Aphids!

Jan (my wife) planted some black-eyed peas at the beginning of the summer in a couple of our raised beds just to have something growing over the hot summer. She read that they would do well in the heat and would make a good cover crop that would add nitrogen back into the soil (being legumes). Well they're surviving but not really thriving. One reason is that for the last couple of weeks, at least, they have been covered with aphids.

I've started to do battle with them, however. I've tried insecticidal soap and spraying them off with water. Either seems to work for a while, but they come back very soon. I'm now trying a new approach. The aphids are "herded" and protected by hundreds of small ants. The ants direct the aphids onto the most promising plants and "harvest" the "honeydew" excreted by the aphids. The aphids suck the juices out of the plant and thereby weaken or kill it. I'm going after the ants first, then the aphids. My ant killer of choice is Terro liquid. It's a sweet liquid containing borax as the active ingredient, so it shouldn't be harmful to humans. You put a few drops on a piece of paper or wood or whatever and the ants flock to it. It is slow acting, so they carry it back to the nest and it gets them all. At least that's what the package says. So far they've flocked to it alright, and seem to be eating it. They also cover the drops of liquid with dozens of small bits of grass and other detritus. Maybe they're trying to hide it or save it for later. I'll give this approach a couple of weeks and see what happens.

I also planted two hills of yellow summer squash and seeds for two sunflowers in one of my square foot gardens. I consider this to be the first outdoor planting of the fall garden 2011! Hope it's not to hot for the seeds to germinate.