Warm weather means an increase in pests
PAUL HAMBRUCH Local Gardening Expert
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The warm weather and beautiful rains we were having brought lush growth but unfortunately also an increase in all sorts of pests to our gardens.
For the first time, we are finding leaf miners in our spinach. Some of the spinach leaves look as if we had put bleach on them, with parts of some leaves almost translucent. What is going on is that a little fly lays eggs on the underside of the leaves. As the eggs hatch into maggots, they burrow into the leaf, between the top and bottom leaf layers and eat out the inner layers of the leaf. After a few days, they drop to the ground, where they pupate in the soil and finally turn into flies again. There can be three or four cycles a season.
There is no chemical control for the home gardener for this problem. Remove any damaged leaves as soon as you see them and put them in the garbage, not the compost pile. It is possible to exclude the flies with netting or cheese cloth but I haven’t tried it so can’t say that it would be successful. Spinach leaf miner also attacks Swiss chard and beets and chickweed, one more good reason to get rid of all the chickweed.
Leaf rollers are another problem that is turning up in our garden. I see them on my apple trees and on the new, succulent shoots of currant bushes. Leaf rollers are a life stage of a moth that lays egg masses on fruit trees and obviously my currant bushes. When the little caterpillars hatch, they hide by rolling up leaves and hiding inside to evade predators. Amongst other things, they feed on apples, causing scarring of the fruit which makes them a major problem for fruit growers. Because the caterpillars are hidden from view, they are difficult to eliminate with any sprays. I have decided to cut off as many rolled up leaves as I can find, collect them in a bucket and finally destroy them with hot water and send them to the garbage dump.
As if that wasn’t enough, the slugs are putting in an appearance again. Fortunately, there is new slug bait available that does not pose a danger to humans or pets but is very effective against slugs. Last year, I recommended putting out boards where the slugs hide after feeding during the night, then turning the boards over in the morning and putting salt on the slugs to kill them. But one of my readers has told me that the salt did not kill his slugs, so even though collecting slugs under old boards will work, you may have to find a different way, such as hot water, of getting rid them.
And of course, there are aphids on our lettuce. My grandfather used to say that he preferred having aphids in his cabbage to not having any meat at all but honestly, I don’t agree with that school of thought. What I don’t mind is washing the lettuce under running water to flush the critters down the drain rather than spraying my lettuce with insecticide. But as always, the most important thing for the home gardener is proper sanitation. Get rid of weeds and any plant debris that might harbour insects or plant diseases.
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