Crazy Cousins

Last week I noticed that something had been chomping on my lettuce.  So I took a couple of the snacked-upon leaves to my local garden center to get some expert advice.  I found a man who said he could help and I showed him the evidence while explaining that I was looking for an organic solution to this problem.  He stared at the leaves for a moment and informed me that it must be caterpillars.  Then he handed me a product called Sevin and told me that it would take care of my little problem.  I asked him, "Is this organic?"  He said that it was.  But as I inspected the bottle I got suspicious.  The front of the packaging clearly named the chemical that was going to kill my bugs and nowhere did it use the word "organic."  (Now in this day and age when something is suitable for use on organic gardens, they advertise it.)  Then the man said to me, "Well, you wash your vegetables before you eat them anyway, so it'll be fine."  I quickly put that product back.

I ended up buying a product that said "safe around pets and kids," "can be used up to the day of harvest" and "for use in organic gardens."  Upon further research I discovered that the chemical used in Sevin is classified as a likely human carcinogen by the EPA, is illegal is many countries, and kills beneficial insects like honeybees as well!  Holy Cow!!!

I had to find out what was really eating my plants since I no longer trusted the man at the garden center.  The only bug I found was the classic childhood toy, the roly poly.  Otherwise known as Pill Bugs or Armadillidiidae.  I found out that they usually eat decaying things but will also munch on little seedlings.  And get this, they are not bugs at all.  They are crustaceans!  So I set out pluck as many as I could find from my garden and drown them in a cup of water.  My goal is to remove enough of them that they won't overwhelm my garden before the plants get big enough to survive.  As I collected them I became much less shocked about them being a cousin to shrimp.  Even though they sink to bottom of the water like a rock, they were still kicking after 30 minutes!  Gross!  So I put them down the garbage disposal and now I'm nervously looking at the sink every hour hoping they won't be resurrected.