Beneficial-Friendly

[Zeedman]

Plenty of beneficial insects here, to the point that there are few insects that I need to worry about. Ladybugs, lacewings, hover flies, and a large wasp population keep aphids & caterpillars under control. There was a brief infestation of aphids this year, on one of my soybeans - completely wiped out in the space of 10 days. I watched a wasp swoop down on a deer fly that I had swatted out of the air, before it could take off again... wish I could train them all to do that, my gardening would be much more pleasant.

Not all of the beneficials are insects. DW has a lot of hanging bird houses, the resident bird population can often be seen chasing down a moth or grass hopper. And there is a Coopers hawk nesting in my tree line, which helps to keep the rabbit/rodent population manageable.

With the exception of SVB & squash bugs, most of my insect pests are beetles - Japanese beetles, cucumber beetles, and Colorado potato beetle. All that seems to get rid of them is persistence on my part.

 

[Nyboy]

Zeedman do you have chickens ?

 

[bobm]

Plenty of beneficial insects here, to the point that there are few insects that I need to worry about. Ladybugs, lacewings, hover flies, and a large wasp population keep aphids & caterpillars under control. There was a brief infestation of aphids this year, on one of my soybeans - completely wiped out in the space of 10 days. I watched a wasp swoop down on a deer fly that I had swatted out of the air, before it could take off again... wish I could train them all to do that, my gardening would be much more pleasant.

Not all of the beneficials are insects. DW has a lot of hanging bird houses, the resident bird population can often be seen chasing down a moth or grass hopper. And there is a Coopers hawk nesting in my tree line, which helps to keep the rabbit/rodent population manageable.

With the exception of SVB & squash bugs, most of my insect pests are beetles - Japanese beetles, cucumber beetles, and Colorado potato beetle. All that seems to get rid of them is persistence on my part.

Speaking of keeping rabbit / rodent population manageable by hawks... I had a 20 acre horse ranch in an area of 20 acre parcels where they raise backyard beef, sheep, pigs, and horses along with gardens and fruit trees in the central valley of Cal. There are centuries old Valley Oaks doting the area. There are Red Tailed hawks nesting within 100 feet of our house in a oak tree and more pairs nesting in adjacent parcels. We have more coyotes that you want to count for community sings every morning and evening on our ranch as well as neighboring ranches. A pair of barn owls nest in a barn next door. One would think that they would keep the ground squirrel populations under control.... W R O N G ... I have to scatter poison grain that I buy from the county Ag agents every year . (Same goes for several neighbors.) I count over 100 dead squirrels and how many others that die in their burrows every year for over 20 years.

 

[Zeedman]

Funny, I was searching for something else & came across this thread, which I never responded to.

I too had trouble with ground squirrels when I lived & gardened in California. In San Jose, they nested in a rock pile about 100' away from the garden, which was a community garden on utility property. I built a "blind" at the edge of the garden, and was able to pick off enough them with an air rifle to keep their numbers manageable.

When I lived in San Diego, I also had trouble with ground squirrels. That garden was on a military base, so the air rifle was not an option. The nest was an established "town" about 200' away, with a very large population. Like the case cited by @bobm , there were both hawks & owls nesting nearby - but their effect on the squirrel population was minimal. I was able to control them naturally to a point... they dug shallow bolt holes near the garden, and if I chased a squirrel into one of those, I could cover the hole with hardware cloth & drown it.

But one year the damage was severe, and I decided to use poisoned grain in the main burrows. It was very effective - there were dozens of squirrel carcasses littering the field the next day. Thinking of the hawks & owls, I was horrified, and collected all of the dead squirrels I could find & buried them (not something done lightly, since ground squirrels in San Diego County can carry bubonic plague). The squirrels had been neutralized, but the potential environmental consequences deeply disturbed me, and I have never used poison since (except for mice indoors).

 

[seedcorn]

You need not have worried about the hawks or owls. The poison that killed the squirrels was neutralized by the squirrel. The dead carcasses would not have hurt anything.

 

[flowerbug]

Funny, I was searching for something else & came across this thread, which I never responded to.

I too had trouble with ground squirrels when I lived & gardened in California. In San Jose, they nested in a rock pile about 100' away from the garden, which was a community garden on utility property. I built a "blind" at the edge of the garden, and was able to pick off enough them with an air rifle to keep their numbers manageable.

When I lived in San Diego, I also had trouble with ground squirrels. That garden was on a military base, so the air rifle was not an option. The nest was an established "town" about 200' away, with a very large population. Like the case cited by @bobm , there were both hawks & owls nesting nearby - but their effect on the squirrel population was minimal. I was able to control them naturally to a point... they dug shallow bolt holes near the garden, and if I chased a squirrel into one of those, I could cover the hole with hardware cloth & drown it.

But one year the damage was severe, and I decided to use poisoned grain in the main burrows. It was very effective - there were dozens of squirrel carcasses littering the field the next day. Thinking of the hawks & owls, I was horrified, and collected all of the dead squirrels I could find & buried them (not something done lightly, since ground squirrels in San Diego County can carry bubonic plague). The squirrels had been neutralized, but the potential environmental consequences deeply disturbed me, and I have never used poison since (except for mice indoors).

snakes and the semi-feral kitties help around here but i also have to hunt chipmunks from time to time to make sure their population doesn't explode again. the one year i trapped over 50 in a few weeks was really bad and i don't want to go through that again. since they were all done in without poisons i don't worry about them being buried in the gardens as future fertilizer, but i don't like having to hunt or to trap them. resident super kitty hunters would be pretty nice, but then i don't want to have to deal with keeping an animal. i'm pretty sure in the older days this would have all been swampy woodlands so not many ground squirrels.

the ground squirrel dens are dens for snakes and probably some other creatures too.

this year i've managed to keep the population low enough for a change that the soybeans i planted are actually growing. this is the first time in years i've got a row of plants growing (instead of empty space and stubs of chewed off plants).

this year i'm glad to see more toads around. it has been a few years since we've had toads this big. i got a laugh out of one last week when i was working on a garden inside the fence, it came hopping out of a place and then it did a complete circuit of a garden like it was inspecting the work that had been done and then went back to where it came from - in the middle of the day - a trip of about 15-20 yards. i thought that was pretty bold. i tried to interest it in a large horsefly i'd smacked but it wasn't moving enough...

as far as JB i have to hand pick those, but it would be nice to have a population of JB predators. i've tried to train the birds to eat them, but i don't think that has done much...
soon enough it will be hand-picking season for these.

aphids, not many issues with them here.

other bugs, i do see some damage here or there but not yet often or bad enough i do anything about it. this season i have some orange and lime peels to put around some squash so when the plants get a bit bigger i'll be putting some around to see if it actually makes any difference.

the extra fence i've put up has helped with the groundhog and rabbit problems, but i still see them around from time to time and chase them off with the air rifle.

 

[catjac1975]

You need not have worried about the hawks or owls. The poison that killed the squirrels was neutralized by the squirrel. The dead carcasses would not have hurt anything.

I went to a raptor rescue.They said the 2 things that killed and injured them the most was vehicles and the poisoning of animals.

 

[Ridgerunner]

A lot of that depends on which poison is used.

 

[ducks4you]

That's the beauty of keeping 7 indoor/outdoor cats. No mice, No chipmunks, they keep the squirrels away.

 

[seedcorn]

A lot of that depends on which poison is used.

Most poisons that could go down the predator chain are illegal.