Saturday, July 28, 2007

murder in the garden

In general, I prefer gardening without pesticides or commercial fertilizers, even on our annual flowers. In my opinion, sometimes to E's dismay, I would rather let things get a little brown here and there or grow amongst a few extra weeds etc... than contaminate our yard where we and our dog spend a good deal of time.

All of that has changed - at least with respect to this one foul creature that is killing our beautiful tree in the front yard along with my new rose garden and my basil (we can't go without pesto sauce for long!) I now have a nemesis. If it is not possible for me to win and remain 100% chemical free, so be it. Catnip repels them, so I put it near the vegetables. Other than that, I am going after them AND their grubby little children. (They lay their eggs in the grass, which hatch and become grubs.)

I have never felt this murderous rage toward any other pest. Even hornets make me just want to get away. These gem-colored beasts, though....are nothing but destructive to everything I love (besides my people and my pets).

  • Milky spore to kill the grubs - CHECK
  • Traps to lure the adults away from the tree and into the bag - CHECK
  • poof spray to kill them and keep them off the tree and rose bushes - CHECK

It will take 1 - 5 years to get them under control. 1 to 5 YEARS!!! They eat over 300 kinds of plants. 300!!! I hate them!!! We've declared WAR!!!

4 comments:

Melissa said...

Is it really only 4 days left in the TTW?!? I'm sure it hasn't gone as fast for you ;)

Good luck in your garden war I have a feeling you will come out victorious!

Keri said...

I'm sorry about your pest. I went through the same thing a couple of years ago - with a Mole or Vole or gopher or some damn thing that ate the roots of everything I planted.

I begged him to leave. I tried to stink him out, smoke him out, even starve him. But alas, he had to die. By the time we had him murdered, I no longer had feelings of guilt.

That's what they get for ruining what we love! :)

E and M, jumpingoutoftrees said...

We, too, battle these guys. We found out that the bags actually attract all the beetles in the entire neighborhood, so we decided to hang one in the park at the end of the street. We didn't. What did work was Sevin dust, but you have to do it up to every few days. I did it for the third time in about a month today. Good luck!

Anonymous said...

Oh lord...those things are awful! It is always a tough decision about what to use that isn't harmful to us and the environment. When T and i had our giant garden (back in the wilderness days), we ran into problems with ants and catepillars. i'll have to check with her on exactly what we used for the catepillars, but i think it was all natural, and for the ants i just constantly harassed them with flooding, baby powder, baking soda, and instant grits (pop!). My karma got seriously messed up then, but we HAD to eat!