First insect in the garden?

[ctpumpkin]

What are the first insects to attack the plants in the garden besides corn seed maggots? I am going to say cucumber beetles for me. I tend to pick them off as I see them.

[Dan in Ct]

Hi Ray,
When I do up my mix for my buckets and screening the topsoil I am always on the lookout for cutworms. They like the seed corn maggot end the gardening season before it begins. I usually see ground beetles early but I let them be because many are predators of other insects. Funny how we only have a problem with bugs that want to eat the same things we do or want to bite us. Maybe if we ate bugs they would realize where we are on the food chain. This confusion might be because they think gardeners are herbivores.

[ctpumpkin]

Ahhhh yes. Forgot about those cutworms. You can also cut plastic containers up and put around the plant, like a ring to help avoid the cutworms from getting to the stem

[Dan in Ct]

Hi Ray,
My dad used those waxed papered Dixie cups and they lasted long enough to do the job. With his pocketknife, he zipped the bottom out sliced a side and wrapped the stem of the plant burying about half the Dixie Cup but then again he would haul out chemicals I believe were left over from WWI chemical warfare to battle the bugs. I have seen the stuff take a flying insect out of the sky before it could cross the garden.

[ctpumpkin]

That's a great idea with the Dixie cups.........

[jimjack]

For me pests are pests no matter if they are the first or last, we have to control them.

[ctpumpkin]

welcome to the site. Agreed, what type do you encounter the most?

[jimjack]

Thank you. I encounter cockroaches, mosquitoes and fly the most.

[ctpumpkin]

cockroaches in the garden?