Saturday, August 17, 2013

The good, the bad and the ugly-- heirloom tomatoes, bean beetles and a young toad

First the good-- I took a lot of green tomatoes off my potato leafed heirloom tomato that died. And they are turning red! The other 24 tomato plants are full of mostly still green fruit, but are largely healthy.


Now the bad: I grew "Burgundy' bush beans for the first time this year, and possibly the last.  They are beautiful and productive, but at least from my so far limited experience, a magnet for mexican bean beetles. I fought a good fight squashing larvae, eggs and mature beetles, but finally gave up and pulled the plants.
Meanwhile, elsewhere in the garden I got only a few beetles on my 'Dragon Tongue' bush beans and yellow romano pole beans. Were the "Burgundy' a trap crop, which means that now that they are gone I will get more beetles on the other beans? I will watch and report back.
Meanwhile I killed as many stages of the been life cycle as I could when I pulled the crop-- I squished the adults and left the plants on the lawn to dry and deprive the larvae of enough food to get them to maturity, then composted them on the other side of the garden.
Here's a picture of a just pulled 'Burgundy' -- still full of good beans which I harvested after I took the photo:

And here are some eggs:



And the voracious larvae:


I took a lot of satisfaction in leaving the larvae to starve on the dried up plants. I can't always win in my fight for organic pest control, but I can glory in the death of my enemy.... even if it is a tiny yellow larvae.

I don't have a picture of my ugly new friend, but it is a young toad, about an inch long, that I found in the middle of the lawn. I moved it to the 'Dragon Tongue' bean patch last week, and found it there today,  quite feisty and camera shy. I hope it like the taste of been beetles-- I could use the help.