More Wasps = Less Caterpillars

I always kept my head down a bit and talked to these guys in the shed.

  Last year I decided to knock down all of the wasp nests that were close by on the farm. I was vigilant, knocking down the nests as soon as they began construction. I did not kill the wasps. I just hoped that they would move somewhere else, close enough to be beneficial yet far enough to not worry me about a family member or myself getting stung. This plan didn't work out as my blueberries, apple trees. and tomatoes were plagued with caterpillars.

This year I let the wasps have free reign. There were two nests on the side porch. The shed was filled with them, both inside and outside up in the eaves. The barn had its usual contingent.

I also put Planter's Peanut and Gatorade containers upside down on T-Posts on an old fence, and the wasps colonized there as well.

Gatorade Mix Container and Wasps (I call this type Yellow Jackets)

The results were great. Virtually no caterpillers on any plants, and zero Army Caterpillars (Spodoptera), which were the main culprits the past year. They can eat the leaves off half a blueberry bush in a day. And they make quick work of the leaves on the apple trees. I did have a few tomato hornworms (picture below) on my grape tomatoes, but that was it.

Five-spotted Hawk Moth Caterpiller AKA Tomato Hornworm

Thankfully we only had one sting from our caterpillar eating friends. One wasp felt the need to climb into my bathing suit while it was hanging on the line, and it didn't appreciate me invading its personal space when I put the suit on. I then didn't appreciate it invading my personal space.

Planter's Peanut Container and New Occupants

Tree Tanglefoot for your Pear & other Trees

If you read my last post, "To Spray or Not to Spray," then you know my Asian pears are 100% organic. In fact to me, they are beyond "certified organic," because I sprayed nothing on them, not even allowable organic sprays. But I did use a barrier on the trunks to stop the ants that ruined some of my Hosui pears last summer.

I used Tree Tanglefoot and Tangle-Guard tree banding material and some twine to keep the ants from getting up the trunk and into the fruit hanging on the tree. The ants still hung around beneath the tree eating anything that fell from the tree, but they did not get up into the tree at all, which kind of surprised me, because I thought those buggers would find some way to get at those pears.

I ordered a 15 ounce tub of Tree Tanglefoot Insect Barrier and a 3 inch by 50 feet roll of Tangle-Guard Tree Banding Material. The Tanglefoot cost $10.99  and the Tangle-Guard was $5.99 both were from Amazon. The Tangle-Guard is a corrogated waterproof paper roll, and the TangleFoot is an oil-based, non-drying goop. Goop is my word choice. You don't want to get a bunch of this stuff on your hands, but it is OMRI rated and certified for organic gardening.

I thought that applying this was going to be a nightmare, but it wasn't. I got a pizza box from my porch some twine from the barn, and a putty knife from the shed and set off to do it. I weeded around the trunk, then I wrapped the trunk with the tree wrap a few times, making about a 6 inch wide band around the trunk, a few inches from the ground. I then loosely tied the paper to the trunk with some twine, then quickly applied a blob of the Tanglefoot onto the twine and "spackled" it onto the paper. Then I liberally applied the goop around the paper, being careful not to get it onto the trunk.

I did this for my Hosui and Korean pear trees, and I had zero problems with ants eating the pears. Last year the ants ruined about 1/4 of my Hosui pears. They just climb up there and eat holes into the pears. You really can't blame them, the pears are so sweet and juicy.

About halfway through the summer, I took off the old wrap and goop and put new ones on. I don't know if this was necessary, but I wasn't going to take any chances, because the ants were about, eating any pears that prematurely fell to the ground.

I still have most of the tub and wrap waiting for next year. It really doesn't take much of either product to protect a tree. I also plan to use this on my Black Tartarian Cherry tree, which is also an ant favorite, next year.

Here are some pictures of the "Tangle Products" and the Hosui pears which were the ants' favorites.

To Spray or Not to Spray?

We decided that we did not want to use any pesticides, fungicides, or any other type of spray on or near our edibles, years ago. We decided that we wanted our children to be able to go outside and eat anything they wanted to eat from our vegetable gardens, fruit trees, vines and bushes. 

I also didn't want to kill all of the bees that are constantly working for us on our trees and bushes and in the garden. We are loaded with bumble bees, honeybees, mason bees, and probably every other bee available in Western Pennsylvania. When our trees are in bloom they are humming, you can hear it as you approach the tree. I had never seen so many bees in my life till we moved here from a suburb of Pittsburgh about 14 years ago. 

Another reason I don't spray is because our chickens are free range, and I mean really free range. They go anywhere they want, except they are banned from the vegetable gardens and blueberry bushes for parts of the year. 

Well, anyway, what I have been trying to do is find crops do well on our property with zero spraying, and one that is really showing promise is the Asian pear. This year we had Hosui and Korean pears that were really nice, and they were completely organic. 

The Korean pears look almost perfect. I believe it is because their skin is russetted, which means they have a slightly rough, greenish-brown coat. Now this may make you think that they aren't as enjoyable as a smooth-skinned pear, but I actually prefer them. There is a contrast of texture and flavor between the skin and the flesh that makes the fruit more complex and interesting. A regular pear can be delicious, but these are even better.

I planted a Russet apple tree this summer, and I am hoping to find that the Russet apples will be like the Korean pears, bug free. I remember being able to buy Russet apples in the store when I was a kid, but now they are nowhere to be found. They were around in the 1500s when Shakespeare referred to them as leathercoats in Henry IV Part 1, I suppose they don't catch your eye in the store like a shiny red apple does, but if they can be grown pesticide free, they're the ones I'll grow. 

Here are a some pictures of our fledgling pear orchard and the Hosui and Korean pears. I also have some Chojuro trees, but they were more recently planted, and haven't begun to bear.

As you can see the pears are round, and both the Korean and the Hosui have white flesh.

Korean Pears

A "leathercoat" pear

Hosui Pears - They were'nt as nice looking as the Koreans, but they were great tasting and  far more free of insect damage than our non-spray apples.

A farm can become an expensive endeavor if you let it. I have 4 teen-age children who I expect will want to go to college one day or another, so if I want to do something on the farm, I tend to do it by myself, or with their help, and I try to do it inexpensively. One has to realize that most of our ancestors were farmers at one time or another, and if we go back far enough they did a lot more than you or I could imagine with some muscle, a lot of brain power, and no modern equipment. You can do things on your small farm or in your large yard just like they did if you give it a try.

Planning is good, but sometimes you have to just do it. My son Michael and I built a shed this summer with no plans. We just found a rough-cut saw mill where the wood costs a lot less than wood from the big home improvement stores, and we started building, just kind of dreaming it up and changing it a bit as we went along. I have to admit we did buy treated 4x4s from Lowes for our poles, because we couldn't find any Locust 4x4s, but probably about 90% of the shed is built from the sawmill and our local hardware store. We bought the metal for the roof from a Mennonite friend/roofer who let us buy some of his extras from the stacks he has behind his shop.at a reasonable/friendly price.

The shed was originally going to be an 8x8 shed, but we kept moving the 4X4s, and eventually the shed grew to a 12x16 building with 8 foot tall side walls, and one side with a 10 foot tall side wall to give us our slope for the roof. We just built the doors the other day, but didn't hang them yet, because the wood is a bit green, and we want it to dry out some because the doors are pretty heavy. They will lighten up a bit shortly. We also intend to build a 4x16 loft under the high side of the roof. We'll probably do it this winter. And we need to put the battens on the siding once the wood dries out some more, and before the snow starts flying up here, and boy does it snow on our mountain.

I am just going to put some of the pictures of our project so far for your perusal. I imagine I will put the pictures here a bit at a time, because this is taking me too long.

We just used our hand powered post hole digger and sunk the 4x4, and started to build on them. This was a lot of work

The construction site became a family hang out and climbing wall.

We used 1x8x8 boards and 5 pounds of nails to put up the siding. And we pounded it in with our made in the USA Vaughn  hammers recently bought for a reasonable price at Sears. (picture of them later, What a great hammer.)

Hi. Welcome to my blog Farm Photos and Philosophy. All of the photos in this blog are taken from our small farm in the Appalachian Mountains in Pennsylvania, and all of the philosophy will pretty much come from there too. I'm obviously just getting started, but what I hope to do with this blog is show and tell about some things we do here on our farm and what I think about them. Right now I'm thinking about going to bed in our 100 plus year old farm house as I listen to the Katydids and cicadas through the open window. We don't have AC. This in itself can be a philosophical statement, Good night. 

Annabelle, our Scottish Highland heifer is soon to have her first calf.

Annabelle and Dunny our Highland bull. He's only about a year old .

Red raspberries from our berry patches make a unique tasting pie. These are organically grown just like the rest of our crops.

These are black raspberry pies made with berries from the berry patches.

Sorry to use the word patch again, but these Crimson sweet are mostly over 30 pounds, and  are organically grown in our watermelon patch.

These black raspberries make me wish it was June again.

Here are two young Golden-laced Wyandotte chickens outside near the barn.

Some Buff Orpingtons mingling with the Wyandottes inside the barn. They come and go as they please most of the day.