Pesky Pests Partaking of our Parsley

We grow various herbs in pots on the back patio.  It is pretty convenient so that you don't have to walk all the way out to the garden to harvest a handful of parsley, oregano, mint, or rosemary when you are cooking.  I would do the same for basil, but we make so much pesto, that we really need a full garden row for growing basil.

Saturday morning I went out to pick some parsley and something bright and colorful caught my eye. Parsley is supposed to be green, not bright and colorful.  A fat caterpillar was making quick work in eating, no voraciously devouring our pot of parsley.

Parsley Eater

But he wasn't the only one.  His wife was in the back working on the Our Maker's Acres Parsley All You Can Eat Special.

Junior was finishing up his breakfast and going back for seconds.

I Google searched, Caterpillars in Louisiana and found This Link.  It told me that this was called a Ppolyx Papilionidae.  These actually become swallowtail butterflies.  I like butterflies.  I don't like caterpillars eating our herbs, though, and that was what was happening.

The entire family of caterpillars were having a feast.  They were so busy eating, they didn't even notice when I picked off the parsley stem that they were clinging to.  My plan was to walk these fat, parsley filled interlopers out to the pasture, where I would call the chickens and take enjoyment watching them snatch up and eat the caterpillars.  Sadistic, I know.

I called the chickens, they came running, I tossed the caterpillars over the fence and the chickens just stared at the offering.  They were not interested.  Strange.  These things are so bad the hens don't even want to mess with them.

If you are looking for a happy ending to this story, where the caterpillars form cocoons and and we gather around the chrysalis and joyfully shout when butterflies emerge and soar heavenward, well, you're going to be disappointed.  They were eating our stuff and instead of a happy ending for the caterpillar family, our story was more of a tragedy - a macabre one, at that.

Did you know that plants can tell when they are being eaten?

I tell you I learn something new every single day.  Plants can tell when they are being eaten and don't like it one bit!

According to this article recent research from the University of Missouri has shown that plants can tell when they are being eaten and don't like it one bit!  As weird as it might seem, the study shows that plants can somehow sense that they are being eaten and put out defenses to stop it.  Here's how it works:

This particular study was on the ever-popular Arabidopsis, specifically the thale cress, easily the most popular plant for experimentation. It’s in the brassica family, closely related to broccoli, kale, mustard greens, and cabbage, though unlike most of its cousins it isn’t very good to eat.

"...researchers had to first make a precise audio version of the vibrations that a caterpillar makes as it eats leaves. The theory is that it’s these vibrations that the plant can somehow feel or hear. In addition, the researchers also came up with vibrations to mimic other natural vibrations the plant might experience, like wind noise."

"Turns out, the thale cress actually produces some mustard oils and sends them through the leaves to deter predators (the oils are mildly toxic when ingested). And the study showed that when the plants felt or heard the caterpillar-munching vibrations, they sent out extra mustard oils into the leaves. When they felt or heard other vibrations? Nothing. It’s a far more dynamic defense than scientists had realized: the plant is more aware of its surroundings and able to respond than expected."

Pretty cool.  Except it has brought up another concern for our Brassicas in our garden: They must be experiencing hearing loss and cannot hear the caterpillars feasting on their leaves.  I am putting off getting a hearing aid for myself, much less getting one for my plants!  The only other option is that our caterpillars have developed a taste for mustard oil.  Regardless, my plants didn't get this memo. Since they can 'hear,' maybe I'll read this study to them when I get home this evening so that they can learn about the internal weapons against pests they have at their disposal.

Munch, munch, munch...

I say all that in jest, but to update the post from the other day, it appears that spraying the plants with Lye Soap spray has worked to discourage additional damage to the leaves.  That is very good news and we'll continue to keep this method in our arsenal against pests that want to eat our food before we do.

It remains warm in South Louisiana as we're still experiencing high temperatures in the mid-80's. The warm weather heightens the bug problems as evidenced in the photograph shown above, but according to news forecasts, we'll have a cool-down this weekend that will send low temps down into the low 40's, the coolest weather so far this fall. We're all anticipating it.

From "Scaries" to Berries...

Cough, cough...  AAAACHHOOO!  Excuse me.  Springtime is beautiful.  Cough, cough.  But the pollen in the air gives me fits.  It seems like there is a blanket of pollen on everything.  Take a look at the hood of Russ' truck.  It is actually a red truck underneath the yellow coating of live oak pollen.


Russ' yellow pickup truck

Okay, enough complaining.  Cough, cough.  Speaking of pollen, as I walk up to the side entrance of our house, I see that our visitors are back this year.  If you look closely in the next two photographs, you can see that a swarm of honeybees for the second year in a row, have made their home in one of the columns that supports the roof over our side door.  This is the door most people use to enter our house.  They fly up to the top of the column and with legs filled with pollen, climb into the space between the top of the column and the roof.  Their hive is inside the column, with a large honeycomb that I have no way to get to.

My beekeeping friend says I should cut a hole in the column and rob the honey, but a big hole in the column is not aesthetically appealing, now is it?  I think for now, I'll leave them alone.  They haven't bothered anybody and we just sort of ignore them.  As long as they don't sting us, they are beneficial as they will pollinate our garden and fruit trees.  That's a plus, right?  Also, I look at having a bee hive at my back door as somewhat of a discouragement to salesmen, census takers, etc.  If only I could train the bees to be discriminating.  I don't want them to chase off our friends and family:)


Our "Watch Bees"

Here are a couple in flight with one honeybee coming out and one going in as well.  Yes, I need to pressure wash the house and repaint the columns.  It is on my list, I promise. 

Not Killer Bees

Along with "friendly" animals in the insect kingdom, we have some "not so friendly" ones as well.  On the gate that leads to our pasture, I captured a shot of a caterpillar that most people in Louisiana call an asp.  They fall out of the live oak trees and usually on your neck.  They are supposed to sting you, although I've never left one on me long enough to find out. 

When I "googled" it using the name asp, I get a lot of things, but not a picture of the caterpillar in the photo below.  Actually, according to a caterpillar identification website I found, this thing turns into something called a tussock moth and will sting you and leave you with a painful rash.  Okay, I'll steer clear or squash them.  They're not beneficial to the extent that our friendly bees are.


Tussock Moth Caterpillar waiting to sting me on the gate to the pasture

Let's close with some good stuff.  Russ, Benjamin, and I went to check on the progress of the dewberries growing in the ditch on the property by our mailbox.  Bingo!  They're ripe.  Go get the bucket, boys!  In a previous post: http://ourmakersacresfamilyfarm.blogspot.com/2013/02/making-homemade-dewberry-jelly.html we showed you how we make homemade dewberry jelly with these berries that grow wild and run along ditches and fence rows.


Ripe Dewberries!

Houston, we have a problem.  The dewberry crop was not as plentiful since the farmer plowed the land last year.  He hadn't plowed in several years and by plowing, I think it killed a lot of our dewberries.  We'll have to see if we can get together with my family and go to the farm in Oberlin and pick blackberries to supplement.

Here's all we got after picking for about 15 minutes:


Slim Pickins'

Maybe another issue affecting the low yield of berries was the fact that Benjamin didn't put a single berry into the bucket.  They all went into his mouth!  They're meant to be enjoyed.  What a blessing - a crop you don't have to plant or care for.