Army worms, squash bugs and potato beetles....oh my!

Rennie564

Padawan Learner
This was our first year putting in a garden in a new state, with a whole new ecosystem. We used to live in a northern climate. Now in a southern climate. At first, everything went wonderfully! The herbs, peppers, tomatoes, cucumbers, eggplants, were growing and getting big.

And then the farms in our area started spraying the cotton fields and tobacco fields. OMG. The insects flee those fields in to the areas were homes are. We woke up one morning to find so many squash bugs crawling on the sunflowers and pumpkin vines that you could see them from a distance. Then the colorado potato beetle showed up and started chewing its way through eggplants and tomato leaves. We diligently picked everything off by hand. A week later....army worm invasion. And they were so bad they killed the tomato plants in one day. I picked 89 armyworms off one plant. (my lovely daughter counted them for fun lol)

What preventative measures can I use next year? Does anyone else have issues organically growing when industrial farms are nearby?
 
Once we went keto, we gave up gardening. We don't eat enough vegetables to make it worth all the cost and effort.
 
I was always curious, Laura, about your garden since you were Keto. You answer my curiosity. ;D
 
If they had only gone after the veggies, I probably wouldn't be concerned......but they also went after herbs. o.O I'm a certified herbalist and I also make and sell herbal soap and teas through a local farmers market. Most organic gardening books warn you about what veggies and fruits they like but say little about the herbs. For example: The army worms will eat anything. But they especially went after the rosemary and wormwood and thai basil I have. The squash bugs were particularly happy to munch on the varieties of tarragon that I have and not just the pumpkins. I was lucky enough to be able to harvest a decent amount of herbs before it happened!
 
Just wondering, Rennie564, do you eat the vegetables that you grow? In case you do, you may want to consider that peppers, potatoes and eggplants are nightshades, and nightshades cause of lot of inflammation in a lot of people. Just something to think about. And, you stated elsewhere, I think, that you are going Keto? If so, you may want to not eat a lot of carbs.
 
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