Anyone with honeybees, a garden and advice

[RWise]

The natural answer to aphids is lady bugs, they eat them.
Ants will move them, farm/milk them, so get rid of the ants too.

 

[Aji Dulce]

I would love to blast mine with a hose but I actually believe it or not I don’t have a hose. Because I have no outdoor water connection to my house. Try to get one but the plumber told me it would be over $700. So as much of a pain in the rear as it is I work with my indoor faucet in 5 gallon bucket’s. I’m also afraid to much force would kill the vegetable plants. Sounds like a great idea for an orchard though

Oh Rachel, how do you live without a water hose outside? Our first year gardening I watered by hand also because we had not installed our water well on our rural property. That watering turned out to be a way to keep the plants from dying but they didn’t thrive. Plants that are stressed and struggling are a magnet for pests.

 

[lazy gardener]

Rachel, is there any way you can buy a hose adapter for an indoor faucet? Then run the hose out the window? I would do what ever it takes to get outside water, even if you have to "think outside the box".

 

[Apis mellifera]

Every year as I’m sure we all do fight those invasive of pests in the garden. The worst ones for me are the horned tomato worms, squash bugs and aphids. I had a small Japanese beetle problem last year got Neem oil and it got rid of the squash bugs and the Japanese beetles. Well most of the squash bugs but all the Japanese beetles. I’ve read it doesn’t hurt bees if you spray in the evening but I’ve also read it does. I’m looking for a way without chemicals to control pests in my garden without killing bees. Because in June we are starting our first try at honeybees.

I hear ya! Pests can really do a lot of damage overnight. I usually just go out at night with a flashlight and cut hornworms in half with a pair of scissors. The moths only lay once up here, so once you get them all its over. Pay close attention to the hornworms that have eggs on them that look like little pieces of rice. Leave them alone! That's parasitic wasp eggs. Tiny harmless beneficial wasps that the larva feed on after paralyzing it. BT is an option to kill some pest and is safe for bees. I'll use Neem as well and its good advice to apply in the evening and of course no overspray if your hives are really close. The chances of your bees working your garden and getting exposed to a large enough amount of pesticides to harm them is pretty small unless you have a very large garden. Bees always go to sources that are producing significant amounts of pollen or nectar (like fields full of dutch clover). So probably not your garden, only occasionally I'll see a few bees on cucumbers but that's about it. Check out freemaptools.com and put a 2 mile radius around your hives location, that's 8042.3 acres they can cover for forage! So there's lots of other chances and greater threats your bees can get exposed to. All my years of beekeeping I've only lost 1 hive to pesticides and it was most likely due to mosquito spraying by an unscrupulous national pest control company. They were advertising heavy in my area at the time. Join a local beekeeping club, its well worth your time and ask what they do. You'll get varying opinions. I just keep any pesticides to a minimum and except I'm going to have some loss in the garden. So I plant a little more than I need and it all seems to work out.

 

[Birdsong 82]

I always plant more that I need. LOL. Oh trust me I know all about those hornworm. Every morning I would come out to the garden and pluck between five and 10 off of my plants and look for those dreaded eggs. Every year they come back for more. I recently learned about BT And found that neem oil is also not toxic to bees once it is dry. So as long as you spray it early early morning or late in the evening it’s fine. As far as the cabbage moth BT is just not enough. I just put floating row covers over those. I may look on that site just to check it out but there’s not much within 2 miles of my house except more woods Maybe a house or two but there’s a lot like mine open yard with big friggin garden

 

[Birdsong 82]

I wish there was a local be keeping club but there’s nothing local around me. Within 12 miles of me there is one gas station with about three parking spots. I kind a live in the middle of nowhere Ville

 

[Birdsong 82]

And as far as my yard I never use pesticides because of my chickens and goats Dogs and cats. I only use natural ones in my garden. But I know even natural ones can still be harmful

 

[Apis mellifera]

I've probably eaten my share of cabbage worms

 

[Birdsong 82]

Lol. I hear ya! Um... protein right

 

[Birdsong 82]

Just out of curiosity where is adirondacks?