Skip to Content.
Sympa Menu

market-farming - Re: [Market-farming] Harlequin Bugs

market-farming AT lists.ibiblio.org

Subject: Market Farming

List archive

Chronological Thread  
  • From: Allan Balliett <aballiett AT frontiernet.net>
  • To: Market Farming <market-farming AT lists.ibiblio.org>
  • Subject: Re: [Market-farming] Harlequin Bugs
  • Date: Tue, 4 Dec 2007 13:50:58 -0500

I've been writing an article on these bastards for the last two seasons. We've had plague proportions of them as well.

1st important point in controlling them is to make sure the water you use in your sprays is pH neutral and is not 'hard.' Either variation will reduce the effectiveness of your sprays.

High quality soaps, sprayed in the right water, can be very effective. So is NEEM, in fact, this year, NEEM was much better than the soap we used for control.

Most important, I think, is planting trap crops. I don't have the recommended varieties on hand as I write this, but there are a couple of inexpensive brassicas that are more attractive to harlequins than any of the commercial cultivars are. You need to start them about 3 weeks before the crops you want to protect.

Did you know that harlequins communicate by tapping on plant stems? That's one of the reasons you will find them on stressed plants but not on healthy plants: stressed plants drum better!

Later -Allan
info AT freshandlocalcsa.com

These nasty little brassica eaters were everywhere this year. I live in Delaware (Zone 7) and I normally have some harlequin bugs, but this year was over the top...probably because of the unrelenting heat and drought. We have had several frosts and I am still finding them. Does anyone have ideas for me? I do use organic controls. I've tried neem oil, and even some Pyganic (that is as much as I'm willing to use poisons because I hate how my beneficials get knocked out). It works somewhat, but they are tough. Is my soil at fault too? It is sandy loam and I've added green sand and rock phosphate, and need to do more compost at this point. (I had to row cover everything to keep them marketable and don't grow much in the way of brassicas in mid-summer at all...But the fall plantings were attacked badly.)





Archive powered by MHonArc 2.6.24.

Top of Page