Has destroyed all my pepper plants. Have t see. Any worms. Like they cut all the leaves off and remaining have just kinda withered. Sprayed em with some soapy water. Thought the soap might have hurt the plants. Never had that problem before. Didn't help much. Bell and banana peppers only. Bells had peppers on em. Nothing else in garden has been bothered. Just the peppers. Everything else looks great.

Hmmm??? Looks like I'll need to get a few more plants.

squirrels...

No. This is a bug of some kind. I did see a really small black bug on one. Moved kinda fast.

Any Ant Hills around? We have Ants out here that will do this but only at certain times of the day. And they work fast, they can destroy a couple plants in less than an hour.

Possibly. But they usually are indiscriminate when they hit plants. Then again they may be hitting peppers first. About the only ant we have left here are fire ants. As all others have been run out by the fire ants. They don't usually hit the garden stuff here. But dang sure possible.

Yep, Fire Ants will do it. They are hell on the invasive Sahara Mustard around here. But that is a good thing.

A couple years back on a very calm and quiet day I was walking by some Mustard plants and heard a continuous "Rattle" sound coming from them, kind of like rain hitting them.

So I stopped to take a closer look and found that Fire Ants had set up an assembly line to gather the dry seed pods. It was kind of cool to watch as half of them were up in the plant cutting off the Seed Pods and letting them fall to the ground. The other half were trucking off with these in a continuous stream.

They were clearing these things out fast!

The fire ants here were never really a problem like that. Matter of fact they would clean out all the other bad bugs and worms that were an issue. But anything is possible these days. Nobody ever thought they would see multiple queen mounds either!!!

All good answers!!! Thanks!!! I've got a big chili pequin native bush back there that's a volunteer plant. Matter of fact they pop up everywhere here in the creek bottom. It's not bothered by the bugs! I'm sure it's developed some kind of protective measure over time. Only thing that gives them Hell are the mockingbirds that simple relish those little Chilis!!!!! That's why we have so many of the plants here.

I'm gonna watch them ants!!!!

Thanks

Just got back from picking up some insecticide today.

Sorry to hear about the pepper plants. Gonna spray Malathion out of the big sprayer all around the house.

Something's been munching on my okra leaves as well.

When in doubt, kill everything in sight!

Wondering. What about too much water? Everything else is going apey.

Curious?

Bob, sevin dust is your friend. 80% if you can find it, 10% if you cant.

Thanks Randy! Back in the day Sevin was all I used! Guess I'll go get some more!

Well, I don't havta worry much about the garden anymore. We have a hell of a mess to clean up here this morning. But we all seem to be ok. And the house ain't leaking.

Holy cow...Rain? We had to scramble a couple of days ago to save our garden from RAIN.

Well rain. And WIND! Lots of wind. Hit here at 5. Lost a bunch of trees. One tree took out aerobic septic controller and all. Lots of fencing to repair. Blew underpinning of leeward side of house. No power (nothing out of ordinary) just a big mess. Was outta here by 5:30!

2" rain in the half hour.

Glad that you are safe my friend. Sorry about the mess, but other than the inconvenience, it can all be replaced. miles

Oh man, sorry to hear this...

Can you imagine what it was like back when folks actually depended on their gardens in order to survive?

One Storm...

Damn Bob, What did you do? Nuke the whole Damn place just to get rid of a few bugs! Good to hear you and your family are ok. Rio7

LOL! Thanks all! Them sombitches drown this morning Blue! Got to get to work. Got a cottonwood tree to get off septic system this morning!

Well it was dead. And it was leaning a safe direction. But wind blew it opposite direction!!!

You need help with that?

I got what you need, and can be there.

Respect meter just went up a thousand points.

We just do what we can. Bob ain't that far away, and I'm selfish... I like hearing his stories!

Thanks Barry! We're good right now. Got some holes in the fence patched and the tree off septic system. It did a good number on it. Now seeing to Steph.

Tops of all trees twisted off and up! Trailer down road got picked up and moved. Lots of roaring going on and it wasn't me snoring! .

Tops of trees twisted off says tornado.

Yeah I did t really wanna come out and say it. There's a big mesquite tree out past the gate that has had every limb on it twisted off. And there was a trailer house just down the road by the creek pick up. It's a mess. I just got the underpinning back up where it got sucked off. Had several 3' lengths of 4x4 on top of bbq pit. It blew a good 30' across the yard off top of pit. Got post oak limbs in the yard too. Them trees are back up the road a ways.

Yep, see it lots of time where it does not actually hit the ground. Still does lots of damage. miles

Sounded like it to me. There was just one in his County on the 26th.

Nope I have to correct myself...it was last year on the 26th. sorry.

A starter this morning.

Once again...Holy Cow! Had to be at least what we call out here a "Micro-burst". What a mess! Looks like you might be adding to your Firewood Stack?

Neighbor across road has 2story house on piers. Picked his place up and kinda dropped it!!! Went to town for extra chainsaw chain and gas. Damn! Hardly get down the road for all the downed trees. Three miles and nuthin!

Yep, had to be a Tornado. So guess what happens here this morning right after I made my first reply to your thread? You got it...WIND and RAIN! It's tossing our coach around pretty good right now and it is starting to get a little intimidating.

I'm glad it wasn't worse, Bob! Glad everyone is OK too.

Just think of what an exciting life you lead!

I'd like to save the excitement for huntin' camp!

You got hit hard. It's hard to believe all that happened in 30 minutes.

Sounds a lot like what went on at Ed's big blow out last year. It was a verified tornado. We were damn lucky that nobody was injured or killed. The man upstairs took a little pity on us. It could have easily went the other way. Again, glad that you and Steph are OK. miles

I know! Crazy thing was in an hour the sun was peeking thru on the horizon. Other than the place looking like the Argonne Forrest about 1917, you'd never known it had stormed.

You PACE YOURSELF, ya hear ?

....don't try and do alla that in one day, Bob.

New Conex Shop OK ?

GTC

Greg!!! That conex was the best investment I made. It's fine. I put it in a spot where it's shaded by big crepe myrtles. Never hear of them falling on anything and tearing it up. I have some giant myrtles here on the place. They all seem to weathered ok.

Yeah the new shop et al Is fine!

Hey Bob.... if you do take Barry up on his offer let me know and I'll drive down.

There are few things I can think of that I'd enjoy more than the two of us setting on the porch drinking ice tea and swapping lies while we watch Barry work.....

Hmmmmm????? Might be a plan there, Charlie!



I'm gonna take Greg's advice and pace myself. I may already be finished for the day.

You're all heart!

Bet we would have a fine time, though!

Glad you and the wife are safe! yes take your time to get the place back in order, might better send one of your 1895s up here to northern Michigan for safe keeping!

"send one of your 1895s up here to northern Michigan for safe keeping!"

I'll give that careful consideration!!!!

No doubt....as long as your idea of fun doesn't involve those fence posts on your flat bed....

Nope. It ain't my idea of fun.

Dug all the post holes and worked on fence braces today. Still sweating from that..

More tomorrow.

I'll be damn glad when it's all done.

Bob, I got in a little tree action today too...

This morning about mid morning heard what sounded like a close rifle shot here. WTH?

Went and looked and one of the large post oaks broke off at the base and fell. Luckily nothing was in the fall path. Had to move that one to brush pile.

Nothing like your clean up from yesterday though.

Bob, I havent looked at this thread for a coupla days and just found out about the storm.

Glad you and Mrs. Stephanie are ok and if you need me, you just holler and I'll come a running.

Update,

Didn't really do anything to the peppers. As I wrote em all off. Then several started putting out some new leaves. So I stated babying em a bit. So far the leaves are staying put and nothing is hitting em yet. Lost several. But the remaining plants seem to be kicking back!

Time will tell.

Green beans are blooming like gangbusters!!! Mustard greens are ready for picking. Squash be blooming any minute now!

Your garden is way ahead of ours, this year. We've had so much rain, that planting was late. Just got peas and green beans in the ground last week. Tomatoes nearly drowned several times, but seem to be coming out of it. Got a bloom or two on them. Put out some pepper plants yesterday. What else the wife and MIL may plant, I dont know. I'm the mule (get the ground ready, make rows, till the middles) and they plant whatever they want, whenever they want, however they want. I stay out of it!

You're a smart man, Randy!