Not crushed to deter crawling insects with soft tummies (which never seems to work anyhow) but as a visual signal. Those white butterflies with little black spots called the cabbage moth? that lay tiny eggs that hatch into teensy caterpillars that I can never find until they've chomped everything? Well, it turns out they're territorial. Or so I read. So if you scatter halves of white eggshells around the garden, the moths think others of their kind are already there, and they leave! And it works! I put eggshells out (skeptical, but willing to try. My previous method, of chasing them with bug nets, was not very effective) and the next day saw plenty fluttering around like usual, but not landing on plants as often. And after that, they're all gone. I haven't seen one in my yard since. I almost can't believe it. Now if only I could find a signal that screams to cucumber beetles: scram!
After a few rains the eggshells get dirty so then I just smash them into the dirt and put out a few fresh, brightly white ones.
What I really want now is a bat. I hear that only do bats eat hundreds of mosquitoes an hour, but they also eat cucumber beetles all night! One of my husband's coworkers had bats living in his attic (dripping guano all down the side of his house) and he spent hundreds of dollars trying to get them removed. I said, get someone to trap them and bring them over here! But I was too late... So I'm saving up for a bat house. (My husband says his friend's yard has no mosquitoes at all. I wonder if he'll notice a difference now that he got rid of his bats?)
2 comments:
Hi Jeane--hope you don't mind the intrustion. I just discovered this blog! After reading all of Chris's updates this year about his garden I'm thinking about making the plunge next year, so I'm hoping between the two of you you can keep me well educated. :)
A bat house, huh? I can't even let the dog out without getting bit by squitoes--sounds like I need some bats, too!
It's no intrusion at all. I always welcome more visitors!
Bats are cool. The more I learn about them, the more I want one in my yard! I used to see one in the evenings, it would fly back and forth between three yards, mine in the middle. But this year it's gone. I wonder if whoever's house it lived at got rid of it? poor bat!
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