I totally agree with you. If I could wish away one garden problem, it would be stink bugs. It has already started again for us. They're on the mulberries, the pomegranate blooms, the turnip leaves ...... UGH!
Thank you! A right on time video for me. Man o man we have them here too, the brown ones. Really going to think hard on what to do. Watched a video about trap crops a few weeks ago. I had never heard that term before. (Fairly new to gardening) The person recommended Blue Hubbard Squash, but, failed to mention DO NOT allow it to go to seed, etc. etc. I'm so thankful I didn't plant any.
Anything they swarm to is a trap crop. But unless they are then killed on it, they're merely diverted for a while from other things. Reducing their habitat and killing them whenever possible is the only way to (hopefully) get some control. Ideally, the trap plants can be burned, which eliminates, adults, nymphs and eggs. I can't burn them on my green beans because of location, so as soon as they stop producing, will have to ever so gingerly remove the hands and toss them in a barrel with soapy water so that there are as few escapees as possible. I wish you luck- kill as many as possible!
@@homesteadinginnorthflorida Thank you. Yes, we kill and remove all that we can. It seems to be never ending once it starts. Haven't seen any of the little demons yet this year!!
I feel for you, that is why we made a greenhouse out of one of those carports that you buy at the Harbor Freight. I have those bags on my peach trees and fig because of the bugs and squirrels. When I first moved here I always wondered why you would see these houses in the middle of a field and no trees around them, now I know it is to keep the bugs and squirrels away. Also found out they usually only plant certain things that do well here like peanuts, corn, watermelon, and field peas. And there are certain varieties that they plant. They also plant squash. But it is all about the timing so you can have them picked before the bugs come out. I also wondered why they say plant flowers and all that does is attract the butterflies and moths that then lay their eggs on the vegetables, and fruit trees. I have tons of bee and wasps that are attracted to the horses watering trough Its crazy. I hope it all works out for you and you get rid of them. Thanks for sharing.
Florida is such a different beast. The amount of time and energy I put into the garden to grow just a little in a little growing window is laughable sometimes. It's not even the sand that makes it hard - it's the bugs and critters. Seminole pumpkin works well for us. I never had a real bug problem with them, as longs as I elevate the pumpkins on something as soon as they start forming.
Very sad. A cargo ship docked near us. One of the large containers was filled with stink bugs. We have been over run for the past 14 years. Someone said if you kill one it attracts more to the area. Don't know if that is true. They can winter inside a house when it's cold.
Price to pay for global trade. Apparently fire ants came via ship as well. I heard that too, about the killing, I wonder if it IS true. I very rarely squish them, mostly cause it's gagging. They usually get drowned in soapy water. I have cans sitting all over in strategic locations. Imagine how easy gardening would be without stink bugs and fire ants. The occasional horn worm is nothing in comparison.
I live in Brazil and am trying to start a garden on my house. I started with some tomatoes and soon got swarmed with stink bugs. Tried traps, soap water sprays, nothing worked. Finally, let the tomatoes die and am feeling a bit disheartened and questioning the garden idea. What an annoying bug.
@@homesteadinginnorthflorida thanks for the info! I was wondering why I was getting them then I realized that it had to be the sunflowers and now they moved to my sweet almond bush. 😖 grrr
@@luzdeluna7386 that sucks! They are my main garden enemy. Please try to kill as many as you can so it won't get entirely out of control like ours did over the years.
same problem here, but I'm in California surrounded by fire-phobic people, not without reason, so using napalm is out of the question. Unfortunately the chemophobic dipsh*ts in Commiefornia have also banned the most effective pesticides for stink bugs too, so I'm doomed.
@@theresamcpherson7352 I did that, too. Bought 20 submersible battery operated little lights. Nothing! The thing is though, we have such a big area, it would probably take hundreds of bottles. I can only hope predators will acquire a taste for them, soon.
@@homesteadinginnorthflorida someone told me that ducks do. They suggested I get ducks to help with my stink bug problem. I will just start plucking. I will also pull the radishes that I let flower. Ooof! Had no idea about that. They decimated my green beans this year. They don't seem to bother the Long Beans as much.
@@caratmama4769 sorry to hear you're having the same problem. Our neighbor's ducks used to come over to our yard. All they did was sit in the cat water dish all day long. And squirt poop all over the porch. WORTHLESS! LOL I wish chickens would eat them. Or at least turkeys. Neither are as messy as ducks. I still have them on everything from corn, tomatoes, beans, etc. Hoping our fire eradication this year will impact the population next year. Hope is all there is. :)
@@caratmama4769 As far as I know, only certain species of ducks eat stink bugs. So be careful which ones you get. I believe the Indian runner ducks are the ones to do the job, but do some research to make sure before buying, since I am not 100%. I know for a fact that Indian runner ducks get rid of slugs very quickly though.
That's really interesting- this is my first year with a garden and I'm covered in stink bugs!! But I've not grown any of the plants you mention. I wonder what brought them to my yard.
They come naturally. There are a few native ones, and also the invasive brown marmorated one. If there is food grown, they will show up. This said, when they find a haven like in our yard, where they could populate out of control for years, the numbers go out of control, too. We mulched the heck out of our yard and so they didn't even get knocked back in winter. They are highly attracted to sunflowers, soy, etc. that's why it's called trap crops. Once they are on those though, the crops (with the bugs) have to be destroyed. I feel for you - it's very frustrating to have them. And there are no natural treatments. Except fire! :)
The green and brown 'shield' stink bugs are native (and so are the larger wing-footed stink bugs), so they are supported by plenty of native plants. Elderberry is one. So is almost any soft-stemmed annual or perennial (i.e., all the plants that support all the beneficial insects we want in our gardens). The stink bugs tend to disperse from anywhere they are breeding by flying with the wind, so if you are suddenly getting a lot of them it may be that someone else within a mile of you is growing something that the stinkbugs really love. In one year my family grew yard-long beans and had a terrible time keeping the wing-footed stinkbugs off of them. The next year we made sure to watch out for young stink-bugs on the first soft plants (annuals, perennials, and soft-shooted bushes and trees) to green up. We manually removed (using a half-gallon jug with soapy water, a funnel, and a kitchen glove) all the adults and babies on the spring plants, and that prevented later generations from exploding during the summer. Even so, adults would periodically fly in from outside our yard. We just kept the trapping kit near the garden and caught any we saw as soon as we noticed them. This worked really well. The next year we looked up the difference between the different life-stages of the two pest stink-bug species and the various predator stink bugs (Wheel Bugs and several Assassin Bugs) so we could preserve the predators. As a general rule, the ones that act 'smarter' if you're trying to catch them are much more likely to be 'predator' species... but that's a pretty anecdotal bit of info, so perhaps not useful.
I think this year I’m going to try a lot more trap crops like this and pick,vacuum,burn them as they get infested. Thanks for the mustard and radish ideas,they flower quickly in warm spring weather. Do they get on buckwheat,that would be another quick turnaround.
