In our area of north-central Florida, spring signals the return of balmy days and pleasantly cool nights. My perennials revive (happy sigh) … along with (groan) wave after wave of Florida pests. It sometimes seems as if one plague begins to subside only to make way for the next. What is an organic gardener to do?

Aphids

Aphids enjoy tender new growth on fruit trees, vegetables, flowers, and herbs. The first area I’ll see them is in April on my Chickasaw plum tree. Sometimes I’m tempted to blast the tips with water and that does reduce their quantities, but I’ve also noticed that if I’m just patient for a few days, the ladybugs will arrive to handle it. And this is fun to watch!

Adult ladybugs arrive and get to work producing babies. Mature ladybugs will eat 20-25 aphids per day, but about a week after they lay eggs, larvae hatch and also clean up. A single larva will eat about 400 aphids before it pupates. After pupating for about a week, they will emerge as adults and can consume over 5,000 aphids each! I have never had to buy ladybugs. Somehow they know — and they will come!

If you don’t manage to attract the ladybugs for some reason, aphids aren’t going to cause much damage (even in the numbers you see on my plum tree pictured above). They prefer the tender young growth at the ends of the branches. You can easily blast them off with a hose.

After feeding, aphids will secrete a sugary substance called honeydew. Sooty mold can grow on the honeydew. Again, this shouldn’t cause much damage to the plant. If the aphids aren’t caught early enough, neem oil will help get rid of sooty mold organically. Mix a couple tablespoons of neem oil with a gallon of water and spray on affected plants.

Companion plants: To repel aphids, plant marigolds, garlic, chives, fennel, or dill. Planting a few sacrificial sunflowers can also distract them.

Army Worms

These small caterpillars are my most dreaded and annoying pests and do an annoying amount of damage. Summers with more rainfall will often result in greater army worm populations.

Army worms are most active at night, so while they may go unnoticed during the day, they will leave evidence of their presence. The first sign is chewed leaves. They will also leave droppings that are easily noticeable little black spots on the light-colored straw mulch I use on my beds of annual vegetables.

I’ll confess, I have not yet found a great solution to the army worms. Organic sprays such as neem oil or Bt (Bacillus thuringiensis) will knock the population back, but it washes away after rain and must be reapplied. I also attempt some handpicking, which usually ends in disgust and frustration.

Crop rotation is supposed to help, and I do this each season. Try not to get discouraged. Just be relentless with the organic sprays and handpicking. Covering with netting from the beginning would probably have prevented this problem by keeping the egg-laying moths at bay. This is worth a try if you remember to put it in place before the growing season.

Companion plants: There are claims that marigolds will deter army worms, but in my experience, this is not the case! It just results in marigold plants covered in army worms. Yuck! (View Instagram pics here!)

Lubber Grasshoppers

Early in the spring cute little black grasshoppers appear in droves. I’ll admit it, I stomp on those adorable hoppers while they’re tiny and innocent. I wasn’t quite as heartless in the beginning, but in no time they grow into 3- to 4-inch monsters that can decimate a garden. They are also far too intimidating for this gardener to squash at the adult size! My heart has hardened toward the babies. They ate my hostas. Yes, every last leaf of six plants.

When they first appear, they are small and black with a yellow stripe down their backs. As they age, they become predominantly yellow with mottled black spots. Each adult female can lay a few hundred eggs in the soil, which will hatch in the following spring. And these hungry nymphs will voraciously feed on a garden. I have learned to view each tiny juvenile through the lens of this potential and my normally laid-back “live and let live” attitude is cast aside. They must not live to lay eggs.

My preference is to find the beneficial aspects of any insect. I want to believe that every creature has a purpose. But I have come to believe that the purpose of a lubber is to enjoy my carefully tended seedlings as a buffet. I’m willing to share, but apparently—lubbers are not. They’ll devour vegetables, herbs—pretty much anything leafy and green—and they have no predators that I’m aware of. They decimated my hostas. I sprinkled diatomaceous earth on them and they are slowly growing back.

I did catch five on one Calendula bloom, but they appeared to be sunning themselves and I’ll admit that the flower did survive unscathed. The lubber nymphs, however, did not. I’m not going to spray poison in my garden, so unfortunately, stomping it is! I confess I stomp the juveniles in early spring, and by summer there are just a couple of full-grown lubbers and I let them be. This year, I have yet to see a single lubber, so population control does work.

Hornworms

Keep an eye on your nightshade plants (tomatoes, peppers, eggplants, etc.) for these heavy eaters. Large adult moths lay eggs on the underside of foliage. The caterpillar larvae hatch in late spring and feed for about a month before making a cocoon and overwintering in the soil. While the adult moth phase can help pollinate our gardens, plenty of other pollinators aren’t as damaging in the caterpillar phase, so keeping this one at bay is probably a good idea.

Handpicking is the simplest treatment. I grow a wide variety of plants and I’ve never found more than one at a time, but they quickly grow large and can take a major toll on a tomato plant! They blend in very well among the leaves and are surprisingly difficult to find despite their size. Their droppings are often the most noticeable indicator that a plant is about to be decimated. (See photo above.) If you find droppings, search nearby for the (ir)responsible party. I usually just pick the leaf it’s on and then put it on an outdoor table. Birds handle it from there (or feed them to your chickens if you have them). Spread diatomaceous earth around the base of plants to discourage worms from crawling onto garden plants.

When I find a hornworm, it has often already been parasitized by wasps. This will look like the hornworm has grains of rice attached to its back (see my Instagram post). The worm will stop moving or eating once it becomes a host. Just let nature take its course. No further plant damage will take place.

Companion plants: dill, basil, and marigolds can deter hornworms. Alyssum, asters, cilantro, dill, daisies, fennel, thyme, yarrow, and zinnias will attract parasitic wasps.

Leaf-footed Bugs

Leaf-footed bugs are about an inch long with hind legs that look leaf-like. They can quickly create large colonies and there are several varieties within Florida. Crops that attract them include beans, berries, citrus, loquats, okra, peaches, persimmons, plums, pomegranates, tomatoes, and sunflowers. I find them mainly on tomatoes and beans. Thankfully, I have not yet observed many on my fruit trees or bushes — just a few on the loquats.

Leaf-footed bugs puncture ripening fruit. For the most part, they’re not going to do much damage, it’s mostly cosmetic. Predators include birds, spiders, assassin bugs, lizards, and frogs.

Their eggs are pale brown and laid in a tight row. Be sure to check the undersides of leaves. They can lay hundreds of eggs during spring, which will hatch within a week. The most effective time to eliminate these pests is while they are still young. Act fast as their numbers will grow rapidly.

They can be controlled early on by handpicking — simply flick them into a bucket of soapy water. Be sure to dispose of any fallen or old fruit as leaf-footed bugs can nest and overwinter in it. This will help prevent an infestation in the coming year. When other methods fail, neem oil can also be effective.

Companion plants: Sunflowers can lure these pests away from other plants.

Natural Ways to Combat Garden Pests

There are several organic solutions for dealing with pest problems. Even organic options can kill beneficial insects, so be sure to understand how they work before use and apply them carefully.

• DIY Organic Bug Spray
  In a quart-sized jar, add about two teaspoons of liquid Castile or dish soap, a dozen drops of peppermint, tea tree, orange and/or lavender oil. Fill with water, cap, and shake to mix.
  
  
• Companion Planting
  Marigolds can deter pests such as nematodes, thrips, cabbage worms, whiteflies, and aphids. Dill repels aphids and tomato hornworms. Fennel, mint, onions, and garlic also repel aphids. There are many more companion relationships between various plants. Research what will benefit the plants you prefer to grow!
  
  
• Neem Oil
  Azadirachtin, the active ingredient in neem oil, targets leaf-eating insects such as aphids, mites, scale, leaf miners, caterpillars, whiteflies, mealybugs, and thrips – smothering soft-bodied insects on contact. For this reason, it should never be sprayed directly on beneficial insects. If sprayed on leaves, then ladybugs (who don’t eat leaves, won’t be affected, where leaf-eating pests will die after ingesting the leaf material). If applied in early morning, before beneficials such as butterflies and bees are active, they should also be safe. To protect our pollinator friends, do NOT spray milkweed or other butterfly host or nectar plants, or on flowers where bees visit. Warning: if neem oil is applied to soil where it will be taken up by plant roots, it will also be present in plant pollen. Use carefully.
  
  Neem oil will not kill beneficial earthworms, but it can control grubs and nematodes. It is safe to used on edible crops (in fact, neem leaves are valued for their medicinal properties). Neem oil will kill insects in all their stages, so it may be used as a dormant-season spray to eliminate overwintering pests and eggs. (Neem is biodegradable and non-toxic to animals and humans.)
  
  TO USE: In a one-quart spray bottle, add about two teaspoons of organic neem oil along with a teaspoon of liquid Castile or dish soap. Fill with water, cap, and shake to mix. Spray on plants in early morning or at dusk when pollinators are not active.
  
  
• Diatomaceous Earth
  Made from powdered diatoms, or fossilized crustaceans, jagged edges on this ground material slices into insect exoskeletons which will cause them to die of dehydration. Buy food grade for use on edible plants. DE will kill anything with an exoskeleton (pests like ants, crickets, and beetles). Warning: DE will kill beneficial insects as well, so use with caution and only when absolutely necessary. Do NOT dust flowers where bees will visit. (DE is non-toxic to animals and humans.)

Enlist the Help of Beneficial Insects

In my greenhouse, I employ the assistance of reptile pest control. Many frogs and lizards live among the plants and I’ve seen them gulp down moths or other small pests that happen to find their way in.

Giant Swallowtail caterpillars feast on my citrus trees every year, but I’ve developed a live and let live attitude. Although they can quickly defoliate a young citrus tree, they don’t kill the tree. Once there are fewer leaves, the birds will usually notice them and use them as a food source. The few that survive turn into beautiful garden-pollinating butterflies and the plant grows back its leaves pretty quickly. Nature usually handles things best. It’s only when we create an unnatural system or some sort of imbalance that problems arise.

Get Those Bountiful Harvests

So what is the best way to zap those pests and keep them under control? If you’ve set up a food forest or garden system that mimics nature — one with a diverse variety of plants — then you can often just sit back and let nature do her thing. Adding pollinator plants are not only great for improving yields, they help eliminate pests by attracting predatory birds and insects. Other than that, maintaining healthy plants will also keep pest problems at bay. Feeding and watering appropriately and regularly inspecting plants for signs of infestation are good proactive measures and your garden will thank you with bountiful harvests.

BONUS TIP: For those who read to the end, I offer a final tip. Early in the season I will bag clusters of fruit to keep birds, squirrels, and insects off of my fruit. These bags have saved many a harvest!!

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