Re: Re(2) Re:Stink Bugs
Janet B wrote:
>
> Can I change the subject please.
> Tomatoes, does anyone have problems with the Stink Bug damaging them.they
> suck sap and leave French Beans dry and inedible and Tomatoes with a hard
> white ring under the surface and brown sunken patches on the skin. I have
> researched them on sites that I can find, but although they exist in the UK
> they are not a pest there and I cannot find an organic method of control
> from any other site. Here - in Crete - we have several generations a year,
> they are bright green bugs which mate facing away from each other and fall
> off when disturbed. i am sorry I do not have their latin name. I have tried
> hand picking them, but they still manage to wreck our mid summer crop of
> tomatoes. We are organic gardeners and any ideas would be MOST welcome.
>
Hi Janet
We certainly have them here, though not usually in great quantities ( I
gather there is a parasitic wasp locally which helps keep them down). If
they are the same species as ours (the green vegetable bug) the young
are quite a different colour, being at different times orange, black or
black with white spots, only at the last moult do they actually turn
plain green and also grow wings.
A few adults overwinter, mainly on weeds I think, but I have an idea I
have read they may also hide under fallen leaves etc. They lay eggs on
leaves of crop plants in spring. The eggs are in quite noticeable rafts
and are yellow at first later turning orange. If you can find any of
these rafts this is a good bottleneck in their lives to catch them out.
The time to control them is obviously early in the spring. As the young
don't fly, they are not to difficult to knock off and squash, but they
often seem to congregate when very small in family parties (one
raft's-worth maybe). When they do this I find a very small squirt of
pyretherum from a spray bottle disposes of them with little
environmental disturbance and I even gun down the adults in the same way
if I can sneak up on them...
Moira
--
Tony & Moira Ryan <theryans@xtra.co.nz>
Wainuiomata,
New Zealand (astride the "Ring of Fire" in the SW Pacific).
