We have had those tiny bugs in the air almost every day since it rained last week or the week before or whenever it last rained prior to yesterday. I don't know what they are, but I also don't think we have as many as y'all do. I only see little 'clouds' of them in various places around the yard. I suspect they are flies or gnats or something. I haven't seen any mosquito larvae (knock on wood) in the ponds or birdbath, but I've been expecting to see them every day. The way those little clouds of insects hang out together in the air reminds me of buffalo gnats, but I don't think they are buffalo gnats, unless they're a young version of them.

Rain has kept me inside today, and after reading your description of all the pests arriving at your place, I don't know if I should rush out and check my garden or if I should stay away until tomorrow so I won't worry and fret about bugs all night if I find them there.

A lot of folks have reported black aphid-like creatures this year. I've just chalked it up to the mild winter. I think aphids like some things more than others, because I'll see them on one variety of a plant and not on a different variety sitting right beside it. I notices that with the snap peas this year, and the lady bugs did show up a week or so later and started devouring the aphids.

If you want to attract lady bugs that might be in your area but not in your garden, you can spray the affected plants with wheast or with sugar water. I'll link a page that has recipes for both. If you spray either one of these on your plants, if there are lady bugs loitering nearby, they'll move to the sprayed plants. You also can buy a commercially prepared forumulation of wheast that actually has whey in it, but I don't know that it would work any better than homemade wheast. I don't remember off the top of my head who sells wheast, but probably places like Peaceful Valley Farm Supply, Planet Natural and Territorial Seed Company. I just mix up my own but if I thought it didn't work, I'd buy a commercial version with the whey in it.

I don't want to keep my grasshoppers, but wishing them away won't make them leave, so I guess I am stuck with them. The ones I am seeing on our property are small, but the ones I've seen in fields at fires are a lot larger. That makes me think that something on our property (maybe the wild birds that visit the feeders and birdbaths) either has killed the larger ones or something because it doesn't make sense that the pasture across the street has big ones and we have little ones. I have seen only a couple of big ones here and not recently. I'd rather have hoppers than JBs any day of the week. Cooler, rainier weather favors pathogens that make grasshoppers sick, so maybe the change in the weather will help knock back their population a little. Unfortunately, cool weather always seems to be followed by a rise in some insect populations.

My pickling cukes have only produced 3 or 4 cukes so far, but like yours they are covered with flowers, so I expect I'll be making pickles next week.

I already have all the pickling supplies I need, and that likely is a good thing because most of the stores here are getting really low on canning supplies. I've never seen that happen quite this early, but then it has been a great year here for stone fruit, and anyone else here who planted early like I did likely has lots of veggies to can. I bought all my pectin, pickling salt, jar lids and other misc. canning stuff a couple of months ago, but didn't get the pickling spices until this week.

I hope the aphids don't give your tomatoes a virus, but they certainly could. It would be a shame to have your tomato season end prematurely. It is so frustrating to have the tomato plants get hit by something when they are at the height of production.

Some of my tomato plants are getting speckled and spotty from early blight and other stuff that is common in wet weather and high humidity, but I am resolved that I will not freak out over it. By the time it spreads enough to hurt the plants' production, I'll be tired of canning tomatoes and will need to move on and focus on canning peppers and making pepper jelly. It is only the oldest plants that are looking bad, and they produce large toms and don't set well in heat, so their productive period is somewhat limited here most summers anyway. My goal this year was to get lots of tomatoes in June so I could can and dehydrate before July arrived. That will make it easier to turn off the hose (not that I'm using it lately) and walk away from the tomatoes in July if rain isn't falling. I'm not going to water heavily like I did last year. Not. Not. Not.

I am starting to have a "Groundhog Day" type life (like the movie) where every day I wake up and it is the same thing. Cut bite-sized toms in half, put them on cookie sheets and dehyhdrate them in the oven. Set up the tomato strainer, run a few big bowls of toms through it, and boil down that tomato puree all day long to make sauce. Fill containers with finished product, clean the kitchen and do the dishes. Repeat again tomorrow or the next day. : ) It gets kind of monotonous at times, but so does any other routine yard and garden work like weeding or mowing.

The rainfall is a huge relief, but I do worry that so much at once will water down the flavor of the tomatoes, and also that it will cause a lot of cracking and splitting--not that we can do anything about it anyway.

Here is a link that might be useful: Attracting Beneficial Insects

Carol,

You are most welcome to hire our Lady bugs from our garden (see picture below). I am afraid to spray even neem oil on beans to keep these buggers happy. Indeed I used see lot of the tiny aphids and thrips initially but they seems to be under control. Our Dill plants are bolted, now in full bloom, but I can not remove them as they are full of lady bugs.

I have found another method to control the bad bugs. I bought outdoor electronic insect killer and installed in center of the garden. I tons of the thrips/aphids and many other small to big insects, june beetles, moths, etc are attracted to black light and get shocked. I have been observing the dead moss for any beneficial such as lady birds, praying mantids... so far not found them in the deads... i hope that should work.

here is picture of the lady birds in the garden;

-Chandra

Chandra, Is that a natural occurrence, or did you buy them initially. I need to know your secret.

I have only had an aphid problem one other time and it was on my cucumbers. The lady bugs did come that year, but not in time to save the plants. They looked like aphids and were a blue-green color. These are black and only seem interested in the tomato plants. They don't move and you can put your finger on them and squish and they don't try to get away. I don't even know if they really are aphids. In the air they looked like swarms of gnats or something.

The first few years that I gardened here, I never saw a lady bug. After that year of aphids on the cucumbers, I always see a few.

I have pickling cukes and slicing cukes this year and nothing has bothered them so far. I picked one cuke from each type today, so they are just beginning to produce.

We could use some of your rain again. The last storm when George got such a good rain, didn't provide much for us. It was close enough to hear, but the rain was mostly south of us.

Great Post! New blog post on Ladybugs:
http://www.thebestladybughouse.com/Blog.html

Here is a link that might be useful: Blog Post

Chandra,

WOW, I have never seen so many lady bugs in one place. My kids would love your garden. Incredible.

Jo