Invasion of the box elder bugs and flies

It’s that time of year when it seems like all of the garden insects want to bunk with you doing the winter. We have enough flies in the house after a recent cold snap that it reminds me of a scene…

Corn pests we’d rather not see

We wait a long time in Montana to enjoy the first corn of the season – I don’t know anyone locally who’s harvesting yet and we’re quickly approaching Labor Day. So when we finally are able to pick…

Bad, bad bunny

You’d think having a garden smack dab in the middle of town would have very few large garden pests. Our community garden adjacent to Electric City Conservatory is fenced to keep errant hooligans out…

Fall growing to avoid the pests

With the onslaught of grasshoppers and a few other pests this year, I’m thinking of adopting a new slogan, “If you can’t beat ‘em, avoid ‘em.” A good way to keep insects away from your plants is to…

Go away grasshoppers!

It’s time for the Montana State Fair here in Great Falls, which means entering the best vegetables in the garden shows and cursing the grasshoppers that ruin the ideal specimens. I really…

Top Ten Creepy Crawlies

There seems to be a never-ending list of creepy crawlies that wreak havoc in the vegetable and flower garden. It’s hard to pick the worst, but I did a shout out on Facebook to find out which ones…

The saga of the squash vine borer

I was going to discuss one of the most despised garden pests – namely earwigs – this week, but have had a call out for information on another problem this time of year in: squash vine borers. Found…

Leaf miner angst

You know you have leaf miners if the leaves on your beans, chard, tomatoes and other vegetables have tiny, tan squiggles on them. And, as you can imagine, it’s not a very big entity since the larvae…

Big problems with ants

Little ants are causing big problems in many of the community gardens this year. I went out to one where three-quarters of a row of peas was completely gone due to their presence. Years ago, I would…

Banishing snakes from the garden

Just as that pesky snake was a problem in the Garden of Eden, there are certain species that you don’t want to find underneath a melon leaf. Garter snakes are fine. They’re great actually. The…

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