A couple weeks ago I noticed what looked like little flecks of dirt all over the stem of my strawberry plant. I haven't identified them yet due to a very persistent cold, but I noticed that there were also ants crawling all over the stems. (If you look very closely you can see one or two ants in the photo above - I took the picture first thing when I got up the next morning and as it happens my son wakes up before ants!) I think the ants imply that whatever is all over the stem is producing honeydew - an important clue about what kind of pest I'm dealing with.
After I took this picture I sprayed "Organicide" over the whole strawberry patch. The next day it looked like business as usual for the ants, so I took my hose and blasted the stem. Presto! No more bugs. (Well, okay, I could only hose one side of the stem so I only got rid of half the bugs.) They haven't come back, either. I'm not sure if that means they were dead when I hosed them off or they can't crawl in this life stage? Or something else? Gardens are such interesting places!
You don't ever get discouraged that you are in a perpetual battle against all of these pest for your food?
ReplyDeleteWould you have me give up? Some strawberries are surely better than no strawberries, right?
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