to whether or not they work. But the best, most organic way, of getting rid of these pesky creatures is to remove them by hand. As long as you stay on top of the situation you will not have a problem, but it does take work.

About the Author

Mike is the author of the book Vegetable Gardening for the Average Person, as well as the president and CEO of Mike the Gardener Enterprises, LLC. You can, follow him on Twitter as well as join his Facebook fan page.