Besieged!

For a few days now my classmates have been bemoaning the pests that have taken up residence in their gardens and made the cabbages their personal smorgasbords. While I was shocked at the abundance of flea beetle during the first real heat wave, the subsequent drop in temperature along with the rain brought the population down significantly. I was also pleased to observe that my lettuces were unscathed, having been planted close to the onions, which are supposed to repel flea beetle.

Day after day I would search for signs of nibbling on the onions, lettuce, cabbage, and parsley, blissfully finding none. Imagine the horror then, the shock and unparalleled dismay, at strolling into the garden to check on my newly emerged zucchini to find this:

And this...

But worst of all, this...

Immediately I was on my knees, craning my neck to peer under the leaves in search of the ne'er-do-well that was making a feast out of my garden and I found it! Or should I say THEM!!!

Striped Cucumber Beetles, ravaging my zucchini!!! I ran, not walked, into the potting shed, grabbed a couple of sticky cards, and began turning over every leaf. On half a dozen seedlings I caught twice as many beetles! Just look for yourself!!

It was only then that I realized the awful truth - my garden's been besieged! To make matters even worse, these little beetles have super-beetle powers and are immune to the sticky on sticky cards! Darn if those little buggers skated right off like they were rollerblading on butter!

I stared at the beetles on the sticky card. They stared back. We knew each other for enemies. As one flew off the card I knew right then and there that the gauntlet had been thrown.

War has been declared in the garden!