So I found a couple bugs in my yard over the weekend -- and since all my bug knowlege is limited to the generic: bee, worm, beetle, ant, butterfly, slug, I took pictures and sent them off to
Seattle Tilth for identification. My first mystery companion? (Click picture for a closer look.)
A millipede. A gardner's friend. These little guys are a slow-moving decomposers of organic matter such as leaves. They tend to roll up into a spiral when scared -- perhaps that should have tipped me off to its essentially good nature.
My second mystery companion? (Click picture for a closer look.)
A wireworm. A gardner's foe. This little guy tends to live in soils that recently held sod -- which makes sense since I first spotted these quick creatures when I was removing grass for my epimediums. If I only knew what I was seeing then, I would have dispatched of them. Instead I left them to their own devices. As adults they are harmless click beetles. However as young wireworms, they like to eat seeds, stems, and roots -- not good news for a veggie gardner. And the worse news is that they stay in their larval wireworm stage for two to six years before becoming adults. For more information you should check out this University of Maine Cooperative Extension
fact sheet that Seattle Tilth shared with me.
Perhaps is was wireworms that did this to my tyfon (turnip.)
Since my epimediums have been slower to emerge than expected, I am going to try a technique that Seattle Tilth said might be helpful -- leave some decoy carrots in the bed to lure the wireworms from the new starts. If I have nibbles in a week I will know that I have a problem.
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