Gopher Wars Require More Than Hose Job

Every gardener has some piece of lore to share with fellow gardeners. Perhaps it’s the secret to the largest tomato or a zucchini plant that didn’t produce. But in my garden, critters are the focus of the tall tales.

The tomato caper: Over the years, I have heard stories of whole vegetable plants disappearing from the garden without a sign of an intruder. I would listen with a polite smile and a whole lot of skepticism, until …

One morning I was lamenting over a sick-looking tomato plant. It hadn’t been stricken by disease or infested by bugs and it was getting plenty of water. As I stood there contemplating this droopy, yellowylooking specimen, it began to shrink. Startled, I stepped back and watched as it slowly closed up like an inverted umbrella and disappeared into the ground. All that remained was a hole about the size of a baseball. It was the work of pocket gophers. These master tunnel makers had constructed a five-star dining facility under my tomato bed.

I grabbed the garden hose, shoved it into the hole and turned it on full-blast. I had hoped the water would break down the tunnels and identify other locations. And that it did. After a few hours of hardrunning water, the entire yard looked like it had sprung innumerable leaks. Dozens of bubbling fountains dotted the vegetable garden, flower beds and lawn.

Trapping is the best solution for these thieves. But for traps to work successfully, they must must be set in the active runs, which are usually located under a mound of fresh soil.

If you’re having trouble with pocket gophers, the WSU Master Gardeners have a pocket gopher control bulletin that you might find interesting. For information, call 533-2048.

The corn yarn: In order to have plump, delicious corn, one very important process must take place. Pollen, from the tassels atop the corn stalk, must drop onto the silk threads attached to each potential ear of corn. This process is so natural that it usually goes unnoticed, until last year.

Boxelder bugs decided the corn silk was much tastier than their usual diet of fruits and foliage. Literally thousands of these nuisance pests gorged themselves on the ears’ fine silk. After weeks of spraying with an arsenal of soapy water, diazinon and malathion, the bugs were finally gone. But what remained was totally inedible. Single strands of limp silk lay draped over tattered and burned husks. Here and there, a few plump, yellow kernels dotted the ears.

This was an excellent lesson in the importance of protecting the corn tassels and silks. It also demonstrated that boxelder bugs can be more than just a nuisance bug. They can feed on a wide variety of fruit, as well as corn silk. Boxelders are thick this year. Watch closely for infestations. It has been proven the best insecticide for these critters is soapy water.

The potato leaf peelers: Most of us who raise potatoes are familiar with a handsome round insect with vertical black stripes called the Colorado potato beetle. It, along with its offspring, has the capability of mowing down a potato crop in short order.

Once the beetles mate, the females lay masses of yellow eggs under the leaves of the potato plant. As the eggs hatch, small slug-like larvae appear, starving and ready to eat.

For years we kept these fellows under control. Then we took a two-week vacation in mid-June, leaving behind a 300-square-foot bed of tall, thick, lush, green potato plants. Two weeks later: the shock. The lush bed was nothing but rows of two-foot barren stalks covered with thousands of beetles. Some of the hungry fellows had already moved onto neighboring potato relatives - the tomatoes and eggplants. For a moment, we may have experienced the same feelings of the farmers in the Midwest, when the locusts destroyed their fields.

Though hand-picking works best, rotenone and BT San Diego, both organic pesticides, work very well. A thick mulch of hay, straw or pine needles also works in controling Colorado potato beetle populations.

If you have gardening tales, how about sharing them? Please write to me in care of The Spokesman-Review, P.O. Box 2160, Spokane, WA 99210-1615.

Note: The WSU Master Gardeners will be hosting a slide show and tour on identifying insects and diseases of trees and shrubs Sunday at the Finch Arboretum. The slide show begins at 1 p.m. followed by the real thing.

The following fields overflowed: CREDIT = Phyllis Stephens The Spokesman-Review