DILEMMA

I don't believe in using insecticides in my garden. So I use mechanical means, hand picking of the pests when possible, knocking them off with a stick, or using soap, oil and water mix to spray on the plants. The bugs continued getting an upper hand and I was getting frustrated. The weather has changed this weekend, and a chill is in the air this morning, making it a little cooler than the mornings this past weekend. This morning, it is so cold that my morning glory flowers did not open, have not opened. They used to open up early and would be fully open with sunrise. Yesterday, they opened around ten o'clock, after the sun warmed up the air, chasing away the chill. The grass is turning brown and the plants have slowed down and on their way out. Earlier in the summer, I took pictures of some of the flowers and plants, as the war with the bugs raged. I could understand why farmers use insecticides on their crops. I used to complain about insecticides until I experienced the frustration of watching critters destroy crops and render all the effort in planting and caring for them useless.
The caterpillars, aphids and some other creatures whose names I don't even know descended on the tomatoes, squash, pepper, egg plant, corn, and spiders made egg pouches with the leaves of the bitter leaf and nchu-anwu plants, and when they hatched, there would be dozens of tiny green spiders crawling all over the place. The spiders would eat the caterpillars and grasshoppers, but they did not do the job fast enough and after I read somewhere that the green spiders were dangerous, I became afraid of them and had to spray them with a vegetable-safe insecticide.

My son thought it was hilarious that I was carrying on a physical war with the bugs, knocking them off with sticks, while they moved quickly from plant to plant or actually, the butterflies laid their eggs faster than I could get the caterpillars off and some of them were huge. The moth caterpillars, I knew from before, were the fuzzy, hairy ones and the butterfly caterpillars were bigger, bright colored and not hairy. There was this particular green caterpillar specie with a single horn on the head that grew very fat and could take a plant down in forty eight hours. After they won the battle on a tomato plant, I decided to let them have that plant and I started taking pictures of them as they developed. I focused on that one plant and within a few days, I realized that these creatures were actually helping me in other ways. I saw a yellow butterfly hanging on a twig, drying its wings after emerging from the cocoon. Not long after that, it joined other butterflies just like it, in sitting on my okra flowers drinking nectar. I caught a few snapshots of the show.
When the flowers fell off and the small okra pods came through and grew into the long pods, I saw the usefulness of the caterpillars and butterflies after all. At a time there was so much okra harvest that I chopped them and stored them in the freezer. Having harvested a lot of tomatoes also, I stopped fighting the caterpillars and within days, they shaved the tomato plants of their leaves and I let them have fun, while I had fun with the bright yellow butterflies with specks of colors on their wings. I started taking photographs of them hovering over the flowers. That became a morning routine that I look forward to. Then I took pictures of the bees too as they buzz around, one or two of them with the butterflies. Getting close enough to get a good shot got better with each passing day. Allowing them to settle down before trying to take pictures of them worked. Letting the bees crawl into the morning glory flowers before getting close and focusing, and getting a shot as they crawled out, worked. I enjoyed doing this every chance I got, until this weekend when the cool mornings arrived and the plants are slowing down, and flowers are not opening up. It has been fun and very relaxing.
I had taken over four hundred pictures with my cell phone over the weeks and have loaded them to my computer this weekend. I will share them as time allows.
My dilemma was whether to kill the caterpillars or not--- To kill or not to kill--- until I saw a bright yellow butterfly sitting on a matching bright yellow okra flower. The sight was too beautiful, and took care of my dilemma. I left the caterpillars alone. By God's mercy, if I have a garden next season, I may leave a few crops to the critters and pick them off some, to get my share. I think that will be fair enough.
Enjoy the pictures attached and have a nice day.

Nwada Chinwe Enemchukwu
Onye Uwa Oma
na Orlando, Florida
Pictures by Chinwe Enemchukwu