Some of the best known characters around the world are from Sesame Street. Bert and Ernie were watched regularly in my childhood, Ernie was of course my favorite. Who didn’t want to be friends with the goofy puppet who had a tiny home of pet bugs in his flower box? And those bugs were hilarious with their simple problems and difficulty understanding the solution, well at least at age 5 they were funny. Ernie’s biggest problem with them was waiting to water his flowers until they moved inside their small home so they wouldn’t get wet. If only our garden problems were just that easy, but we aren’t dealing with twiddle bugs gorging themselves on our produce. There are more serious gorgers among us!
Here are a few of the more common pests found in gardens and a few diseases that occur more often in this region. Aphids, are found most frequently in clusters of color, on the underside of a plant where leaves are curling inward. These little vermin will feed on anything in the garden. Strong water blasts can dislodge them from the underside of leaves while lady bugs will hunt them down, so if found early enough they can be removed fairly easily. Colorado potato beetles are also a distinct pest found not just on potato plants, but also tomato, pepper ,and eggplant. The best way to dispose of these infiltrators is to knock the adults off the plant into soapy water and wash off or remove the orange eggs from their small clusters on the underside of leaves. Thick organic mulch can also deter them from getting to your plants in the spring. Cabbage worms are the babies of all those little white butterflies we see hovering over gardens. They eat leaves of cabbage, broccoli, kale, turnip, radish, cauliflower with the occasional lettuce. The best method of defense is to cover your tender crops with a light weight cover to keep the butterflies from laying their eggs. Although these bugs are only slightly more intelligent than the twiddle bugs they can be difficult to get rid of, so early prevention is the best way to guard your garden.
