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I have mulched around my plants with grass clippings and was planning to =
put more soon, but have noticed that around the squash especially, there =
are lots and lots of little black ants. Do ants do damage per se to =
plants, or are they mainly attracted to aphids, of which I've seen a few =
(and squashed instantly).
I think it's time to go buy a bag of ladybugs...I just hope they don't =
all fly away! Any tips on ladybugs...keeping them in the garden? What =
do they like other than aphids?
When someone says, "keep your garden clean" - does that refer to weeding =
it, or is having lots of mulch around for the bugs to hide & reproduce =
in not considered clean??
This web site may be helpful to you all: =
http://www.hydrogarden.com/gardens/insects/
By the way, the little "crickets" I was referring to yesterday - I think =
they're flea beetles!! They're all over the squash and cucumbers. I =
saw a picture, close-up of one, & I think it has the cricket-like legs I =
referred to. I was squashing them when I could catch them, but rotenone =
may repel them, I read.
As far as trying to repel rabbits and squirrels, I may get some of the =
hot pepper wax spray.
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Hi Leslie
I am not the best person to comment on ants because for some mysterious
reason I scarcely ever see one in this garden (there are a few tiny
colonies up in my terrace walls at teh top of the garden), though I am
familar with them from other places and times. Ants naturally present in
temperate gardens as far as I know do not do anything to plants. Of
course if you lived in a clearing in a tropical jungle leafcutter ants
might descend on your patch to get mulch for their fungus gardens
I gather in many parts of the USA there have been invasions of fire ants
in recent years, but you would know if you had these as I hear they are
fiercely carnivorous and don't mind a bite of human flesh as part of
their dinner!!
However as you don't metion being attacked i presume your ant is a much
more "ordinary" one and it is almost certainly there on the plants
because there are aphids or some other sap-sucking insect around
providing feeds of tasty sugary water.
It used to be though that ants deliberately moved aphids around to new
sites (they were said to "farm" them) but quite recently I saw a comment
somewhere that this is now questioned and it now seems more likely they
are just very good at smelling out an aphid infestation (or sometimes
one of scales or mealybug as well).. I don't think it is usually
necessary to do anything about them apart for looking for something in
the neighbourhood which is attracting them.
> I think it's time to go buy a bag of ladybugs...I just hope they don't
> all fly away! Any tips on ladybugs...keeping them in the garden?
> What do they like other than aphids?
Most oddly, although I used to see ladybugs in my garden years ago I
haven't seen one for years. However I have plenty of hoverflies which
live here all the time and do the same job and I guess there are few
aphids to spare! Can't help much with this question anyway..
> When someone says, "keep your garden clean" - does that refer to
> weeding it, or is having lots of mulch around for the bugs to hide &
> reproduce in not considered clean??
This is a very vexed question for organic gardeners who are really
trying to establish a balanced ecosystem, because the cleanness refers
both to rubbish such as boards and bricks lying around and also weeds
which may favour the pests, but equally could shelter useful predatory
insects and spiders, or harmless scavengers which are part of the
recycling crew, or some of the weeds could also provide necessary food
for the valuable predators and parasites which help control the
undesirables. As a result people who are moving towards a natural style
of growing, as I have done in the last few years, are a good deal more
relxed about "hygiene". For instance I don't clear out all weeds but try
to have small areas at the end of beds or in other odd corners where I
allow them to grow all summer as a haven for spiders, and along the
sides of my raised vegetable beds I encourage a row of dandelions which
draw up fertilty from deep down in the bed and whose flowers are a
valuable source of food for predators (from time to time, for instance,
I see hoverflies on them sipping the nectar). All through the beds as
well useful flowers and herbs self-seed and I accomodate as many of them
as is convenient by planting my crops around them. This is always an
advantage in an organic scheme as the dot plants actually fulfill
several functions; they contribute to the general health of the bed by
the action of the diverse root systems in a much more natural and
complete way than any monoculture could, they break up the evenness of
crops which helps to confuse pests and prevent them spreading and they
are all plants which also contribute to the supply of food for the good
insects.
The list varies a bit from year to year, but last season it included
borage, dill, calendula, nasturtium (controllable bush varieties only),
wild carrot (Queen Anne's lace) and anise hyssop. Many of these also
attract bees, which I have not mentioned prevously, but are essential
pollinators for fruit crops and also vegetables especialy of the squash
family. Another bee attractant is any flowering plant in the cabage
family and I nearly always leave the odd broccoli which has finished its
cropping life to produce flowers for the bees. Usully such a senescent
plant also attracts the cabbage aphids (which leave my young healty
plants alone) and this is a useful source of food for the hoverflies in
late summer.
Finally, the mulch. This would perhaps not be considered "clean"'by the
more rabid chemical gardeners whose unhealthy crops are a natural magnet
for pests, but truely organic gardeners are pretty well agreed that the
advantages of mulching in keeping the plants healthy and naturally
unattractive to many pests generally far outweigh the possibilty of
harbouring a few extra "nasties". In any case one must always remember
shelter which could favor pests equally encourages predators like ground
beetles and nematodes. I realize there are a few situations where slugs
in particular may become unmangeable (The PNW in the States for
instance, but in less wet conditions (such as my own garden) I have
never found any noticeable increase of these or other pests under mulch.
As to the voles which seem to be plaguing a few of our members, I really
don't have an answer to that except to hope there surely must be _some_
solution which does not mean foregoing the precious mulch completely.
Oh about bricks, I often use the odd one in the beds to support some
plant which is rocking in the wind and usually when I come to put it
away later I find there is a whole flock of worms enjoying the moist
shelter.
Moira
--
Tony & Moira Ryan,
Wainuiomata, North Island, NZ, "two and a bit" islands surrounded
by water in all directions - 5000 miles to Chile to the east,
Australia 1500 miles NW, South Africa 6000 miles to the west.
