War on Stinkbugs!
If anything will drive me crazy this year it will be stink bugs. I removed 3 adults at the beginning of the growing season and have removed numerous eggs. At first the stinkbugs were laying their eggs on the tops of the leaves, which made them easy to find. Now I just came across an area in the garden that was infested. The way to tell if you have stink bugs is by looking for small brown patches on the leaves, as seen below.
Until recently, there was no chemical solution to this problem and I'd rather take care of it without chemicals. What I've been doing is looking for adults several times a day, when I'm tending my garden. I take any adults or eggs and place them in a jar of vinegar. Since one stink bug can lay up to 4 generations in one season and lays eggs in multiples of 7, the propensity to obliterate your garden is very large. In my garden they are loving the squash vegetation.
My garden is a very good size for the home gardener. I have a 20 foot row in-ground with 4 raised beds, 2 fig trees, 2 peach trees, 2 apple trees, 1 blackberry cane, 2 raspberry canes and 2 blueberry bushes. There is a lot to manage throughout the growing season. The only time I'm not in the garden is December and January. I grow enough to feed us weekly, enough to can or store for winter and enough to give neighbors a little. Here are some photos of stink bugs in the garden.
Stink bug spots. They use their hypodermic snouts to suck your plants dry. If you have these spots then look underneath for stink bugs
Eggs- look for these on the tops or bottoms of leaves.
This is what a juvenile stink bug looks like and it's armor is not fully developed. They are very soft and squish easily. I still put them in a jar, tho.
