My Florida Tropical Garden

With two bird feeders filled with sunflower seed almost year-round, it's going to attract a host of species 24 hours a day. During the daylight hours you'll see the birds and the squirrels, but do you ever wake up in the morning wondering why your bird feeder is empty? If it's accessible to raccoons, thats more likely what happened but raccoons are not likely to raid those feeders hanging from shephard hook poles. The problem could be rats, at least thats what happened to us. We have a large shephard hook supporting a bird feeder at the top. About halfway up the pole is a plastic squirrel baffle. So how did the rats access my feeder if there's a baffle blocking the path? Easy, they chew a hole in the baffle just big enough to squeeze through it. Rats love sunflower seed, and they breed like crazy so I took matters into my own hands. I started with my old Red Ryder BB gun and shot a couple but I was having trouble with the BB's not shooting very accurate. So I purchased a scoped air rifle from Amazon for $75, the Remington Airmaster 77. Combined with Crosman 0.177 caliber pellets and a 4x scope, this air rifle has proven very accurate and powerful. I've nailed several rats so far and now started noticing not as many. In fact, last night I didn't see any at all. I know there's more though, it's just a matter of catching them off guard. Here's a photo of my new air rifle, everything you see is what you get in the box.



Wild rats can host many diseases and parasites, some fatal to humans and pets. A common myth is many rats carry rabies, though this is not entirely true. It's not impossible for a wild rat to carry rabies, but it's not likely. There have been very few cases reported in the United States of a person actually contracting rabies from a wild rat. If biten or exposed to rats though, your more likely to get Rat-Bite Fever (bacteria infection), parasite worms, Hepatitis E., and several other bacteria and viruses. They also spread fleas and ticks to your pets, and eventually your homes. So don't comment about how cruel it is to shoot rats. I don't go outside with guns blazing like rambo, shooting everything I see. I'm only targeting rats and shooting them with air rifles is alot safer than setting out live traps or even rat poison. With live traps, squirrels can injure themselves if caught. With poison, you risk poisoning yourself if not handled correctly and poisoning anything that touches it, raccoons, squirrels, dogs, cats, etc.

I found these red/orange and black colored insects gathered on some milkweed plants. In fact, they have established a large population on one plant to the point where some leaves are growing deformed and some leaves have been sucked dry of plant tissue. These insects are called the Milkweed Bug, and are more of a nuisance than a threat to the milkweed plant. They are commonly found in small groups on stems, leaves, and seed pods sucking the juices from plant tissue. Controlling these bugs can be tricky because you don't want to spray the Monarch larvae with harmful chemicals. So you can either live with the damage, squish the bugs, or spray with a low dose of insecticidal soap.

Pictured below is the Milkweed Bug life cycle.

We have two Nicotiana plants, also known as flowering tobacco, being raided by the tobacco hornworm. Want to know how to tell the difference between a Tobacco Hornworm and Tomato Hornworm?

The tobacco hornworm is generally green with seven diagonal white lines on the sides and a curved red horn. The tomato hornworms have eight V-shaped marks on each side and their horn is straighter and blue-black in color. These hornworms are the larvae of hawk or sphinx moths.

The plants were cutback today to promote new growth and I'll probably spray later this evening with Southern Agriculture Thuricide, a product that contains Bacillus thuringiensis (BT). I used BT a month ago and with one treatment it worked very well to get rid of the caterpillars. The trick is to spray in the evening because BT degrades quickly in sunlight.

Hibiscus (spider mites) - Today I noticed several yellowing leaves on a hibiscus plant that was otherwise doing very well. To make sure, I inspected the underside of the leaves closely and found a few spider mites. Good thing I looked! The infestation isn't very big, but I want to "shock and awe" them to prevent a larger problem like last year. Last year was horrible, the infestation was so bad, the hibiscus plants were practically sticks because all the leaves fell off. Well that was last year, so this year I'm bringing out the big guns, Forbid 4F. Last year I purchased a small 5ml bottle of Forbid 4F on eBay and this is the first time I have a chance to use it. It's a highly recommended product that offers knockdown and residual control of all kinds of mites and whiteflies. I guess the boy scout in me always wants to be prepared. =)

Nicotiana (caterpillars) - Another round of inspection led me to the Nicotiana plants, which haven't been blooming for awhile. I immediately knew something was wrong when I noticed small feces all over the leaves and blooms hollowed out. It only took a few minutes to find many caterpillars all over the plants, mostly at the tips of new growth. Not sure what species of caterpillar they are. They were eating the inside of flower buds mostly. A quick trip to Home Depot and I purchased some Southern Agriculture Thuricide, it's a product that contains Bacillus thuringiensis (BT). BT does not kill on contact, but rather must be eaten by the caterpillar to be effective. After a day or two, the caterpillar stops eating and dies. BT cannot be applied during daytime hours as it degrades rather quickly in direct sunlight, so applying in the late evening is best. BT is also safe for beneficial insects, birds, and animals.

After about two months, the radish are about ready to harvest. Two months is a long time for radish, but I think the slow growth is due to the lack of sunlight that I get during the winter season. In the winter months, much less sunlight reaches our backyard due to the low angle of sunlight hitting some large oak trees. However in the spring/summer time, the angle of the sun is much higher in the sky, allowing sunlight to bypass over the trees. The diagram below shows the high angle of the sun in summer and the low angle in winter.



GARDEN PEST UPDATE: I found my Datura 'Double Purple' and Brugmansia 'Charles Grimaldi' angel trumpets are being attacked by aphids. I'm treating both by spraying with Safer Insecticidal Soap. This causes dehydration of the soft bodied insects such as aphids.

Happy New Year's Eve! Exactly 7 weeks have passed since the cocoon was made, and finially emerged a Polyphemus Moth. Beautiful design on the wings, with streaks of pink and very distinct eyes. Truely a sight to admire. Though I'm glad I eventually only raised one caterpillar since the moth is rather big, but it was a very interesting experience. All together it took just under 3 months from egg to moth! I released it the following day on January 1st so it can continue it's life cycle.

It's been about 6-7 weeks since those Polyphemus moth caterpillars hatched from their eggs. They've been eating alot and growing fast everyday. I started with over 20 larvae, but since I couldn't keep up with the amount of leaves they were all eating, I decided to release several outside. Now I'm raising just 1 single caterpillar and it has finially formed a cocoon!

It's been 18 days since the larvae hatched out of those strange eggs
(see previous post here)

I originally had about 25 larvae, but they were eating so much that I had to keep refilling the oak leaves in the jar. So I released several and now I'm raising 4 caterpillars. I've read they get about 2 inches long before they start to form cocoons. Right now they are a little over an inch long. Will update again in a couple weeks!

Spider mites are a warm weather problem for several hibiscus growers. They thrive in hot, sunny, and dry conditions when temperatures are high. The first sign of spider mites is when a leaf or two get yellow mottling mixed in its normal green, then slowly the entire leaf turns bright yellow then falls off. Soon more and more leaves turn yellow and fall off, which can be fatal to your plants. As the spider mites spread, you can see very fine webbing at the tips of the branches with yellow leaves.

I've been battling with spider mites for the last 2-3 weeks. As a safe treatment, it was recommended to spray the underside of leaves with a hard stream of water at least once a week. This washes off the spider mites and breaks their lifecycle. However, this method has been ineffective on our large hibiscus plant, which has lost most of it's leaves due to spider mite damage. One by one, the leaves would yellow and fall off within 24 hours. Amazingly, the hibiscus was still blooming well during this time.

I also tried the use of beneficial insects, the Green Lacewing larvae. I received the eggs in the mail from http://www.arbico-organics.com. When I noticed some of the eggs had hatched inside the container, I sprinkled the eggs and live larvae onto the hibiscus plant. This method will reduce the number of spider mites if applied correctly.

I also researched Miticides that were proven effective. The two name brands I found most popular are Forbid 4F and Floramite SC, both of which kill the adult mites AND the eggs. Forbid 4F seems to be the stronger of the two, since it kills all kinds of mites. Forbid 4F offers knockdown and residual control of mites and whiteflies. The active ingredient in Forbid is spiromesifen. I purchased a 5mL bottle of Forbid 4F on eBay, which makes 8 gallons and is more than enough for a small volume grower.

Compare miticides such as Forbid & Floramite here :
Miticide Chart

Found some unusual egg capsules under some Hibiscus leaves, so I collected them and put them in a jar to hatch. Below is a picture of the eggs..



After a few days, the eggs hatched into tiny larvae that looked like caterpillars...



Very hard to identify these larvae, but after some research on Google, I learned the same eggs and same larvae belong to the beautiful Polyphemus Moth. The website below shows more detailed pictures on the lifecycle of this particular moth.

Website on the Polyphemus Moth

I'm feeding the newly hatched larvae oak leaves and there are about 20 babies in a jar right now. Will update as they get grow bigger. =)

Are your hibiscus buds dropping off prematurely? Hibiscus bud drop is a sign that something is wrong. In some cases, it's the hibiscus gall midge. The gall midge is a small fly thats lays its eggs inside flower buds. As the larvae hatches from the egg, it feeds inside the flower bud until it drops to the ground. Once on the ground, the larvae exit the flower bud and enter the soil to pupate. After a couple weeks, an adult gall midge emerges from the soil and the whole cycle starts again.

If you suspect gall midges, it's relatively easy to identify. Look for yellowing flower buds and pick one off the plant for inspection. Carefully open the flower bud and look for tiny worm-like larvae inside. Another trick is to pickup any dropped flower buds and put them in a sealed ziplock bag. After a couple hours, check the sealed bag for small larvae that have exited the buds.

Most spray pesticides are ineffective as they don't come in contact with the larvae. The key to controlling this pest is to treat the plant with a systemic pesticide to kill larvae inside the flower buds and treating the soil around the plant to kill off any larvae that have entered the soil. For a systemic pesticide, I sprayed Bayer 3-in-1 (active ingredient: imidacloprid) on the plant. For soil treatment, I sprinkled Bayer Complete Insect Killer granules. On top of this, I made sure to pick up any dropped flower buds and put them in a sealed ziplock bag so the larvae could not escape into the soil. Be persistant to catch dropped buds to ensure your capturing the larvae. After a week or two, the flower buds will stop falling off and your plant will be midge free.