Hi All!
I am growing a garden for the first time this year. I am doing sort of a mash-up of square foot
gardening and
permaculture gardening, at least as far as I can do it in my 4 foot square garden. I'm not growing in rows and similar things are as far apart as I can manage. We've put in onions and marigolds to discourage pests, and are growing other flowering things to try to encourage the beneficial bugs.
My tomatillos which I bought at the Friends' School Plant Sale are now covered in little brown squishy grubs! There are also little lines of orangey-yellow eggs. They've eaten most of the leaves half off - they sit on the under side of the outer edge of the leaf and just eat their way in.
I think that the pest might be a grub of a potato beetle, at least from the research I've done online so far. I laid down
diatomaceous earth around the plant stems and the nearby tomato plant stems. These guys haven't shown up yet at all on the tomatoes, which is a blessing. I also sprayed an insecticidal
soap on the leaves of the tomatillos and have been doing 'search and destroy' missions daily.
Any advice on why these guys showed up and are so apparently healthy? Also on what exactly they are and how I can get rid of them - and prevent their showing up next year?
My neighbors are growing tomatoes and I'd rather not be a 'typhoid mary', but since so far they don't seem to like my tomatoes I figure that's a clue.
Thanks!
Jody