Garden Wisdom Blog — category: Insects Pests and Diseases

Integrated Pest Management (IPM) Healthy organic gardens are full of bugs. Gardens, and even farms, are ecosystems that maintain their own balance. Thousands of species of insects and other invertebrates make their homes in the soil and on the plants we grow. In a balanced garden ecosystem, pest species are the exception, and infestations are rare. In an organic approach to growing crops, we feed the soil with organic matter and encourage abundant and diverse soil ecology. When the soil is healthy, the plants we grow in it will be more vigorous, and better prepared to deal with stress. Integrated...

The plight of the Monarch butterfly has been a big news item in recent times. Just look up “monarch butterfly” on Youtube, and you’ll find scores of videos aimed at Monarch conservation. The Monarch is unusual due to its remarkable migration route between south central Canada and the hilltops west of Mexico City. For years the governments of Ontario and Quebec, and the midwestern states sought to eradicate various types of milkweed that were thought to be noxious weeds. And then it turned out that these plants are essential food plants for the Monarch. Not only do the adults feed...

Organic gardeners share one challenge that has many faces – how to protect seedlings along to the point when they are strong enough to defend themselves. Because seedlings are so tender and tasty, and low to the ground, they are easy pickings for a host of animals, from the very tiny to the enormous. Everything from wireworms and millipedes up to raccoons and deer are perfectly happy to chomp on your veggies, sometimes eradicating a whole bed of newly emerged plants. Every spring I receive a host of emails asking, “How to I protect my seedlings from [insert pest here]?”...

We hear so much about ants “farming” aphids that we thought we should answer the question, “Do ants farm aphids?” It’s natural for human beings to try to explain an observation of the natural world in terms of human emotions and experience. While it is common knowledge that “ants farm aphids,” this personified view leads to some very confused beliefs and assumptions. The idea that one insect benefits from the husbandry of another is fanciful but misleading. Of the nearly one thousand ant species in North America, some do harvest the excretions of other insects. Aphids, whiteflies, certain bugs, and...

In our 2015 Growing Guide is Brian Campbell on Pollination and Bee Diversity: Lack of pollination is an unfortunate trend in the plant world. In the late 1960s, the first global review of pollination deficit was conducted. At the time, one out of every ten insect-pollinated flowers was not setting seed because of insufficient numbers of insects to get the job done. I recall my shock as a young person reading this news. In the spring of 2014, Dr. Elizabeth Elle of Simon Fraser University revealed to the Vancouver Pollinator Project that the latest research indicates that the global pollination...