December10, 2015
Every year there seems
to be a new critter that shows up in the garden. I suspect if you garden in one
spot long enough Critters will eventually find you.
This year was no
different; there were two that came knocking. One I did not know about until I
started to harvest my sweet potatoes and the other I noticed early on. The
early on one was a leaf footed bug. This bug is very closely related to squash
and stink bugs. Squishing them really lets you know. They are quite pungent!!
These bugs have a lot
of similarities to squash bugs because they start out as nymphs and over a few
molts become adults. I must say that the nymphs have a very interesting paint
job and are very distinctive. Take a look at these pictures and compare to the
adult.
Like with squash bugs
they attack their “prey” the same way by sucking. Squash bugs seem to attach
all of a squash plant. Their sucking on the leaves give them a wind burned look
and on the fruit of summer squash give them little “varnish” like secretions
from the squash where their proboscis’s entered the fruit. These are a couple
of signs that let you know you have squash bugs even if you do not see them. In
great enough concentrations they will extremely shorten the store-ability of winter
squash and pumpkins
.
As for the big leaf
bugs there is nothing that stands out other than the colony of nymphs hanging
out on tomato fruits. It is not until the toms begin to ripen that their “play”
is revealed. There can be one to many little black spots on the fruits. I have
not noticed any flavor changes in these fruits. The dots are only skin
deep and are edible unless you do not eat the toms soon. By all appearances and
tasting, it is a market-ability thing (appearance). For home use the spots are
not a problem.
Literature sites that
they are an uncommon occurrence and are a problem only after mild winters with
few very hard freezes. This describes last winter. Yes we were cold but we only
had one freeze into the teens, the rest remained in the 20’s.
Control is simple:
floating row covers, covers removed to do bed work and harvest. I have only
seen them on my tomato plants. You do need to be careful that you do not “trap”
any of the bugs under the cover.
I did not use any cold
pressed neem on these guys because it wasn’t until late that I noticed their
handy work. Ah yes I will be much the wiser going into next year. There really
is nothing that a little learning curve cannot fix.
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