This has been the worst season for bugs ive had in a long long time. For the whole season, ive been overtaken by bugs of every kind! First it was ticks. I would come back form my plants and have ticks all over me and my clothes. Ive had to pull so many out of my head that I have a head full of bumps.
Next was chiggers, I have chigger bites around my socks and underwear bands, Im eat the hell up.
Then it was leaf hoppers by the hords, then aphids. Now, we're having an explosion of whiteflies to the point that there was a story on the front page of the local paper.

It's a friggin biblical plague here. I'm just waiting for it to start raining toad frogs. Have I offended the gods or have others seen an explosion of bugs?

[LemonCake]

just keep it cool man..and look out for limes man. that is no joke.. ticks can be nasty little buggers.. i would say to shake your ladys up a bit before you leave the patch to get the bugs flying around .. there is not much you can do for white fly;s unless you spray..... good luck and happy growing ..i have only sprayed once in my life for bugs and it was for mites.. .. the rest i let mother nature take care of them.. i did put done tick killer once.. that might be smart for you..

good luck!!

[wisco61]

|Not just you man. For me it was the mosquitoes first. They were just horrendous. My uncle who is 65 and has been coming to the same land for 30 years said they were some of the worst he has ever seen. They thinned out some but then the ticks came out in full force. For a single watering walk (about 1 mile both ways) my record was 17 ticks. It seemed to always be 5+ but the last 2 times I have been back there I got 0. So those seemed to have abated somewhat. All of July the horseflies were horrendous, worst I've seen and so god damn annoying. Currently, the mosquitoes seem to be making a comeback, with the ticks and horseflies both reasonable. Those are the bugs that have been fucking with me.

Leafhoppers have been the bugs fucking with my plants. They started off slow but have been building all summer. I was thinking the damage they were doing was negligible, but now I am getting somewhat worried. Gonna check on the plants once more this week, and if the damage is escalated I will be forced to declare Jihad upon the little bastards.

Anyways, long story short, you are not crazy. They do seem really bad this year.

Mosquitoes, horseflies, and ticks here as well much more than I can remember any other year. And leafhoppers on only one of my plants but mr spider took care of him heh. Should I let mr. spider live on the plant until it starts to bud?

[DirtDevil]

Damn man, where are you?, The Congo?

My biggest fear is bumble bees.

wisco, I hate horse and deer flies. They land on you without you knowing it until they bite a plug out of you. Its been too dry here for skeeters but i suspect they're waiting in the wings. Ive had to spray my plants every other week. They were damaging the plants. Just this past week, ive had to spray 4 himalayan gold plants that are big. Usually, bugs cant hurt a big plant much, but when you shake a plant and there's a white clould flying away, you have to do something. Ive use 3 bottles of Sevin. Any way, misery loves company. Welcome aboard.

Lemoncake, Im sprayin man. Ive been spraying. I didn't put in all of this work to hand my yield over to a bunch of bugs. I don't think we have lime disease here. Ive never heard of anyone catching it. In fact there's a joke around here that you only get lime disease if you have good health insurance.

[hamstring]

SB
I already had to spray around 3weeks ago because of the leaf hopper damage and Mosquitoes forget about it. With all the water we have had in the midwest I have been in flooded areas where if you stoped and listened, honset to God it sounded like an airplane off in the distance it was so loud. Many have died off but they are bad this year.

Every year in the fall I notice more spider webs in the bush well to be more specific in the forest. Right around late August you end up eatting tons of spider webs. Anyone else notice a difference in the fall with spider webs?

I hear you on the spiders hamstring. Every year, starting about 2 weeks ago, they show up and they build their web at head level and just as you walk through one web and get through wiping it off , you go through another. I get home and my wife has to pick the spiders off of me. They're red and hairy and some are big! Thank god they don't seem to bite. I really think that only guys like me and you that are out just before daylight that encounter them.

DD, do you have english hornets where you grow? They look and act a lot like a hummingbird and will hover and stare at you. I don't see them very often but i steer clear when I do. They're the hornets that will send you to the hospital. Its like being hit with an icepick.

Leave the spider sow the seeds. He's on your side.

Im not sure why and its the first time its ever happened, but powdery mildew has shown up on a lot of plants. Its been dry and theyre in full sun. I hit it with greencure and took care of it, but ive never had pm.

Beginning of the season I had White flies...which now aren't bad(maybe a few on each plant...) but I'll never be able to get rid of them(too much other vegetative plants in the back they like to hang out on). Only once do I recall having any damage from them.
Now my big problem is CATERPILLARS!
They've attacked 4 of my plants. 2 Lavenders and 2 Sage n Sours. They're a pain in the ass and doing a number on the SnS. I think i got all of them off my lavenders, but for a couple weeks I was picking 2-8 caterpillars off each plant every day (it's fun to throw them down as hard as you can...or using something to literally squeeze out there body from there skin, normally I'm a much kinder soul, but these fuckers are eating my plants!). I sprayed with Neem and Insecticidial soap(both which didn't seem to do much as i kept finding them after the sprays). I think i finally have them under control though...i'll have to double check today.

Oh..and yesterday i found a shitton of aphid eggs on about 10 leaves from my SSH and Anunnaki plants, which I just plucked the leaves off as they were leaves from when the plants were cloned, so they were dieing off anyways.

[NickMode]

at least you dont have to worry about too any other people going in the woods