No, not Rusty… the ones that he took photos of in his garden;) I love Rusty- we’ve been internet friends for some years now… that is what engaging in back and forth comments in blogging will do. He has started to post on his gardening efforts, which makes me really happy because this guy can take absolutely beautiful photographs, and you all know how garden blogging people LOVE photographs! Anyway, he has run into some of those garden challenges that we all know a bit too well. Little buggers that try to ruin our hopes for fresh kitchen garden produce.
There are some really good West Coast garden bloggers who could probably answer with how they handle aphids, etc. But here was the answer I tried to post @ Rusty’s blog where he so kindly titled a post, “Ask ilona” .
Here is my answer:
Besides my ego now knowing no bounds, I now feel very crawly with these most excellent pictures. Lets see if I can help a West Coast gardener out :)
The little guys in the middle pic are aphids, ladybugs like to eat them, hence the association in the third pic. I understand that liquid “Ivory” soap, old fashioned kind, sprayed on will help.http://www.care2.com/greenliving/homemade-insecticidal-soap.html You can always just hose them off. eventually the ladybugs are going to get their numbers down.
You can also go ahead and plant some Nasturtium flowers in a nearby area. These work as a “catch crop” – they are so attractive to the pests that they draw them away from your food crop.
I don’t know about the other problem, but I suspect whitefly. Here is a good article on that:
http://www.ca.uky.edu/entomology/entfacts/ef303.asp
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