bugs!

My beer trays have not been catching any slugs lately (except for a few among the Rhubarb). So last night I went out with a flashlight to see what's chewing on the plants. The young Green Beans now have holes on the outside margins of the leaves

and I found these cluprits:

pill bugs! I found some climbing up the stems, others perched on the leaves. I didn't know pill bugs would climb plants to eat them! but they sure did. All the ones on plants I pinched off.

The Swiss Chard is nice and big

but still riddled with holes, and I haven't been finding slugs there, either.

By the flashlight I saw some critters, but it was hard to catch one, they let go and dropped down among the stems to hide immediately at any disturbance. I got one. I think it's an earwig.

I didn't know earwigs eat plants. I do know they eat other insect pests (not sure which) so I am undecided if they're enough of a problem to try and get rid of.

The real success of the night, though, was when I decided to just glance at the Zucchini plants I set out recently. They're very happy in their compost hills!

There is no damage to the leaves, so I was completely surprised at what I found crawling all over the plants: my garden nemesis, the cucumber beetle!

I quickly grabbed a jar and nabbed as many as I could. Most of them were paired up and even if they escaped me by dropped off the leaf, didn't go far and I could pinch them easily. I'm so glad I looked, and that I got them as they were in the act of reproducing themselves! I left the jar on counter overnight, planning to count them in the morning. But I think the earwig ate them! I stuck it in the freezer to kill them, then tipped it all out to see what I got. There were all these little specks of bug-poop in there, and only half the number of cuke beetles. I did squish a lot outside too, so all in all I think I killed almost forty. Checked early this morning, and I only found one striped beetle hiding under a leaf. Of all the ones I got, most were striped one, the largest, spotted.