I’ve been gardening for over 30 yrs and would not be considered an organic gardener. My garden has been as large as an acre and a half but have since cut back considerably to about 7/10 an acre. I have dealt with all the calamities that come with gardening, the bugs, the pests, the varmits, climate conditions, etc etc, but one of my worst problems was with the caterpillar worms that attack my green leafy plants like collards, cabbage, lettuce, broccoli, etc etc, and “especially” the corn earworms…..My success with corn, because of the earworms, always bordered a total loss……I never discovered where these worms came from until some extensive reading on the subject recently. The information i found revealed it was nocturnal (nite time) “Moths!” It then reminded me of these little boogers flying around my motion flood lights i had put out for years to deter deer. After more research I found they were attracted to “black lights.” Now, the organic gardener’s did not recommend black light bug zapper’s because it killed good bugs as well……Well, i was not happy with the job my good bugs were doing, so off to Walmart i went and purchased 5 large size automatic black light bug zappers and placed them around my garden.
Now keep in mind that the Bug Zapper’s i purchased cover an acre…….With the 7/10 acre garden i have i think I’m covered!! Almost immediately these zapper’s were zapping thousands of bugs to the point i had to clean them out every day before the next nite. I put mine on automatic where they only come on at nite…….I planted my cold weather crops here in East Texas January 15th……Its been 3 months now and i will have to say without any reservations that i have no hole’s in my green leafy vegetable’s at all and have the cleanest garden i’ve had in over 30 yrs……I also have purchased no pesticide’s at all as of the middle of April. These Moths lay their eggs on the leafs of the plants or in the case of corn the new silk that appears and they look like little tiny eggs stuck on the leaf about a half inch around……If you just brush them off, they will hatch the little caterpillar on the ground and they will still make their way to the plant. I may also add this is the first time that i have actually seen Lady bugs on my plants which are good bugs…..I have also noticed that this Zapper is zapping thousands of other kinds bugs as well as June Bugs……I put a bucket underneath the Zapper and they fall into the bucket and i collect them in the evening and feed those to my chickens. Now keep in mind this is the first year of this experiment but after 3 months its been a huge success for me!…..My big test come’s with my corn that is just now coming up! And by the way, I’m not on the payroll of any bug zapper companies out there!!!
Frank Tannery
Tyler, Texas
