Why did I wait so long?

After the tomatoes expired  should have cleaned up the bed, added a little more good soil and planted some more of anything. The few herbs that were beyond useful took up the space instead. This year I planted tomatoes on either end, with peas, onions and chard in the middle. The webbing I put up to discourage my cat from using it as a bathroom will help start the climbers but they will need more support later on. Last year with shallow wide containers I had almost no luck with radishes, greens of any type or onions. Hoping with deeper and better soil I'll get something to eat.

The next issue will be trying to keep the bugs from eating everything. When white flies attacked the tomatoes last year I tried a commercial spray and a dish soap spray with little effect. That's when I read about Zote, an  insecticidal soap but the tomatoes were too far gone to bother with. I've since made a spray although a little stronger than the Mother Earth News article below. I sprayed some on my Avocado which is getting brown leaves from something.

Planted more tomatoes and Albahaca grande (Basil)

Hoja Santa, next pinapple and a tired basil 

Zote and Fels-Naptha are insecticidal

To make the insecticidal soap spray, shave one quarter of a bar of Fels-Naptha laundry soap (about 1 inch) into 1 quart of heated water and stir until dissolved. This will be your insecticidal soap concentrate. Put the soap solution into a labeled jar.

To use the soap spray, put 1 teaspoon of concentrate per quart into a sprayer. This insecticidal soap is a contact poison, so spray it directly onto the insects you want to eliminate from your home, garden or orchard. For additional killing power, add one-quarter cup of rubbing alcohol per quart.

Make Homemade Insecticidal Soap Spray

Winged Invasion

No bugs like the rain it seems, especially the heavy rains we've had for the last 4-5 days.  My house is crawling with sow bugs, flies and ants that were not to be seen a week ago.  Also some ants swarm with the first heavy rains - that is they grow wings and try to fly - by the thousands.  All the ones I've seen have not been very successful, they are just all over the yard and left behind wings flutter around like little kites.

Local gringo talk is they are termites but I've had a constant battle with leaf cutting ants.  I just asked my drinking water guy today and he says they are leaf cutters that get drowned out of their underground nests.  The termite story is some of the tribe are thrown out of the nest to go make a new colony.  I'll go with flooded leaf cutters.  In my back patio there were thousands of little ones, 20-30 wasp looking ones and a few beetle like creatures - all with wings. I did my best to end the lives of as many as I could with the rational of saving my garden.

Some of the small ants on my back patio


Termites but they look similar


Mine had the two part body is another reason I think leaf cutters

Man, I got bugs

As if the leaf cutting ants weren't bad enough - now I have these, whatever they are. They're in the avocado tree. Not all the way up (big tree) but on the trunk about head high. With the 1000 or so tightly grouped it looks like a nest just burst - or do they swarm and stick together ?? Not sure they are old enough to fly but look like winged creatures to me. They had started eating leaves on a small branch so I sprayed them.

BTW ... the ant powder I've been using on the leaf cutting ants works but without bodies I can't tell if it's just chasing them away. While I was in Melaque for a week my house keeper ran into another nest and poured a 1/4 bottle of Cloro (bleach) down the hole. Hundreds of bodies lying around when I came back

I'm tempted to call them aphids .... but this is Mexico

So .... they are stink bugs.  Not much to worry about.  They do eat fruit but I have no fruit now.  They also may stink but I didn't smell anything. Neighbors recognized them because they've had them