Just thought I should point out that despite the pests I've seen, I've also seen quite an abundance of good guys too, specifically Lady Beetles. I'm happy to see them take up residence in my garden because I know they like to eat the bad guys, they're particularly fond of eating aphids. I haven't seen any aphids though. I do worry a little that the fact there is enough bugs to feed such a population, but I haven't seen devastating evidence so I guess the balance must be just right.
One of my little buddies. I named this one George. You can see the corn is just about to tassle. Since I took this picture about a week ago, many of the stalks have opened their tassels and many of their silks are just starting to emerge. I will go out probably mid week and give the stalks a good shake to distribute the pollen to the silks. I may do a little hand pollinating just to be extra sure the inside corns are filled out as much as the exterior are.
Every year I see evidence such as this on a couple of corn plants. I'm not sure what does it, but due to the pattern of the holes I expect this chewing is done when the plant is pretty young and the leaves are still rolled up. It doesn't seem to have much effect so I just don't worry about it much.
Zucchini and squash are in full swing. Since I took this picture about 3 days ago, we've also picked two more zucchini and a yellow crookneck squash. I've never gotten yellow squash out of the garden before so that was pretty exciting. The zucchini and squash plants seem to be the most under siege this year. Just today I squished a cucumber beetle and a stink bug nymph and chased off a squash vine borer and destroyed several eggs. Yesterday i was pretty sad to see one of my pepper plants nearly demolished and a webby white cocoon inside a curled leaf. I meant to take a picture but I just smashed it in my rage. Not sure what kind of caterpillar it was, but those suckers are so damaging so fast.
And I keep wondering, like every year, when will those tomatoes turn red already?! It seems to take forever, and there are so many.
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