Treating Insects in Your Vegetable Garden

Let’s get into this question here, this one is from Larry. ‘Vegetable garden insects, what can I spray to treat them without affecting my vegetables?’

That is a good question. I would say for the broad spectrum, Neem oil would be my favorite thing because it is organic and it is going to take care of almost all pests that are going to come after your tomatoes and veggies and that kind of thing.It’s also effective for Japanese beetles, which I saw my first beetle one the other day.

I’m a little bit more old school. I use a product called Malathion, and it’s been around used in vegetable and fruit production for decades and decades. 

Now with both those products, again we cannot stress enough, do not apply that midday. That’s a late evening application only because of the heat, and the neem oil with the oil the sunlight magnifying through, it’s always better to do that in the evening hours. 

You never want to damage the plants with the stuff you’re putting on to help them. Always apply it late evening.

We’ve had a ton of aphids early and they’re pretty easy to get rid of, you just got to catch them when they’re young. They get on the tips of the Spirea and burning bush, but they’re pretty easy to get rid of. Then Japanese beetles have started to rear their ugly heads this time of year, and they’ll be out there eating vivaciously for probably about the next three to four or five weeks and then they’ll fly into the greenest yard and lay their eggs to create grubs.

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