I began investigating- what is this bug, what do they do, do I need to get rid of them, and how! Unfortunately, I found that they are foes to our vegetables, and can be effectively rid of by picking off by hand and squishing them! Now, despite several years of gardening, I still get squeamish at the thought of squishing insects... the way their bodies explode under your fingertips, and the juices! EEEECK! When we had a serious potato beetle infestation a couple years ago, Danny hand-picked them all, faithfully every morning, and saved our potato plants from utter destruction- we even had a harvest that last us through the Winter! Yet, here I am, struggling to pick off these bugs, just so that we can have any harvest at all! What were the cucumber beetles doing in the first place that makes them so bad? Maybe they can just live off the pumpkin plants a little longer, and maybe we'll get a few less pumpkins, but then I won't have to squish them at least?
This is where bacterial wilt came in. While doing some research, I learned from the Ontario Ministry of Agriculture, Food and Rural Affairs that: "Unmated adult beetles spend the winter in the shelter of fencerows, debris and leaf litter in surrounding wooded areas. These adults emerge from cover early in the spring and can be found on dandelions, wild cucumber and wild plum before vine crops are planted. If they have fed on plants in the fall that were infected with bacterial wilt, the bacteria will pass the winter in the intestines of the beetle, ready to enter vine crops when the beetle begins feeding on them in the spring. There is no control for bacterial wilt. The only way to control this wilt is by controlling the beetle." Another website suggested explicitly to clean up debris and leaf litter, to make the place more hygiene, as to make the place less welcome for these foe. And if our plants already have bacterial wilt (I first saw it on the zucchini plants), and I don't want it to spread anymore, there is nothing left to do, but "control the beetle."
A particularly interesting suggestion, as to consider "controlling" these cucumber beetle and other insects (later the squash bug has arrived in the picture, as well) has not been the first time we've considered how to "control" offenders in this abandoned lot turned garden. This brings me to hygiene. It is true that cleaning up the weeds that surround the plants will support these plants. Bugs have been having a party in this garden- there are weeds everywhere! Grass, plantain, dandelion, wild daisies, and more to house, host, hide, feed and create a very welcoming environment to hang out in. But hygiene in this lot has a greater purpose here than just keeping out the cucumber beetle and squash bug. It also has to do with other forms of "blight."
* * *
"Blight," a term in this neighborhood often used to refer to foreclosed and abandoned houses falling into disrepair. It is also associated with trash & litter, shady behavior, drug abuse, all things attracted to abandoned "blighted" lots. If one understands "blight" as connected to a form of social "disease," if you will, it's easy to see how this garden on this abandoned lot is vulnerable to blight, as well. The plants in the garden are literally vulnerable to blight and disease because of the weeds in the lot, but they are also vulnerable to the "blight" of the social degeneration because there is miscellaneous traffic through this lot next that is next to an abandoned house on a street with other abandoned houses. And we have seen case in point where more "weeds" attract "pests" that can harbor degeneration. Said simply, litter attracts more litter. And when an abandoned lot around here is left with lots of trash, that is usually enough of an indicator that a space has been neglected enough that some illegal action can transpire there and it will easily go unseen because no one is caring for the space. I've witnessed that directly with people dumping trash behind the abandoned house next door, and kids attempting to stash stolen (or "hot") bikes in the house for later retrieval.
The "blighted" abandoned house by the lot next to our house. (view from our stairwell)
The house has since been gutted, and the fence in this photo taken down.
So two days ago, while I squashed cucumber beetles and squash bugs on the pumpkin plants to help cut down the wilt disease, Daniel cleaned up piles of debris and demo materials around the abandoned house to help discourage shady activity. We were keeping good "hygiene."
To close, I feel its essential to leave a note that doesn't ignorantly imply that the way to "solve" the problems of this or any "blighted" neighborhood is to "squash the pests"- aka throw people in jail. Nor do I mean to say that creating sterile spaces, is the way to create thriving communities - often referred to as gentrification. To the contrary. We still need weeds and a bit of wildness, to let things grow organically (botanically & socially speaking), and we can do that by encouraging the weeds that bring beneficial insects. For example, our friend Red Clover brings bumble bees, and what an essential role that insect plays to the garden! As for socially, by getting rid of the "weeds" of wrapper trash and beer cans, and instead replacing it with other used elements of the neighborhood- like a wood chip path, we, too, are encouraging the beneficial activity of the space. It's one theory anyway, as simple as it is. But I will add that its really been nice to experience how the more the garden expands and grows, the more friendly and open people seem to become. Renewing the Earth, renewing ourselves. []
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