snail and spittle bug garden attack!
The garden sustained a massive spittle bug attack this year and I’m just barely keeping the snails at bay, too. While fun to photograph, the infestation of both wreaks havoc on the plants! While identifying and eliminating the snails is a relatively straightforward process, the spittle bugs rather caught me by surprise. You can identify them buy globs of soap-sud-like foam on the stems of your plants. The spittle bug actually lives inside the foam, and I have a picture of two of them here.
spittle bug garden pest
Spittle bugs don’t directly cause any noticeable harm to the plant but they do weaken it, and thus your plant becomes more susceptible to a host of other bad things. So, nip the problem in the bud when you see the first sign of foam! How? You actually have to prune the parts of the plant with the bubbles, followed by a strong spray from the hose on the plant and everything around it. If that doesn’t keep the bugs at bay, there are homemade and chemical solutions you can pour on the base of the plant but, I’m going to reserve those as a last resort.
