Bugging the Little Buggers
I love my two habanero plants, Richard and Nicole. But recently they’ve developed a tiny problem. APHIDS!
I thought aphids only attacked roses, BUT NOOOOOO! (Anyone hearing this in John Belushi’s voice?) These little buggers primarily attack the flower buds, sucking them dry. And without flowers, no fruit. Being that these are fruit-bearing plants, and the fruit we use a lot, we didn’t want to use pesticides. So, we opted for a solution that has worked well for us in the past, back when we had rose bushes in our backyard. https://kids.nationalgeographic.com/animals/invertebrates/facts/ladybug
Most people don’t think of tiny little ladybugs as predators, but they are. They can each eat dozens of aphids without harming the host plant. And they’re so cute!
We bought a container of them at a local home and garden shop. You bring them home and put them in the refrigerator, which keeps them dormant. Then as the sun sets, you take them out. It doesn’t take long for them to wake up and start crawling all over the container.
You prep the plant by misting it, which gives them something to drink, then you release them onto the plant. We used a fern sprig to let them crawl onto, then transferred it over to the habaneros. They do tend to crawl onto your hands, so the trick is not to let them get on to you. A few did and made it back into our apartment. We had to catch them and take them back outside.
The next day, they were still on the habaneros. We found that they gather together at night and sleep in a clump under some leaves. 
In two days, they were all gone, but so were the aphids. One did come back to check out Nicole. So, at least they do remember where their first meal came from. Hopefully, they will come back occasionally, or they left eggs. We did see some bug bow-chicka-wow-wow going on. Ha, nature, the birds and the ladybugs.
Dennis
169th blog completed.
First Steampunk novel: 73,982 words. <– Getting close to 74,000. Goal: 80,000.
Second Steampunk novel: 783 words.
Second Steampunk screenplay: 157 pages.
First Steampunk screenplay: Need to update with notes from the novelization.
Third Steampunk screenplay: 38 pages.
“So simple, yet so tasty! Friday’s experiment was Sloppy Joe Quesadillas https://www.eatingonadime.com/sloppy-joe-quesadillas/?mcp_token=eyJwaWQiOjE3MTc2ODM3NjI0OTYyNywic2lkIjo0NTc1NzU4NzkyNDM4MDE1LCJheCI6IjM2YTQwOGFhM2Q4M2JmYTU4MWMyMzI3NDlkYjc2MTM5IiwidHMiOjE2ODY2MjYxNzgsImV4cCI6MTY4OTA0NTM3OH0.IlF8q7Pu-KemnyCUKwd0HRID1ImAHD6L5qTY7KSJziY
Dennis already had all the ingredients at home, except he used Pepper Jack instead of Monterey Jack. We like a little extra spice around here. First, it was good old-fashioned Sloppy Joes, then Sloppy Joe Tacos, now Sloppy Joe Quesadillas, and Dennis has two more Sloppy Joe variants he wants to try. I see a trend forming.” – Vincent Reinhart
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