Sunday, June 28, 2009

CSA boxes of late, Dung beetle (?), and Parasitized Hornworm

Here are the CSA boxes we've had the last two weeks. The garden's production is down right now, but we think this next week will have the upswing we're looking for....a beautiful crop of haricot verts (that's fancy for green beans), eggplant, heirloom tomatoes and peppers from the field are all starting to come in, as are the gladiolas, sunflowers, and oriental lilies. Let's hope the fourth of July market is a busy one! The dung beetles (I think?) have taken up camp in the tree peony pot. They created this crazy hair ball from a previous year's bird nest. What on earth do they do with this ball? Maybe they have some kind of game they play with it. There are two of the beetles in the container and it was hard to get a good picture of them with the light. Fascinating creatures. Stuart had to pull me away as I was transfixed, sucked in to the viewing of their back legs twirling around this hairball. Who cares about weeding when you have dung beetles on the farm?
Also, the last picture is of a parasitized hornworm. Those little white cocoons are a wasps larvae hatching out from the horworm from the inside. Totally gross, but we love seeing these because that means that integrated pest management is working on our side.



3 comments:

Anonymous said...

hey! i totally had two of those hornworms with the icky white tubey-thingeys on my tomatoes last night. very gross, very cool.(phoebe here)

MikaJ said...

awesome dung beetles!!

Anonymous said...

Another awesome way to combat the hornworm is growing basil with your tomatoes. I swear by it. I haven't had a single one in three years and besides, who doesn't love fresh basil,with exception to the horn worm that is?