What Is Eating My Eggplant Leaves?

If you are squeamish, don't read this post. I have had this post in the draft section since last summer. I know eggplant is not generally in the garden in April, but these bugs have their start in a cool season crop that may be in your garden right now-so you want to be on the lookout for these awful insects.

What type of insects eat eggplant leaves? These little guys were smooth and shiny and about the size of ladybugs. They were very prolific, but only on the eggplant. I've never seen them before in any of my gardening endeavors so I am curious as to whether anyone has experience with these pests. Do you recognize it? I believe it is the larvae of the Colorado potato beetle. This University of Kentucky website has a pretty good picture of some of the larvae; which are pinkish/red in the picture. The ones in the picture above are more of a cream color, however they still have the same spots down the sides of the insect. I think these may be very immature larvae that haven't developed the pink color yet? Not sure, any help would be appreciated. The same website says Colorado potato beetles are very familiar to home gardeners and are a serious pest. But, this serious pest has developed a resistance to insecticides. Good thing they are easy to squish then; which is the route I took. Has anyone ever seen these before? They are quite different from the usual hornworms and squash vine borers and I hope they don't visit my garden again this year. Be on the lookout for them on either your potatoes (especially if you live in potato country) or eggplant later in the season. You will want to take action to dispose of them right away as they cause a lot of damage....

in the garden....

Perennial Plant Society's April 09 Monthly Meeting and Spiderwort

From In the Garden

Spiderwort, aka Tradescantia virginiana or species is a native perennial plant that works well in the shade garden. It has flowers that last only one day then fade away. I grow it here all through my gardens, and like it very much as it is an easy to grow reliable perennial. Once planted it returns each year and even self seeds around a bit. The one pictured above is a new addition to my gardens. It is 'Sweet Kate' spiderwort. A lovely plant with chartreuse foliage and a vivid blue flower that works well in any garden.

Spidewort was named for John Tradescant, a gardener for King Charles I of England. He and his son are credited with introducing many new plants to England, more info on that soon.

A really neat thing I found out about spiderwort is that if you break off a tip of a leaf, wait for a drop of sap to appear then touch the sap between two fingers and try to pull the sap apart. It resembles a spider's silky web. Perhaps that is where the common name spiderwort comes from. I found this information on this website. Do check it out for more neat information and try the sap trick.

Tonight's meeting of the Perennial Plant Society of Middle Tennessee features Cathy Green of Green and Hagstrom Inc. The title of her program is "Garden Ponds and Aquatic Plants". She will be speaking about the differences between water features; including koi and garden ponds and what type of plants work best in them. Spiderworts would well around any water feature in a natural setting. For more information on the program visit the PPS's website located here. All meetings are held at Cheekwood Botanical Gardens and begin at 7:00 pm. Hope to see you there....

in the garden....

I found some research online (several sources) that say spiderworts are ephemeral, then some sources that say the flowers are ephemeral (fading away when the sun comes out). I checked my Southern Living Garden book and it does not mention spiderworts being ephemeral, so I have backtracked on that fact. In my garden, the spiderworts do tend to fade away in late summer, but not completely. They return robustly the next spring.