Tuesday, June 16, 2009

Smashing tomato bugs with my fingers

Some days life in the garden and in the country is nasty, just plain nasty. The amount of bugs that live out here is insane. We're trying to stay as organic as possible, resisting the temptation to spread massive amounts of pesticides, but the bugs are putting the hurt on. We have lost some tomatoes and, in an effort to solve the problem without chemicals, I turned to man's greatest gift: the opposable thumb.

Yep, trying to catch little beasts and smush 'em between finger and thumb.

You kinda gotta squish a couple and walk away 'cause after a minute, they notice and fly off, but when you come back they are at it again. This would be the old-fashioned way. Before I had kids I might have been too grossed out to do this, but you have to lots of gross stuff when you garden, live in the country and raise a couple of kids. I'd say squishing bugs in your fingers ranks somewhere between a diarrhea diaper and vomit down your shirt...not the worst by a long shot.

1 comment:

  1. BigChambers: I'm always ready to jump on an anti Big Brother bandwagon but, truth is, it's nobody but the scary locals you moved in with who elect to keep your county dry some 70-odd years after the 21st amendment ended prohibition in most sane parts of our great police state. Start brewing your own.
    Pirate Paul, Bay Area Mashtronauts (mashtronauts.com)

    ReplyDelete