Van asks about stink bug control in his Alabama garden:
I have a place in ______ ,Al & the insect pests , particularly the stink bugs have devastated my vegetable garden this year. I’ve attempted organic sprays w herbs/ soap & it’s made little difference. We’ve had regular & maybe too much rain this past 4 months as well. Any suggestions?
I responded:
Thanks for writing.
We haven’t had much luck actually beating them in a full-on fight, particularly on bell peppers and tomatoes. Instead, we start those as early as possible and know that when summer comes, there will eventually be a plague of stink bugs that takes them out.Â
Also, we now concentrate on summer vegetables that aren’t hurt much by the stink bugs. Sweet potatoes, cucuzza squash, Seminole pumpkins, true yams, loofa, okra, etc.Â
This way, we always have some produce but we don’t have to spray.
Our main approach is to grow plants that thrive in our climate, and to grow them at the “right” time of the year.
One of our main ways to beat the pests is to get a running start on them by planting as early as possible. Sometimes this means planting a couple of times, since frosts may take out our first attempt. In doing so, we give the plants time to mature and produce before the plague arrives.
In our pumpkin patch this year, we had hundreds of pounds of pumpkins – and then, all of a sudden, in moved the pickle worms to shred all the vines and destroy some of the fruit as well.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IYp4ZB3Erq4
Sometimes it’s not about killing the pests. It’s more about avoiding them.
You can have greener thumbs by this weekend!