Are you like me and always freaking out at the first sign of garden insects? In this post, I’m just gonna keep it real with you. How to Overcome Your Fear of Creepy Garden Bugs in the vegetable garden. Last year I took a dive into my creative talents and decided to make my own raised garden bed during the late spring of last year, with dreams of never having to buy vegetables again. Unfortunately, being new to gardening in Florida, late spring is not the best time to start to grow most of my favorite fruits and vegetables.
The first trial of starting a new garden bed was to get over my fear of bugs I consistently came across while tending to my darlings.
Look, I know they were probably here before my house was built but come on, there is plenty of room for us out there in the garden to just give each other our personal space, but nooooo, they just have to violate. To be honest with you, I’m not sure if I even want to get along with them. On another note, I think I can just about tolerate other insects but only just for as long as I need to tend to my plants though.
Anyone who knows me well knows that I am a hop, skip, and jump away from being arachnophobic. I can’t stand spiders, this is how I react when they cross my personal space. LOL.
how I used to overcome bugs
I’m not saying that I still don’t struggle with the love/hate relationship that I have with these critters, but I try my best to make sure I don’t forget that I should probably just respect their lives too. Even though in the back of my mind I just want to …umm nevermind…LOL. In this post, I am going to show you tips on what helped me overcome my fears of Florida bugs. It takes some time and effort, but if you really want something, you will go for it right?
“Tips on How To Overcome Your Fear of Creepy Garden Bugs in the vegetable garden”
Tip # 1: Understand to Overcome bugs
- Get familiar with them. Find out what benefits or negative effects they may have on your garden.
- Research and discover what attracts the insects to your garden
- If they are pests, find out what you can use to naturally repel them and plant bug-repelling plants nearby.
Understanding the pros and cons reminds me of a funny story on how I discovered that Black Soldier Flies are like little workers in my DeeHive compost bin. But that is an entirely different story I will fill you guys on in a different post. you can check it out here. How To Make A Compost Bin and Start Composting
Those butterflies hanging out in my garden were actually paving the way for destruction a few ahead. Had I know that they were dancing around dropping their babies off for me to feed, I probably wouldn’t have tried to take the perfect picture of them. It takes a lot of time each morning during the summer picking off those bright green greedy-greedy goblins who devour tomato plants that I had no business growing in the hot Florida sun (little did I know). Those greedy green goblins are known as tomato Hornworms. Here is a picture I photoshopped of one I had to suck up my fears for. Right before if devoured the entire plant(ugh…fat asses). I mean, for crying out loud…one of them single-handedly ate 3/4 of a 3ft tomato plant!
The best part about it was that I eventually got used to seeing them and stopped freaking out. I’m sure that if I was able to calm down about it, then others would too.
Tip # 2: Learn how to protect your plants from the bugs
Simply put, if they can’t get to them, then they will just move on!. I’ve noticed that whatever bug that likes to eat my kale overnight just up and left. Why?…because I made a way to protect the plant from the critter; furthermore, you don’t have to go and buy anything fancy to protect them either. Don’t get swindled in by those 2 for $9.99 miracle bug trapper thingys on those late-night infomercials.
I simply……
- Cut the top off one of those plastic disposable drinking cups.
- Cut some sharp edges on the top
- Then wrapped it around the bottom of my plant.
It worked like a charm. Like I said earlier, I do respect the life of the bugs even though we don’t get along. With that being said, if I can find a way to prevent my ass from seeing them while preventing a confrontation, then so be it. It’s a win-win for man v.s nature.
To learn more about how I used bug-repelling plants to help, check out my upcoming post on plants that repel insects.
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