A little story...

This blog will be a throw-back blog - it will contain information from (virtually) the beginning of our garden. I guess it would have started when the cucurbit plants first started flourishing and the male and female flowers started arriving... We started seeing these little triangle bugs on our cantaloupe and watermelon vines (at first). Then, we started seeing them on our cucumber vines. When i started googling them, I was using the search terms, "triangle bug on vines", "bug spitting water out its behind", well, you get the picture. I kept seeing them day after day and started noticing the liquid they were expelling out of their behinds was causing whitish spots on fruit (tomatoes - at right, watermelons, etc.) and also on the tops of leaves. Come to find out, the white substance they expel is called honeydew and they are better described as wedge shaped.

I decided I was going to get serious and determine what these little buggers were. After successfully killing them several times and witnessing how they move (they move to the side when you startle them, if they don't hop), I finally found out what they were: leafhoppers. Every time we went in the garden, we were killing them left and right. I was afraid they were stealing nutrients from our developing watermelon and cantaloupe (they seem to prefer these two plants the most). And I kept wondering and researching how one could get rid of these pesky things (they are "bad bugs", they bring disease and can adversely affect the plants). I think I read somewhere parasitic wasps parasitize them and maybe something about beneficial nematodes doing something to control young populations. In recent days, I have noticed a decline in the number of leafhoppers and have attributed it to the fact that we have a whole bunch of wasps (beneficial and cicada wasp killing wasps) in our courtyard out back. I was convinced they were doing their part to control the leafhopper population. And, perhaps they were/are. But, today, as I lifted some cantaloupe to place them in a sling, I was enamored as I saw what appeared to be the beginning stages of an assassin bug taking hold of a leafhopper. I had my phone out there so I hurried to grab a photo and then ran inside (okay, hobbled inside) to get my EOS. You can see the sling placed around the cantaloupes in the photo - I tried so hard not to disturb the assassin bug as he enjoyed his feast.

Tomato-eating fools!

You might think I am talking about me and my family. But, alas, I am not. The morning our second batch of beef steak tomatoes were ripe for the picking, someone else had the same idea I did, and they not only got to the tomatoes first once, but twice. You see, before leaving the house in the afternoon, I checked on the garden - there were 3 ripening tomatoes almost at their prime. Since the morning, one had been picked at/pecked at and had been lost. So I picked it off the vine, brought it in the house and put it in a baggie to show my better half.
Then I went on my merry way and left the house. When I came back no more than two hours later, I went to the garden to find the critters (squirrels or birds, what's your vote?) had gotten our remaining ripening tomatoes. I was heartbroken. Here is Ell with the two found later in the day:

Well, fool me once, fool me twice - but fool me a third time? I came back with guns a blazing (well, okay, nylon guns a blazing), but nonetheless. Here is my first attempt at sparing our newly-ripening beefsteaks: old black nylons tied up to protect them. I'll let you know how it goes.