Don't Give Up

I seem to have a theme going this week...

When I first moved here I planted several Asian Lilies.

They all got decimated by Asian Lily Beetles. My neighbors told me you have to use pesticides in order to have Lilies.

I won't use pesticides.

So several of the lilies died, others got dug up and replaced but a few ended up lost and ignored behind other plantings.

They're still getting eaten

But not as bad and for the past two years I've gotten blooms.

So maybe I should plant a few more, tucked in between other plants where, if the beetles eat them back no one (but me) will notice.

Pest Control

If you've read my blog you probably realize that I'm anti-pesticide (please hold the sarcasm) but today I'm calling a pest control company.  Why?  We'll get to that.  First here some reasons why not.

Very rough looking American Lady butterfly (Vanessa virginiensis) on my Centaura Amethyst in snow.

Bee, NOID

Bee, NOID

Ants - look close

Damselfly on Basil

This year we finally started seeing grasshoppers in the yard

More bee, NOID

Dragonfly

I consider my garden a shared space.  I share the space with the local wildlife.  I exert control only over the plants and I try to make plant choices that are beneficial to my own personal ecosystem.  That means that I tolerate a great deal of insect "damage" on plants.

Like this spittlebug on Parsley (2nd year plant, you can see flower buds)

And the damage to this violet.

Unfortunately it also means that I will not be planting any more lilies (this damage is done by the Red Lilly Beetle, a non-native species that I apparently have in large numbers).  I could treat these plants yearly for the RLB but there would be collateral damage to some of the insects I want and up the food chain to the local birds.  I don't want lilies bad enough to justify poisoning My Own Personal Ecosystem.

Then there are the species that do even more damage.  Like this cute little rabbit (photographed through the window).  Fortunately the rabbits have not done a lot of damage in any one place.  She seems to nibble here, move on, nibble there.  My plants can handle that type of damage.

Then there are the deer.  Fortunately we don't have a lot of deer in our area.  They are one reason I encourage rampant growth of "wild" violets.  I've found deer will graze violets before most other garden plants and the violets will come back.

On the negative side the deer also found my garden peas.  I'll plant them inside the back yard fence next year where the deer fear to tread.

Why do the deer fear to tread into the backyard?  These garden pests.

Piper is a digger so backyard plants have to be pretty hardy - I protect the shrubs for one to two years and then they are on their own and I plant "aggressive" perennials like Monarda that should be able to take dog damage.

Here's the real predator.  Jasper used to be a feral dog and he can and will catch most types of animals that stray into the backyard (he's caught and killed birds!).  Doesn't look like a garden pest does he?

Ok.  So now back to the big question.  Why am I calling a pest control company?  Because I found this in the garage.

That's evidence of wood destroying insect, probably termites.  Sorry, guys but I need to keep my house.  Insects that hurt me or mine are subject to eviction with prejudice.  (that list is limited to yellow jacket nests, wasp nests near the front door and termites and the first two are because The Husband is allergic)

So I have to swallow my convictions and call.  And try to convice the pest control company to minimize the collateral damage to My Own Personal Ecosystem.  I hope they don't scare off the local garter snake population.

Then I have to control my urge to rant when they try to sell me on monthly applications of pesticide (doesn't THAT sound like a good idea for both the local ecosystem and the health of my family).  

I will NOT smack the pest control guy.

I will NOT smack the pest control guy.

I will NOT smack the pest control guy.

Wish me luck.

The Season of Bad Advice, Ants

Even if I were shut in a cave with no access to the outside world except via television commercials I would know it was Spring.  The Lawn Care commercials are popping up everywhere and the Gardening commercials are starting to bud out and lets not forget the Weedy Pest Control Commercials that crowd out the Lawn of Rational Thought About Insects all summer long (Whew, I had to work to keep that metaphor going).

Lately I've noticed one particularly egregious commercial advertising what good advice could be found at a Big Box Store (you know the one, the Blue one).  A couple comes in with a jar of ants and asks for advice.  The clerk (who probably has a high school diploma and does this job between modeling stints while waiting for her big break) identifies the ants by color (really?) as "Wood Ants" and suggests a pesticide (the bag reads Grub Control so I'm not even sure it would work on ants).

There are ants, Carpenter Ants, that will nest in the wooden walls of houses and I have no problem with homeowners wanting to get rid of them but ants in the garden are NOT HARMFUL (ok, unless they are Fire Ants in which case you need to avoid the nests because they are so aggressive but I live in New England so no Fire Ants here!  One of the few gardening perks of this region).

Most garden ants are Beneficial Insects.  They build elaborate underground nests and tunnel systems.  This aerates and loosens the soil.  As gardeners we know that a loose soil allows better water penetration, makes it easier for roots to expand and allows air into the root zone of plants.  We all know not to step on garden soil.  Turns out that there is an inverse relationship between concentration of ants and soil compaction - less ants means more compacted soil.  Starting to be convinced?

Benefit number 2:  some ant species are carnivorous.  That means natural pest control.  Ants will eat other insects including caterpillars and the eggs of some insect species.  Ok.  So this is not true of all species.  Yes, some species are associated with aphids.  I guess whether ants are a plus or a minus when it comes to pest control depends on the species.  Call it a wash.

Benefit number 3:  Interactions with plants.  Native plants sometimes work with ants to get their seeds planted.  (This is cool)  The seeds have a added layer of ant food so the ants will carry it into their nests.  The ants get the food and leave the rest of the seed where it is, protected from seed eaters, "planted" in a nice stable environment just right for germination. 

So really the best benefit from ants is to the soil but the soil is the foundation of the good garden.  Good soil equals healthy plants equals a nice place to garden.  Bad soil and you are not going to have much success without more work on the Gardeners part.

Whew.  A whole rant about ants.  And that's only part of the commercial.  With that much bad advice in the first 15 seconds why should I take ANY advice from them?  [Silence]

One more reason to avoid pesticides and herbicides

What, you ask, do whales have to do with gardening? I'm glad you asked! This week my nephew, Zack, was in town and we took him whale watching. The naturalist on board made a statement about the number one cause of death in whales and I was quite surprised. It's not whaling. It's not entanglement with fishing gear. It's not boat strikes. It's pollution.

I didn't just take his word for it, I came home and started doing my research. Now I know that plastic bags, six-pack rings and balloons can all end up in the stomach of marine species like sea turtles, seals and various sea birds and these plastic items will cause death (think about that before the next time you release a helium filled balloon. Sorry to ruin it for you). And I know that noise pollution is a big problem, both from Navy sonar experiments as well as from commercial shipping. What I was surprised to learn was that chemical pollutants in the air and water are both showing up in large concentrations in whales.
I shouldn't be surprised. Whales are at the top of the food chain (like we are) and so all of the pollution that ends up in life forms lower down the food chain concentrates in whales. This is related to the fact that you should limit your intake of certain fish species (like tuna and swordfish) - you need to limit your exposure to the pollution built up in these predatory species. It also has to do with whale biology. The big humpback whales we saw on Stellwagen bank (off the coast of Massachusetts) spend their summers up here gorging on fish, then they migrate south to their breeding and birthing grounds. Food there is much scarcer so they have to live off their layer of blubber for the winter. All those compounds that ended up in the blubber are released into their bloodstream and into mothers' milk.

Still don't see where this ties into gardening? Turns out some of those toxins are organohalines and organochlorines, which are found in herbicides and pesticides. These things do not break down readily so even if you are far from the ocean the compounds you put on your lawn could end up in the milk a newborn whale is fed. The world is a small place and we're all interconnected.