Hey Now! i need some help with insect control! i have some kind of tiny beetles devastating my flowers! The main ones that are getting chopped are my bee balm and yellow cone flowers. my daisies, black eyed susan and purple coneflowers are also getting munched, but the beebalm and the yellow conflowers are definitely the favorites. The little beetles are bigger than the flea beetles that are on my potatoes, but smaller than japanese beetles. They are about 1/8" long. They are copper/blue/green irridescent. They have been getting inside the flower buds and eating the petals before the flowers open on the coneflowers. The beebalm buds are completely eaten, no flowers left. So i started off trying the soap/garlic/cayenne/oil spray and it didn't work at all. i purchased neem oil this past week, and have been using it. i'm still not sure if it's doing anything. i just put down diatamaceous earth all around the plants. The beetles are every where! they hide in the greenery around the flowers. i've been picking them off every morning and evening. Does anyone know what they are? ...and is there anything else i can do? i am so sad that my beebalm won't have any flowers this year. i working to save the other flowers, but they look super ragged and chomped. i don't want o use toxic stuff, but i'm getting really frustrated. i need moer ideas! thanks, ~tree
Ever thought of a few free range chickens, little banties maybe. They can eat a few young seedlings, but they love to eat bugs off the bigger plants and don't do a lot of damage around established crops.
Hi! i have free range chickens. They have been far more trouble than help in the garden! They plucked almost all of my green bean and soy bean seedling. i've had to replant 3 times. Now they are chomping my snow peas, sugar snaps and blueberries. They also completely devoured my kale. i had no idea they ate kale, but they totally skeletized my plants in one afternoon. Dang chickens. i love them, but they drive me nuts. They haven't helped with the bugs at all. i just found squash beetles on my zucchinis now too. Does anyone know if the Neem or DE will work on them? i've been scraping the eggs off, but everytime i turn around there are more. i did figure out that the beetles are flea beetles, i think. Just a different kind then the ones chomping my potatoes. There does seem to be less of them after treating with neem and DE, but i'm still finding them and picking them off my coneflowers. Sigh.
there is this product im not sure what it is called but it is organic, i beleive, when i go to work today ill check it out and let you know when i get home.
