pesky caterpillars

Just look at what they're doing to my plants!
I go out twice a day and pick off as many of the tiny little buggers as I can find.






Here's one I missed because it wasn't on any of the vegetables. See how he's the same colour as the leaves he's eating?

That's why the tiny ones are so hard to spot.






Here he is on the palm of my hand. Big bugger isn't he?
Then I "accidentally" dropped him and "accidentally" stepped on him.






In spite of the caterpillars, they plants are beginning to produce fruit.
This pile of yellow is pumpkin pollen that I've been collecting via a paint brush ready to brush onto any female flowers that might decide to appear.
There was one female flower, but it was the only flower open and the males didn't appear until the female flower had died off. Now there are about 6 flowers, all male. Pfft!!




Woo-Hoo!! Tomatoes! Each of the bushes has four baby tomatoes in varying sizes. They're all different types, so they'll be ready to eat at different times.






Look at this. Tiny, tiny, capsicum buds.





This below is a baby mini rockmelon. See that round hairy bit behind the flower base? That's the rockmelon. There's quite a few of them, so I got very excited at the thought of all that fruit.
Since this photo was taken, some of them have turned yellow and dropped off, so clearly they didn't get pollinated. Hopefully the ones that are left were pollinated and I'll get some fruit.




My beans are doing reasonably well. I picked a small handful of beans yesterday to have with my dinner. Then I didn't feel like cooking, or even eating, so just had toast. I'll have the beans tonight.




Comments

  1. It all looks so good!
    I'm putting in some tomatoes as well, and my herbs are flourishing. Had terrible trouble with caterpillars on my mint but at least they smell nice when you squash them!

    ReplyDelete
  2. Beautiful pics, love the detail you've captured in these shots.Caterpillars are the absolute bane of my parent's existence. They have an amazing garden and are at constant war with them!

    ReplyDelete
  3. Is there a recipe for some home-made (and therefore organic) solution you can spray on the leaves to get rid of the marauding munchers? Or is hunting them down and squashing them your 'therapy' to cope with the physio?

    ReplyDelete
  4. Gardens are a miracle.

    Jokes aside, keep your teeth, don't ever get dentures if it's avoidable.

    ReplyDelete
  5. Toni; I didn't know caterpillars ate mint. I didn't think anything ate mint!

    Sarah; it's amazing how we don't see a single white buterfly until we plant vegetables, then they're everywhere laying their little caterpillar eggs on every damn thing!

    Kath; hunting them down is what gets me off my bum and into the great outdoors.

    R.H; I love my little veg patch.
    The teeth are a never ending expense, and I'm sick of going to the dentist, (any dentist) with toothache and having him say, "I can't see any reason for the pain". Then when I go for a regular checkup and he'll find a gazillion cavities and tell me I should have come in sooner! I'll hold on to them as long as I can, but I'm not sure how much longer that will be.

    ReplyDelete
  6. Love the look of your garden. I remember squishing many a green caterpillar and having the green juice squirt everywhere.
    From the internet:

    Killing Caterpillars

    When you are planning on killing caterpillars and you want to keep your garden as organic as possible, you should find a way to stop caterpillars that stays within that realm. For instance, you could take cardboard and place it around the base of all your plants. This takes time, and no one really knows how it works to prevent caterpillars, but it does work.

    The timing with which you plant your garden helps to prevent caterpillars. A healthy garden grows quickly and strongly. If you plant your garden early and make sure your garden is fertilized and well taken care of, you will find that you have beaten the caterpillars to the punch.

    Some people spend time picking the caterpillars out of their garden, but this is somewhat inefficient because you could pick 20 caterpillars out of your lettuce one day and the next go out there and find 20 more. If all else fails, you could use Bacillus thuringiensis which is a naturally occurring soil bacteria that you can put in your garden. This is non-toxic to humans and animals, but the caterpillars will either stay away or die.

    ReplyDelete
  7. Kass; these caterpillars are the babies of the white cabbage butterfly which flits around everywhere and lays the eggs on the underside of the leaves. I really don't see how cardboard around the base of plants will stop them. That method is often used for earwigs, who shelter in the cardboard so they're easily removed and disposed of. My garden isn't huge, just 4 recycling tubs and a couple of large buckets. I average about 4 caterpillars a day, so it's not a big problem, just annoying.

    ReplyDelete
  8. It is all looking GREAT!

    And accidently dropped it and accidently squished it. What ARE the odds! :oP

    ReplyDelete
  9. River, found my way here from a comment on Pearl's blog having noticed that you are a fellow 'Aussie.'
    Surprised the heat is not doing more damage than the caterpillars. Our temperature at the farm in the Hunter Valley, NSW was 42 degrees yesterday. Things are wilting quickly...

    ReplyDelete

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

kitchen tip #?????

being unaccustomed to public speaking,

I've been trying to contact Haagen-Dazs