So Many Bugs!!

Yes, there are tons of bugs in my garden, some good, some bad. I've noticed a bunch of small praying mantises hanging around. I know these are good bugs, since they eat bad bugs, but they are sooooo freaky looking! They totally freak me out. One molted in one of my okra containers, and the exoskeleton is even weird to look at. I hope they don't get too big, because then they'll be even freakier.

I noticed some bugs clmbing out of my compost the other day. At first I thought to myself "wow, I need to get rid of this compost if these weird bugs are climbing out of them". I did some reserch, and discovered that these bugs were really soldier fly larvae. It turns out that these are actually GOOD for the compost, as they help decompose the food waste. The soldier fly lays eggs near a food source (the compost) and when the lave hatch they munch on the food source. Then, when they are ready to become pupae and become adult flies, they climb out of the compost bin. In the evenings, when I can remember, I remove the lid of the compose so they can go be free to become adult flies.

The bad bugs include these little white flies hanging around my kale. I'm going to try spraying this organic pesticide, but I don't want to hurt the praying mantises. Tiny flies are also infesting the corn.

Blossom End Rot!

I thought my tomato plants were doing so well, but it turns out they have a problem! Some of the tomatoes are getting something called "blossom end rot", which means the bottoms of the tomatoes are rotting. I was pretty disappointed when I discovered this. Not all the tomatoes have it yet. I'm still hoping to get some lovely fruits from these plants.

So what causes blossom end rot anyway? I did some research, and it looks like extreme heat can do it, and lack of fertilizer. I don't think I've been fertilizing properly, so I gave each plant some food. I hope that will solve the problem!