Just in time for the end of the growing season, I’ve decided to do a mini-series on some common garden pests to Delaware. Now you have all winter to study these little creatures and lovingly plot their demise.*

 *For those of you who think this is harsh- When I first began working at DCH I too struggled with this line thinking. My sister said it well when she remarked on the disarming vulnerability of so many of our little soft bodied friends. Kill a slug? It seemed to me akin to waging war on a puppy. Then I began gardening…

Cabbage Looper

Photo Credit: Texas A & M University, Extension Entomology

The cabbage looper feeds on the foliage of various crops and can wreak significant havoc on their production.  The most popular host plants are cabbage and similar plants like collards, broccoli, and cauliflower.  Other host plants include beets, cabbage, potato, spinach, tomato, lettuce, and cucumber.  The cabbage looper is identified by its light green coloring and the two white stripes that run down its legs. Late instars grow to over 1’1/2” in length and at this stage do the most damage. The adult cabbage looper is grayish brown and has silvery figure eight patterns in the middle of its wings. It has about an inch and a half wing span.  The adult cabbage looper can lay nearly 350 eggs over a ten day period and seek out the underside cabbage. After three to six days the eggs hatch and begin to feed on the underside of the leaf.

While “naturally” occurring insecticides like rotenone, pyrethrum, diatomaceous earth blend, and sabadilla can be used, they are still fairly toxic to mammals and extremely toxic to fish and other insects so we suggest using alternative control methods like sprinkling flour or salt on the worms, using more resistant types of crops, or putting on row covers before moths can come lay eggs on your plants. If you are more adventurous you can also release predator insects such as the trichogramma wasp or the bacteria Bacillus thuringiensis into your gardens.

In a recent post, I shared a photo of my new garden bed, snug up behind the front fence. The strawberries that we received for free have gone in one half. I’ve also planted some flat leaf parsley and coriander, to serve kitchen needs.

The remaining space is being devoted a mix of flowers and herbs that serve a variety of purposes:

• Borage – companion plant to strawberries, good bee forage
• Chamomile – deters flies and mosquitoes, can be used as a fungicide spray
• Hyssop – trap plant for cabbage moth, plant away from brassicas, good for bees
• Pyrethrum – can be made into a natural insectiside

The new garden bed behind the front fence

Yesterday I constructed a new garden bed, tucked in behind the front fence.

I’m getting reasonably good at constructing these types of raised beds. Start with some lengths of 50×150mm treated pine. Saw off a few pieces to create the ends of the bed. Drill some holes into some wooden stakes, and hammer them in to support the sides of the beds.

Then use coach bolts to attach the stakes to the treated pine. Then bolt on the ends of the bed. The result, a shallow but robust garden bed.

What are we going to plant in this bed?

We received some free strawberries when we ordered our last two lemon trees. Not wanting these to go to waste, they’ll go in one end. The other end will be a mix of edible flowers, a well as pest repellent flowers such as pyrethrum. I’ll post a full list when I sort through all my seed packets…

Battling with aphids (greenfly) in the garden?  Commercially available insecticides often contain a chemical called pyrethrum which is derived from nature.  Rather than buying bottles of commercially prepared and potentially hazardous chemicals, you can harness the power of nature in deterring greenfly just by some clever planting. 

Feverfew (Tanacetum parthenium) is a pretty daisy-like plant that contains pyrethrins – very similar to the chemicals in commercial sprays.  Plant Feverfew amongst your flowers and it’s presence will deter the little insect marauders. Golden feverfew is a pretty plant in its own right – as the name suggests its foliage is a yellow/golden colour – and all plants will readily self-seed all over the garden if you allow them to.  (This plant is also used as a traditional herbal remedy for migraine).

Whilst it is possible to make your own insecticidal spray or powder from these plants I wouldn’t advise it as it is toxic to bees. In its plant form it seems to work well enough for me and does no harm to bees.  Some sources claim that it will deter bees from the garden, although I have never found this to be the case and have often seen bees visiting the feverfew flowers.  

“Here’s a book written by a friend of Dian Fossey’s,” my sister said, adding to the stack of books under my arm at a bookstore just outside of Lake Louise. “I didn’t think she had any friends.”

Six months into her initial research on the northern slopes of Karisimbi, Congolese soldiers raided Dian Fossey’s camp and forced her down the mountain at gunpoint. On July 20, 1967, Rosamond Halsey Carr received a letter from Fossey via an American Ambassador requesting permission for her to continue her gorilla studies on the Rwandan side of Karisimbi. Carr owned a flower plantation at the base of the mountain in Mugongo, Rwanda. Days later Fossey arrived with her equipment and supplies and pitched a tent.

Land of a Thousand Hills is the intrepid story of Rosamond Carr’s life (a NY fashion illustrator), and it begins on July 9, 1949 when she sails out of Brooklyn Harbour on a cargo ship bound for Matadi, the Atlantic seaport of the Belgian Congo with her explorer husband, Kenneth.

Leaving with four new cotton dresses, a pith helmet, a lifetime supply of cold cream and their Irish terrier, Shelia, they could never anticipate what was about to unfold before them.

Exposed  to “enough adventure to last several lifetimes,” Rosamond was certain that they would “both discover the happiness and passion” that had eluded the couple for so long, in the land that Kenneth loved so much.

Arriving in the Kivu, Kenneth and Rosamond rented a stone cottage with a rental agreement that stipulated they retain the existing staff of 14 servants: four water carriers for nonpotable water, two for drinking water, four woodcutters, two houseboys, a cook and his assistant. Kenneth tried to obtain permission from Belgian authorities to prospect for minerals, and as a desperate measure, accepted the offer of an Italian pyrethrum (daisy-like flower that contains a powerful insecticide) planter, Gino, to manage a plantation in the Congo.

“It appeared that we had a perfect life. We should have been very happy, but instead Kenneth and I were drifting further and further apart.” Their marriage quickly dissolved in the heavy rains that fell. Living 40 miles from the nearest town proved to be extremely isolating. Elephants trampled acres of the plantation in one night, and Banyaruanda “volunteers” worked when the spirit moved them. When Gino said he was taking a seven-month holiday in Europe and needed a plantation manager in Mugongo, Rosamond eagerly applied for the job. Kenneth was furious.

So began Rosamond’s bold stance in a country that she had already become emotionally rooted in. In the foothills of the Virunga Mountains, Carr writes vividly of leopard encounters, raising a dik dik (small antelope), bankruptcy, loneliness, draught and the murder of her friend, Dian Fossey. Her prose isn’t littered with adjectives when she describes the landscape of Rwanda and the Congo. The story of her life is profound enough that her emotions become more important than minute details. Readers are easily transported to the Buniole plantation, smiling at Carr’s stubborness, passion and bravery.

Rosamond Carr witnessed the political upheaval and tribal tension over the years, irritated with the constant friction on such a tranquil land. On April 6, 1994, when the plane carrying President Juvenal Habyarimana was shot out of the sky as it descended from Kigali, killing President Cyprien Ntaryamira of Burundi, five cabinet ministers and a crew of three, her cook Mikingo predicted Rwanda’s darkest hour. He told Carr, “This is the end of the world, Madame.” And it nearly was.

The day after the President’s assassination, Belgian soldiers ordered Carr to leave immediately, giving her five minutes to pack. She considered taking her dogs, but decided against it as she believed she was only being evacuated as far as Gisenyi for a couple of days. On April 11^th, all foreign nationals were forcibly evacuated to Goma. Devastated, Carr left her beloved Rwanda. She numbly flew back to America, and remained paralyzed in front of the television, watching the coverage of the genocide. One missionary is reported to have said, “There are no devils left in hell—they are all in Rwanda.”

Extremist Hutu militia groups formed death squads and took to the streets. Power supplies were cut, drinking water became scarce and phone lines were down as the ethnic hatred by the Hutus towards the Tutsis exploded. The world turned a blind eye at the “systematic slaughter of all ethnic Tutsi,”culminated in the United Nations pulling out 270 “observers,” leaving the fate of Rwanda to those left on the ground. Sanctuaries like churches, schools, convents and orphanages where tens of thousands of Tutsi hid become hunting grounds. “Mutilated bodies clogged the Akagera River all the way to Lake Victoria.”

Two million Rwandans left their homes for refugee camps. “Cholera hit the camps like a medieval plague, people lay dying at a staggering rate. Eight thousand bodies were counted in two days.” In a few weeks, as many as 30,000 died from cholera and typhoid. The three-month reign of terror left a quarter of a million children lost or orphaned. The estimated death toll climbed to 800,000.

On August 10, 1994, at age 82, Carr found herself flying “back to the most dangerous place on earth.” A crazy idea of converting her old pyrethrum flower drying house into an orpahange occupied her mind, and she would make it happen.

Returning to her home in Rwanda, Carr hadn’t fully anticipated the “greatest heartbreak I have ever known.” Everything had been stolen, even the kerosene refridgerator. The water pipes had been ripped from the walls, the toilet was overflowing with a vile stench, even the plumbing fixtures had been stolen. Her moment of grief turned to elation as she heard the barks of Freddie and Tiffany, the dogs she had left behind when evacuated. Kim, her 14-year-old Siamese welcomed her back too, with a scolding meow. “Discovering my pets alive and in desperate need of love and care was my salvation. That was perhaps the defining moment, when my thoughts turned from leaving in defeat, to believing that I had a reason to stay.”

In December of 1994, Carr opened the Imbabazi Orphanage where she sheltered 120 children. She died September 29, 2006, at age 94 in Gisenyi, Rwanda. She was buried at the Mugongo flower farm, in the shadow of the Virunga Volcanoes. The orphanage remains as a legacy to the triumph and compassion of an extraordinary woman who embraced an eviscerated Africa, selfessly devoting the last 12 years of her life to the children of Rwanda.

For information on A Mother’s Love & A Lifetime in Rwanda, a documentary production by Standfast Productions, Ltd., visit: http://standfastproductions.com/index.phtml

 Rosamond Carr’s Memorial Service: http://standfastproductions.com/MemorialClip.phtml

Land of A Thousand Hills– My Life in Rwanda

by Rosamond Hall Carr with Ann Howard Halsey

Plume, Penguin Books, NY (1999)

248 pages

Imagine a country that is malaria prone, but that begins to work toward the elimination of breeding grounds for mosquitoes, to establishing joint ventures with herbicide producing companies that produce pyrethrum, to growing chrysanthemums for beautifying the environment and extracting the herbicide, to treating clothes as well as bednets with the natural herbicide for sale in the countries…imagine what a world that would be – a world that creates other types of buzz, than the buzz of the female mosquito searching for food.
The Rockefeller Foundation began using pyrethrum sprays experimentally in India to great
success and this method of malaria control was recognised as enormously valuable. The use
of pyrethrum was then expanded to Assam by Dr. D. K. Viswanathan, the well known Indian malariologist in 1942.

Bednets are extremely important, but they are not sustainable as regards the local communities.  But, combined with a chrysanthemum planting movement, they would be…as the locals would be able to create and design their own clothing treated with the herbicide as well as their own bednets…

For every effort there has to be some thought to the sustainability of the effort, to what happens when the source dries up. Let us look back and learn, create a Mums for Malaria Movement to eliminate both poverty and malaria…what a concept!!

READ MORE

See comment below on Pyrethrum manufactured in the United States -

Unless your growing area is completely enclosed with fine mesh aphids are a problem that you are going to have to deal with sooner or later. It makes no difference if you are growing in pots, back gardens or allotments you will get aphids.

The reason they are such a pest is that they feed on plant sap, so as they move from plant to plant they can transfer diseases such as mosaic virus and if there are a lot of them feeding on a plant they can weaken it or even cause it to die. It is best to get rid of them as soon as you notice them rather than letting them build up, of course if you have lots of beneficial insects in you garden they will keep the aphids down by eating hundreds of them every day.

What are Aphids?
We usually think of aphids in terms of greenfly, blackfly or the woolly aphid (apple trees) but in fact, just to cheer you up, there are about 4000 different species but there are only around 500 in this country. Some will only dine on one particular plant while others will eat anything and everything.

Aphids contain sucking mouth parts called stylets, which are hardened and lead straight to the stomach. So they can easily pierce a stem or leaf of a plant to consume the sap. As they may have visited other plants before they get to yours they might have picked up a virus or disease which will be transferred to your plant when they bite into it. They are especially fond of young leaves, new shoots and buds, so you know where to look for them first.

The green apple aphid (Aphis pomi)

A, adult sexual female

B, adult male

C, young female

D, female laying an egg

E, eggs, which turn from green to black after they are laid (Enlarged about 20 times)

In the spring and summer there are only female aphids which give birth to live young – the population can double in 4 – 6 days. In the autumn they produce males to mate with and lay eggs that will hatch out in the spring.

Another problem is that sap goes in one end and sticky honeydew comes out the other end which can lead to a black Sooty Mould on the leaves. It is a fungi which does not do much in the way of damage other than blocking out the light which can lead to stunted plant growth.

Alternative ways get rid of Aphids.
From the practical to the bizarre there are lots of different ways to deal with aphids, here are a few of them:

The best way is to encourage beneficial insects who all like to eat aphids, ladybirds, hoverflies, lacewings & parasitic wasps. If you want to know more about them see my previous ‘Beneficial Insects’ post.

If you don’t have too many aphids and you are not squeamish you can gently rub them off your plants, squishing them at the same time.

You can wash/blast them off with plain water with a hand sprayer on jet rather than spray or a pressure sprayer but be careful not to damage young or tender plants. You can buy special ‘Bug Blaster’ attachments for hoses that make very fine high pressure droplets that are supposed to be very good.

Not sure if this should be in the pesticide section below or not. My favourite way of dealing with aphids is to spray with a washing up liquid and water mixture (probably illegal as far as the EEC are concerned but I do have a lock on the garden gate). Aphids breathe through their skin and the spray suffocates them. My spray bottle holds about one litre and I add about half a teaspoon of washing up liquid and give it a shake before using.

Flour and water – Mix 2 to 4 tablespoons of fine white flour with water, a few drops of washing up liquid will help it stick, shake before use. This should be sprayed in the morning when the heat of the sun will dry the mixture out, the insects are left encrusted in flour, and they shrivel and die. Aphid en Croute, can’t see it catching on. If you have tried and can recommend this method do let me know.

Sticky board traps – Aphids are attracted to yellow color. To make your own sticky trap, spread petroleum jelly or used motor oil on yellow painted plywood, 6 cm x 15 cm in size and up. Place traps near the plants but far apart enough to avoid leaves sticking to the board.

Aphids don’t like wind and rain so the British summer can at times be of great help, so if bad weather is forecast wait until it is over to deal with any remaining aphids.

Sometimes mirrors or aluminium foil under plants confuses them and makes them fly upwards and away from the plants.

Using Pesticides to get rid of Aphids
All the ones listed here are approved for organic gardening, if you want to research and use more toxic things that is up to you. Do remember when you use pesticides on vegetables that sooner or later you are going to be eating them and do you want to be eating what you are spraying them with? I know they always say there is no residue after a certain amount of time but I am always wary of such claims. Please read the instructions very carefully before using as many products are toxic to ponds and can also kill bees and hoveflies etc too.

Insecticidal soap is defined as any of the potassium fatty acid soaps used to control many plant pests. It is sprayed on plants in the same manner as other insecticides, it works only on direct contact with the pests. The fatty acids disrupt the structure and permeability of the insect cell membranes. The cell contents are able to leak from the damaged cells, and the insect quickly dies. works best on soft-bodied insects such as aphids, mealybugs, spider mites, thrips, and whiteflies, so bees, wasp and ladybirds are relatively unaffected.

Derris Dust contains rotenone which occurs naturally in the roots and stems of several plants, as the name suggests it is a dust that you puff on to plants when it is dry. It is extremely toxic to insects (which is why it works so well) and aquatic life including fish. Despite this product being used successfully by gardeners for donkeys years the EEC has I think decided we need to be protected from it. Apparently rats injected with it can get Parkinson’s disease, personally I have better things to do with my time than injecting rats with garden products. It is likely to be banned later this year, if it is you will have a year to use any existing stocks, after that if caught storing or using it you could be liable to a fine or imprisonment. The same is true of any homemade unregistered, unapproved garden sprays.

Growing Success produce a bug spray that contains natural oils that suffocate things like aphids, you can eat produce the same day as you spray it. I have not linked to their website as they do not give any detailed information eg on the bug spray page it states – ‘Contact insecticide that kills insects at all stages by physical means. Will make up to 15 Litres.’ – that’s it! Very helpful.

Pyrethrum a natural insecticide made from the dried flower heads of Chrysanthemum cinerariafolium. The flowers are pulverized and the active components called pyrethrins, contained in the seed cases, are extracted. Pyrethrins attack the nervous systems of all insects, and inhibit female mosquitoes from biting. They are harmful to fish & bees, but are far less toxic to mammals and birds than many synthetic insecticides and are non-persistent, being biodegradable and also breaking down easily on exposure to light. They are considered to be amongst the safest insecticides for use around food. Spray with this late at night to avoid killing bees but you will probably murder a few ladybird, hoverfly and lacewing larva. There are lots of different pyrethrum formulas available. I would consider using this myself if all else failed.

All of the above are available from the Organic Gardening Catalogue and may be available in local garden outlets.

If I have missed any good products in this section please let me know the details.

Aphids and Ants
For a long time it was thought that ants were being helpful and attacking aphids, in fact they ‘farm’ the aphids and in doing so protect them from beneficial insects. Ants eat the honeydew secreted by the aphids and carry it back to the nest to feed the colony. They do eat the occasional aphid if they are running short of protein but they protect more than they eat. You can often see streams of ants running up and down the stems of aphid infested plants.

To get rid of the ants, get rid of the aphids. Or get rid of the ants first you can by cute little tins of ant killer (at a price) which have small holes at the base to let ants in and the tin protects pets/children from the poison, you leave them at the base of plants. The way that it used to be done before the EEC deemed such things as illegal was to mix icing sugar and borax powder together and put a teaspoon of the powder in a small lid (similar size to a vitamin bottle top) put it on the ground near to an infested plant and put a bigger lid (from a jam jar) over the top of it to keep out the rain, with a stone on top to keep pets away. It works very well for getting rid of ants from raised beds (where they can kill plants by moving all the soil away from the roots), so I am told.

Borax is a very useful product, gets rid of grease and stains on laundry (mix with soap flakes to remove grease from delicate fabrics) and can be added to washing up water and drains too. You can buy it from Boots or Hursts.

Scientists have discovered that ants use a drug on herds of aphids to make them move more slowly so they do not scatter and can be more easily “milked”, you can read the full article in The Telegraph

Photo: Aphids on a rosebush – Lucis

Photo: Aphids and Ants – Richard Toller

Hilfe – die Gartenschädlinge sind an meinen Balkonpflanzen….
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