No bugs this year?

[Gaston]

One of the main reasons I garden is to grow things that I can't get otherwise - the bitter melons I've mentioned here, Moon & Stars watermelons, yardlong beans, etc. The previous two seasons I've also grown local favorites - half-runner beans, yellow crookneck squash, zucchini and the like. And, I've battled bugs, while doing my best to avoid using even organic pesticides. My neighbors grow the same favorites, but they're heavy handed with the chemicals so the bugs flock to my little patch.

This year I grew almost nothing "ordinary", except for some tomatoes and they weren't local favorites. No bugs. One quick spray of pyrethrin in a small area to control some stinging ants, and that's all I did. There were an abundance of other insects this year, but no garden pests. I don't know whether it's been just one of those years, or whether I didn't plant anything they liked. I suspect the latter.

Anyone else had a weird bug year?

[hedgewitch]

There were an abundance of other insects this year, but no garden pests.

That might be your reason. If there were plenty of other bugs it might be that they were eating the harmful bugs. Beneficial bugs will be attracted to a garden with harmful bugs.

[LIBRA]

Ive had an aweful time with bugs this year. Japenese Beetles were the worst they have ever been. All my sunflowers had some kind of wierd bugs under the leaves and with ants too all together it was strange, never seen anything like them.
My broccoli got some kind of little teeny bugs that I thought was mold at firts. So gross. Luckily this just happened and Ive already harvested and froze enough for the winter.

My eggplant had beetles, but I took care of those.

So ya ive had a doozy of a year with the little pests!

[Gaston]

Oops, I forgot that, Libra. Yeah, I had to dose the flea beetles on the eggplants, it was so early in the season that I forgot it.

I don't know about the beneficial insects, the abundance I was writing about were gnats and mosquitoes. I don't think either of them eat much of anything but people. :p

On second thought, they bite my wife and she might be considered a garden pest. "Honey, I pulled up the melons for you because the vines were dying". Me - "Nooooooo, they weren't ripe yet!". :bawl: