Hi all,
Thought I'd share something I discovered while tending some tropical plants.
The other day was quite dry and I moved some of my tropical plants near my chili garden under a shade cloth. I was out there giving them a fine mist from a spray bottle when I noticed movement from the peripherals. Resumed spraying and saw it again....So I misted a fine cloud of water over my chili plants and dangdest thing...Horn worm started flipping out for a second. A small little unnoticed horn worm on my chili plants. More focused spritzing uncovered a couple more hidden real well.
Of course I knew I had some on my tomato plants (which look like crap this year) so I went over and gave them a spritz of fine mist. Yep, every horn worm started flapping back and forth for a second. So, I inadvertently discovered horn worm radar. Now I haven't been on the boards for a while and this may already have been discussed but if not, there ya go. I got too many mantises and spiders to spray for bugs so this is something I address manually.
Now, how to rid them? Well, I've had a few fly catchers put my garden on their hunting grid. Every few days I see a couple marauding my tomato plants. Just the other day, I startled one out of a tomato plant and it flew up to a perch with green grass hopper kicking in its beak then took off. Super cool!
I also noticed that the resident Phoebes were coming in under my shade cloth and hunting as well. Very weird. I kept trying to figure out why all of a sudden my plants were on the menu of these awesome birds. Then it dawned on me....Birds are curious and they are especially curious when they see other birds frequenting an area...especially if those birds are feeding. Now I'm not one to feed birds seed as the seed eaters have in the past chased away the insect eaters and it took a while for them to come back. My assumption? Humming bird feeders! I have 3 humming bird feeders over my garden and we've amassed probably every humming bird for blocks around us. I've had all 5 pearches on three different feeders full at once with another 10 or so buzzing around. I estimate we have around 40-50 different hummers that come by daily, all day and into the early evening. It's pretty insane sometimes. We buy huge bags of sugar now and are constantly filling up their never ending flowers.
Now the hummers don't mess with the bug eaters and the seed eaters aren't interested in the goings on of hummers so naturally, the bug eaters have slowly made their way through my garden and after several successful sorties and bellies full of horn worms and other yummy pests, they seem to have me on their restaurant guide.
So, I really think this has something to do with it. If you're going to try putting up some feeders please don't use the store bought nectar...It's pure garbage. Several of my neighbors have feeders with that nasty red stuff in it and not a single hummer...They're all mine! Muwah-ha-ha-ha-haaaaa! The secret sauce is real simple and very cheap. 1 cup plain ol' white sugar (don't even bother with the 'natural' stuff, they hate it) 1 cup of plain ol C&H white sugar and three cups of water. That's it! I have a pitcher and put 3 cups of sugar and 9 cups of water and make a huge batch and keep it in my fridge...On a super hot summer day, they go bonkers for chilled nectar and why I'm the humming bird whisperer around here. A pitcher lasts me about 2 days. For sure use at least 3 feeders as the more territorial ones will have a harder time chasing away the more docile ones. I actually have 5 feeder but the other 2 are in front of the house under a shade tree for the super shy ones. The main ones however are just a flurry of activity, non-stop. They seem to be social to an extent and now that I have such an established colony. The territorial Rufus can't keep up. Actually, I have many Rufus's now that they mess with each other more than anything.
Any ways, hope this helps!
Thought I'd share something I discovered while tending some tropical plants.
The other day was quite dry and I moved some of my tropical plants near my chili garden under a shade cloth. I was out there giving them a fine mist from a spray bottle when I noticed movement from the peripherals. Resumed spraying and saw it again....So I misted a fine cloud of water over my chili plants and dangdest thing...Horn worm started flipping out for a second. A small little unnoticed horn worm on my chili plants. More focused spritzing uncovered a couple more hidden real well.
Of course I knew I had some on my tomato plants (which look like crap this year) so I went over and gave them a spritz of fine mist. Yep, every horn worm started flapping back and forth for a second. So, I inadvertently discovered horn worm radar. Now I haven't been on the boards for a while and this may already have been discussed but if not, there ya go. I got too many mantises and spiders to spray for bugs so this is something I address manually.
Now, how to rid them? Well, I've had a few fly catchers put my garden on their hunting grid. Every few days I see a couple marauding my tomato plants. Just the other day, I startled one out of a tomato plant and it flew up to a perch with green grass hopper kicking in its beak then took off. Super cool!
I also noticed that the resident Phoebes were coming in under my shade cloth and hunting as well. Very weird. I kept trying to figure out why all of a sudden my plants were on the menu of these awesome birds. Then it dawned on me....Birds are curious and they are especially curious when they see other birds frequenting an area...especially if those birds are feeding. Now I'm not one to feed birds seed as the seed eaters have in the past chased away the insect eaters and it took a while for them to come back. My assumption? Humming bird feeders! I have 3 humming bird feeders over my garden and we've amassed probably every humming bird for blocks around us. I've had all 5 pearches on three different feeders full at once with another 10 or so buzzing around. I estimate we have around 40-50 different hummers that come by daily, all day and into the early evening. It's pretty insane sometimes. We buy huge bags of sugar now and are constantly filling up their never ending flowers.
Now the hummers don't mess with the bug eaters and the seed eaters aren't interested in the goings on of hummers so naturally, the bug eaters have slowly made their way through my garden and after several successful sorties and bellies full of horn worms and other yummy pests, they seem to have me on their restaurant guide.
So, I really think this has something to do with it. If you're going to try putting up some feeders please don't use the store bought nectar...It's pure garbage. Several of my neighbors have feeders with that nasty red stuff in it and not a single hummer...They're all mine! Muwah-ha-ha-ha-haaaaa! The secret sauce is real simple and very cheap. 1 cup plain ol' white sugar (don't even bother with the 'natural' stuff, they hate it) 1 cup of plain ol C&H white sugar and three cups of water. That's it! I have a pitcher and put 3 cups of sugar and 9 cups of water and make a huge batch and keep it in my fridge...On a super hot summer day, they go bonkers for chilled nectar and why I'm the humming bird whisperer around here. A pitcher lasts me about 2 days. For sure use at least 3 feeders as the more territorial ones will have a harder time chasing away the more docile ones. I actually have 5 feeder but the other 2 are in front of the house under a shade tree for the super shy ones. The main ones however are just a flurry of activity, non-stop. They seem to be social to an extent and now that I have such an established colony. The territorial Rufus can't keep up. Actually, I have many Rufus's now that they mess with each other more than anything.
Any ways, hope this helps!
