Farewell to things that bug you
By JOAN CROTHERS

Japanese Beetle

With the heat come the bugs, like cabbage worms, corn earworms, bean beetles, squashvine borers, tater bugs, Japanese beetles and those nasty slugs.

Weave learned that poisons only allowed the critters to develop immunity to some of them, rendering them harmless to the bugs and expensive to our pocketbooks. Meanwhile, back on the stove, have you really washed all those poisons off everything you are cooking. Many of the popular insecticides were carcinogens, known to cause cancer, so were subsequently banned from the market.

There are natural repellents that can be used such as using hot peppers in liquid form.

Companion planting is another natural gardening trick such as planting garlic or marigolds among your vegetables. French marigolds have been known to kill nematodes.

The introduction of an insect.s natural enemies that feed on the eggs of the insect or attack their bodies are lady bugs, praying mantis and wasps. You can buy a wide variety of non-poisonous chemicals and natural predators from most mail order garden supply catalogs.

The Japanese beetle trap draws the beetles by aroma and they subsequently fall into the container below, dying when they can.t escape. Some folks feel you attract more than the normal number with these traps, perhaps helping a neighbor. You can always hand-pick them off into a bag and mash them with a rock.

Slug

Another interesting trap is for the sluga shallow tray (a jar lid will do) filled with beer. You can add a small dish, inverted over the tray and supported high enough to let the slimy creatures enter. It provides a damp, dark habitat as they slurp their final drink.

There is a non-poisonous insecticide-substance that is eaten but not digested by insects, worms, etc. It is available under the trade name Dipel.

It causes paralysis of the digestive tract and does a number on chewing insects such as cabbage worms, caterpillars, tomato worms, leaf hoppers and gypsy moths. It is harmless to beneficial insects and people.

The female Diamondback moth is a white butterfly with a black spot on its wings. They arrive shortly after you have finished setting out your cabbage and broccoli, laying their eggs which hatch and become cabbage loopers, cabbage worms, broccoli worms or cauliflower

worms, depending on where the mother moth chose to lay her eggs. A dusting of Dipel will take care of any

baby worms and a knockdown with Wasp or Hornet Killer will reduce the flying mothers. Another fine way to discourage

bugs is to feed the birds. Many species of birds eat insects. Purple Martins eat their weight in insects every day. Get rid of nasty slugs with a dish of beer.

Japanese beetles take a little more work with either a trap or hand pick them.