Preventing Brown Marmorated Stink Bug Damage

I haven't had a decent tomato from my garden in the last 2 years, thanks to the sucking damage from the Brown Marmorated Stink bugs. However, this product just might be the answer! (Other host plants for this pest includes peaches, apples, green beans, cherry, raspberries, and pears. I might have had some summer squash damage last year, but for sure I had winter squash damage.)

Tomato 'Greenhouse' Products

http://www.americannettings.com/tomato-greenhouse/

Get the most from tomato plants with their own individual mini-greenhouses made from red, perforated plastic film. Allows air circulation and heat retention for faster growing tomatoes while protecting against rain split and pests. The Tomato Greenhouse is sized to fit over tomato cages or attach to stakes. U.V. stabilizers added for longer life.

Since I usually grow indeterminate tomatoes (which grow tall), it is not tall enough, but I'm sure there is a way to add an upper-layer as the plants grow and still keep the stink bugs out. The website says it comes in a roll 20' x 28" for $9.19. At this point, I'm willing to try almost anything!

Disclaimer: I have NO financial interest in this product, nor any company connected to it!

Squash Bug deterrent

Brown Squash Bug, photo by lofaesofa

Did you know that squash bugs (not the equally noxious squash vine borers) apparently hate morning glories and their kin, moonflowers?

I have read that planting a morning gory, or a moonflower, between every 2-3 squash or pumpkin plants acts as a great deterrent. I haven't tried it yet, but I have plenty of time to get morning glories started so they are well advanced before I set out squash plants!

Of course, the best deterrent is a healthy, high-brix plant growing in properly nourished soil, but that's for a later post, as is management of squash vine borers and squash bugs *if the morning glories don't do the trick.

Latest Gardening Fashion: Slug Collars!

Split Copper Collar on seedling

Nope, I am NOT putting collars on the slugs, nor am I wearing a collar fashioned out of slugs! I'm making collars to deter slugs in the garden. Slugs are a gardener's problem almost everywhere, and living on the creek, my problems are exacerbated by also having snails who do the same kind of damage.

Years ago I read that slugs will not cross a copper strip because it gives them a jolt, so I bought a roll of 1 inch copper tape to put down on the top edges of my raised beds. It didn't work! 

Recently I read that copper actually IS effective (it was a science experiment), BUT to work, the slugs have to crawl across 3 inches of copper to build up the galvanic action between their slime trail and the copper. THEN it works!

Two weeks ago I ordered a 2 foot piece of 12 inch wide copper from Basic Copper. It wasn't cheap... but it is thick enough (16 mil) to re-use for several gardening seasons... and when it gets too beat-up and out-of-shape to use, I can sell it as scrap copper.  I probably could have used a thinner gauge of copper, but I really want to be able to use them over and over.

 

The first collars (made today) were for larger plants already in the ground, so the copper needed to be split to go around the stem. (I'm going to make all of them that way... it's easier.) I thought about taping the collar split ends together, but that would just give the slugs a place to climb that wasn't copper. In putting them around a plant, I found I could just squeeze the copper "tube" around the stem and the ends would overlap... then I pushed the collar into the ground just enough to hold it in place. 

What I did:
I cut a 4 inch wide strip off the copper sheet, then the first strip into 6" lengths... that gives me collars 4" tall, enough to push the bottom into the soil and still have 3" or more for the slugs to climb. I'm testing it tonight before I cut any more, but I have every confidence the science experiment was correct. I put those first 3 collars on small tender seedlings this afternoon, and will check them in the morning. The only thing I might change is either taller collars so more length can go in the soil for stability, or wider sections to roll into split tubes.

Update:
It Works! I will, however, make them a bit taller and wider just for my own convenience.

Update on Tomatoes amongst Flowers

This year I had some volunteer tomatoes grow in my flower beds, plus I added a few more tomato seedlings to those beds, scattered in with herbs, grasses and flowers.

You can just barely see one of my tomatoes in this cheese photo

My tomato crop is much improved this year, although maturing in dribbles since they seem to be mostly indeterminates (thus no photos so far). In the last 2 years, I have not successfully grown many edible tomatoes... I lost the whole crop 2 years ago to blight, and last year I lost most of it to the devastating brown marmorated stink bugs.

I have seen some evidence of that brown marmorated stink bug damage this year, but not as much. In comparison to last year, I'd say I have 90% more good/edible tomatoes this year. The volunteer tomatoes have had only a few penetration spots, and the new seedlings have had a few more than the volunteers. The worst 'damage' so far was several big Brandywines where I only lost a secton of each. The rest of the damage has been just the occasional spot and easy to cut out. Of course, I will have tomatoes ripening for another month or more, so the tally may change.

I know the brown marmorated stink bugs are around, as I have actually seen a couple in the garden. So in my opinion, the success rate is not due to the bugs moving on. I do not use any chemicals, so it's not that either. The other possible reasons for more success are that (1, best) the new tomato plants are generally well interspersed with all sorts of perennials and herbs, which must deter stink bugs. (2) The volunteers are slightly more exposed, that is, away from most of the flowers and herbs but with less damage... perhaps the seeds built up a tad of immunity from last year's infestation? Can that actually even happen? (Doesn't seem very logical to me.)

I was not quite so fortunate with the volunteer winter squash. I harvested a total of 2 bushels between the acorns and Thelma Sander's S.P. squash, and half a dozen acorns had surface bug damage. Knowing those would not keep in the root cellar, I decided to cut out the bad areas and roast the rest to freeze. Out of 6 very large squash, 5 were completely riddled with rot inside in spite of having a hard shell with only minor areas of apparent pest damage.

A few English cucumbers, before bugs ate the vines. Long one is 15"

I did lose my cucumber and melon vines to spotted squash bugs, which I now think may have been what damaged the winter squash fruits. I thought the winter squash vines died prematurely (in my opinion) but I didn't think initially that it was from pests. This is the first year I've seen the spotted yellow squash bugs; usually I just get squash borers in the summer squash.

I am greatly encouraged with this different way of growing vegetables although it was mostly accidental. Next year it will be more by intention. I don't yet know how that will be, but I have the winter to mull it over and plan!