Any caterpillar, like a hornworm, can be managed by using Bt spray - it is a natural bacterium that prevents the caterpillars from eating any more, so they die. Easy to find, often indicates for caterpillars, in a concentrate you dilute in a small garden sprayer. Don’t forget to check for hornworm cocoons in the soil-they pupate in the soil. And the wonderful parasitic wasps is always helpful when you find a chubby hornworm that is paralyzed with many white eggs on its back…it is playing host nursery to the parasitic wasp babies.
Marigolds are helpful.
okra-not sure anything is really a big pest with them, but I’m in Ohio, so maybe no real okra pests here. My neighbor grows a lot okra every year (he’s from Louisiana) and we grow some okra. Neither of us has had any issues with okra pests.
avoiding bees: if you need to spray a pesticide, spray it late, when bees are not around. It is dried and is no longer in the air by next day. They only want flowers, so the flowers they will visit will open in the morning (those flowers will not have bloomed when you spray the evening before). Sometime you find you’ll need a pesticide to manage or knock back a pest. I try to minimally use pesticides, so watch, pick off, wait, spray soap spray, plant marigold, check for egg clusters and remove those, but sometimes, one has to go further if the balance is tipping in favor of the pests.
I’ve heard mixed reviews on neem oil. Some cannot stand the smell (not only a bad smell to some, but it lingers), so be aware of that. Some say results aren’t much different than when they didn’t use neem, and others swear by it. I do not have personal experience with it. Spoiled milk… not something I’ll likely try on my garden plants. My spouse poured out some milk in the compost pile last year -OMG! The smell…for days!!!
Good luck.
Thanks!
