Sunday, January 22, 2012

vegetable grasshopper

There has been a bit of lull posting but gardening has continued unabated.

With the hot humid weather the bugs are out in force especially this type:





They are called Vegetable grasshoppers - binomial name is : Atractomorpha similis or A. australis.

Usual ref site : http://www.brisbaneinsects.com/brisbane_grasshoppers/GrassPyrgomorp.htm

Although they aren't considered major pests they have been having a good feed on the silverbeet :

So action was needed. I tried Neem several times - it had no noticeable effect on them. So off to the Hardware store  for other options and I purchased a garlic/onion/pyrethrin trigger spray and another one that was  straight pyrethrin based. The former seems to have knocked them back quite a lot even with one spraying.

The silverbeet struggles here over summer but I have seen some from other gardeners that puts mine to shame, so that is a stimulus to "try harder"



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