Enemies of the Garden

On the whole, my garden has stayed relatively clear of pests. Nothing seems to bother my tomatoes save it for a few aphids here and there- but they don't seem to mind them much. I had a few things chewing on my eggplants, but they are now gone. The peppers are okay as well.

I've started to make a regular habit of looking on the undersides of my zucchini leaves, because twice I have found 2 large fat green caterpillars. When I picked them off, they seemed rather oblivious to their new surroundings in my hand and commenced with trying to eat my hand. They had really strong little jaws and it kind of hurt! They didn't even bother trying to crawl away, they just sat there and tried to eat. Voracious little critters! I thought about keeping them and see if they make any kind of cocoon, but decided that would be kind of strange and gross to keep a jar with a cocoon in it in my room. Plus, what if they didn't even turn out to be a pretty insect? That would be a let down. So instead I decided to dispose of them by the most efficient way possible...yes, to stomp on them. It was really gross! It was also a huge waste of caterpillars. If I'm at my parents house and find a caterpillar, I can simply feed it to their chickens! So it's times like these where I could really use a chicken. Anyway, my zucchinis have too many leaves now to be affected much by their munchings.

As I have discussed before, something evil has been eating my sunflowers and I still haven't found out what the culprit truly is. I've dusted the leaves with Sevin poison, which has sort of stopped it, but not entirely. The mystery bug still eats small holes here and there. I've looked at the undersides of the leaves, gone out with a flashlight and I still can't find the culprit. Then, the other day I was looking at my eggplants, when I found a HUGE grasshopper. Could THIS be the enemy? I just about died when I saw it, it was so scary! Okay I'm not really scared by insects, but because it was so large it really took me aback in horror. I grabbed it with some of my netting and here is the lineup:

Yes, that is indeed a solid 3 inch long grasshopper! It has a huge mouth and good spiny thorny legs for crawling. DID she do it? She acted a little dazed, could it be from poison? After looking on the internet, I believe it is a Grey Bird Grasshopper. According to one website here are the facts:

Natural RangeThe Grey Bird Grasshopper lives in southern North America. This includes Mexico and southwest America from California to Texas. They also live in Central America.
Interesting Facts
The Grey Bird Grasshopper lives in many different habitats. These include deserts, woodlands, and lower elevation mountainous areas. It is a very large grasshopper. It can reach lengths from 4 centimeters to 7 centimeters. It has the ability to fly over the ocean 300 miles. It is usually brown with grey spots. It is considered a pest on many crop plants.

 

So since I didn't actually catch it in the act, I don't know for certain that it's the culprit. However, I still disposed of it. I had no idea that some insect out there was so crazy about sunflower leaves.

One of my small sunflowers bloomed and I cut it and brought it inside to enjoy it. It looks kind of like a daisy, it is so small:

Pardon the blurry pic!

Another sunflower has blossomed as well:

Their leaves have been kind of left alone...maybe because they are so small and the bugs head for the tallest one on the garden? Who knows why, it remains a mystery!