Gardening: Not all Pretty

The total earwig capture is now at 73, which is really a lot of earwigs to have right outside your back door.  This is not a pleasant thing to thing to discover.  I also got 1 large ant, some gnats, and two water beetles.  I feel sorry about the water beetles.

Successful Earwig Traps

Warning!  Disgusting picture below...

I had to take drastic measures to protect my basil and my eggplant last night.  The operation was very successful.  I took a tuna can (unrinsed) with a little tuna in the bottom, added about a 1/2 inch of vegetable oil, and then placed it between the plant pots that I wanted to protect.  When I came out this morning, this is what I found - 17 dead earwigs.  I'm going to keep doing this at night until the number of casualties dwindles.  Needless to say, my basil looks pretty good today!

Creatures of the Night

If you have a problem with an unidentified insect eating your vegetable plants, it may be a good idea to do a little investigation.  Every morning, upon examining my garden, I noticed large holes in the leaves of my Japanese eggplant and my basil.  So, I took a flashlight and went out there after dark to find the mysterious predator.  As you can see, these earwigs were not too hard to find and didn't seem concerned that their midnight meal was being watched under a spotlight.  They just calmly kept munching on the tasty eggplant leaves, making large holes, and destroying the plant.  Now, multiple sources have told me that earwigs do not eat green plants.  Hmmm... I think they're wrong.

Tasty Snack

Somebody enjoyed a big eggplant leaf salad last night.  I'm suspecting the earwigs that I've seen scurrying around.