Weekly Update: August Week 4

I've been waging war on the white fly infestation in my tomato plants for the better part of the summer. Just when I think I'm getting ahead of them, they seem to explode. I started out trying not to use pesticides at all, but it was really hard to watch my precious tomatoes just fading away with my natural remedies doing little if anything to stop them. I finally decided to go with the "if you can't beat them join them" approach and try fighting fire with fire. Or in this case, fighting bugs with bugs.

I can now add ladybugs, lacewings, and wasps to the things that I never thought I'd actually buy, let alone have shipped to me via UPS. I bit the bullet and ordered up 1400 lady bugs, a bag of lacewing larvae and the little cards which are loaded with wasp eggs. (not the scary kind of wasps). The goal is that these little guys combine forces to eat up the white flies... I turned them all loose one evening and so far it seems they've done just about as good as anything else I've tried. I panicked initially because the day after the release I couldn't find a single lady bug in the garden. A few days later I was coming in after a brief rain shower and suddenly there were lady bugs everywhere. So I guess they hung around long enough to help at least a bit! No sign of mature lacewings, and the wasps are so tiny its hard to tell if they're hatched or not... but the overall infestation of white flies has slowed considerably. I should probably plan on ordering another round of lady bugs, but we'll see. Here are a couple shots of the ladies at work:

Last week I posted the first look at our resident spider. It seems like she's had a busy week as well, crafting not one, but two impressive looking egg cases. They are both about the size of a ping-pong ball. It is funny, and I'm not sure if its scientifically true or not, but if you compare the pictures of her from last week before the egg cases to this week, she seems much thinner. They look absolutely amazing close up. I haven't touched them because I don't want to get all up in her space, but they look like they're made of very densely woven fibers. It will be interesting to see what happens. I'm not sure exactly how many spiders might be in there or where they'd all set up shop when they hatch, but we'll see how it goes I guess! (Knowing she's harmless makes it much easier to feel good about letting her hang around. It also makes me feel better about the fact that I routinely exterminate the spiders that try and take over the front porch!)

Speaking of eggs, the other eggs growing in the garden have actually started ripening as well. Check out the crazy bright yellow colors of the eggs on the Easter egg plant. It is an absolutely crazy sight!