Things are beginning to look (and grow) up

I'm still battling the earwigs. On most nights I'll squish a couple dozen that are on or around the plants; I supplement the squishing with drowning them in beer traps. I don't think I'm going to continue drowning them through .. as much as I hate earwigs .. I have better uses for the beer. All in all, I'm making progress in my war against the earwigs. I just need to continue my nightly recon and fire missions and I should be able to wear them down. My next avenue of assault will be to try to drive them away using a diluted mixture of liquefied habanero peppers and garlic. I have to wait though, until there is absolutely NO wind before I spray that stuff on the plants, I would hate to get a face full of it.

I lost a couple of plants to the earwigs. The watermelon in Planter #3-B1 and the cantaloupe in B5 had to be plucked; the strawberries in the front of the planter are doing well, flowering and producing fruit (nothing ripe yet).

None of the flowers in Planter #1-F1, F2 and F3 made it. The gladiola in F4 is making it's way up. The alysseum in F5 and the radishes in F6 are doing well. We've already eaten a couple of the radishes.

The bottom leaves of the snap peas planted along the trellis in Planter #2 are turning yellow and brown, but the tops of the vines are green, flowering and producing pods. The lettuce planted throughout is also doing well.

I'm a little worried about the bell peppers in Planter #4; they haven't grown much, although one is producing a pepper. The green beans are doing well. The cucumber took a lot of abuse during the earwig invasion .. I don't think it is going to make it.

One of the artichokes has produced a fruit .. yeah baby!

The tomatoes in the topsy turvy planters are doing so-so.

Follow this link to view the most recent pictures (too many to post here on the blog). I also included a few pictures that I took earlier, for comparison. The snap peas have made great progress as has the tomato barrel and pumpkin and corn barrel.

http://picasaweb.google.com/jmaellis/ThingsAreBeginningToLookAndGrowUp

Frigg'n Earwigs

Something has invaded, and has been munching on the plants in my SFG. Not the whole garden, but close enough. They have reduced some of the plants to just about nothing, and are (were .. fingers crossed) making lace out of the leaves of the cucumbers, watermelon, cantaloupe, zucchini and squash. They have been munching on my strawberries, bell peppers and green beans to a lesser extend. They have all but ignored the lettuce and snap peas. The plant lady at the nursery thought that it was some kind of a worm that was nibbling on the leaves. She recommended an organic insecticide. I used it ..... it didn't work.

I discovered it was earwigs a few night ago when I went out into the backyard after dark and snooped around the plants. Earwigs were everywhere. I squished as many as I could and then went inside to research how to get rid of them without using chemical insecticides.

So far I have trapped and drowned them for the past two nights in small cups and tuna tins. In the morning there is probably a hundred or so dead earwigs in the cups. I've squished probably about the same amount. Last night I killed a bunch using insecticidal soap and today I sprinkled diatomaceous earth throughout the beds. I'll see how things go over the next couple of days and if necessary, I'll regroup, reload and let go with a second barrage.