Preservation for the Soul: Pest Control

"At four o'clock

it encountered

an elephant.

'Hey you,' said

the grouchy ladybug.

'Want to fight?'

'If you insist,' said the elephant,

raising its trunk and

showing its big tusks.

'Oh, you're not big enough,'

said the grouchy ladybug

and flew off."

-The Grouchy Ladybug by Eric Carle


2011 garden plot (carrot box is cut out at the bottom)

We have many pest problems in the garden to contend with and sometimes it feels like a constant battle. Ants, scab bugs, worms, stink bugs and aphids are a just a few of those problems. We have put up smaller fencing to keep the groundhogs out and may or may not have drowned a few in the canal. Unfortunately we can't do that to the unattended children who wander through, but that is blog post that will never be written (I must maintain some sort of grace after all). As an organic garden we have to come up with creative and earth friendly ways to dispose of these unhelpful bugs so our delicious eats might survive the growing season.

So I mail ordered 1500 ladybugs. Who knew that you could get a bucket of ladybugs from amazon.com for a mere $10 and they will be waiting on your doorstep 4 days later, ready to eat your aphids away? I am excited.

I released my little friends into the plot last night at dusk. Supposedly ladybugs will not fly in the dark so if you release them at dusk on the plants they will make their home there over night and stay forever on your plot. Let's hope this is the case and they won't want to be like the Grouchy Ladybug and fly around the world fighting larger animals.