To Spray Or Not To Spray

When planning my garden, I decided I wanted to go organic.  I knew it would be challenging but if I want dangerous pesticides on my produce I can buy them at the store.  Lately I've been having some problems with some very destructive beetles and worms.  The first bug I discovered was chewing away at my green beans, it's called the Mexican Bean Beetle. 

My beans - eek!

As you can see, those little suckers tore up my beans pretty good. They only chew on the leaves but can do a lot of damage.

I started picking the beetles off every day and dropping them in a little pan of soapy water to kill them.  I was also squishing the eggs as I found them.  I was having trouble keeping up with those little boogers so I did some research into organic pesticides and found something called Neem Oil. 

Life cycle of the Mexican Bean Beetle.
Eggs (right), larvae (bottom), beetle (top)

Neem oil is extracted from the seeds of the Azadirachta indica (or the Indian Neem) tree.  In India (and surrounding countries), people harvest the fruit of this widespread tree, take off the green husks and sell the seeds to facilities where the oil is pressed and sold.  The remnants are solds as "neem cake" to use as organic fertilizer.  Neem is a great renewable resource that is a replacement to our dangerous, petrochemical pesticides. 

I bought a ready to use spray and used it immediately.  So far, so good.  I haven't seen any bean beetles in the last 2 days and my beans already look healthier, that could all be in my head but I think they look much better.  I believe I'll have to spray them about once a week or after a heavy rain.

The next bug that was getting into my goods was the Imported Cabbage Worm. I seriously hate this bug, it destroyed my Collard Greens in no time at all.

Ugly littls suckers, aren't they? 
When you pick them off the plant they poop - always wear gloves!

They were moving on to my Kale as well,
I had to do something quick!



My poor Collards!













Back to the research.  I found a product called bacillus thuringiensis or Bt. Bt is a naturally occurring bacterium common in soils throughout the world used to kill leaf- and needle-feeding caterpillars.  It was developed in 1911 and made available to the public in the 1950's.   Bt insecticides do not kill beneficial insects. This includes the natural enemies of insects (predators and parasites), as well as beneficial pollinators, such as honeybees.  The major advantage is that Bt is essentially nontoxic to people, pets and wildlife.  Yay! 

I bought a bottle of concentrate and mixed it up myself, I used 1 teaspoon to 42 oz. of water.  After picking all the worms off the collards, I sprayed them and the kale and am hoping for the best results - no more worms.  I'll probably have to spray every couple of days since Bt is susceptible to sunlight degradation (big words, right?). 

So far, those are the only major problems I'm having in the garden (other than weeds).  I'll keep you posted as I move forward and hopefully save you some time and heartache in the future.

Now I need to get out to the garden, I have some potatoes that need tending to!