Insect Pests and Solutions
There are thousands of insects in the jungle here, and several of them like to feast on our plants. We’re going to try to catalog as many of them as possible to help our friends and neighbors in the area recognize them and know what to do. Aphids Every gardener and farmer hates aphids. They […]
How to prepare a natural insecticide and fungicide
In Rancho Delicioso we are experimenting with several recipes in order to create organic products to treat plagues from various insect pests, or to prevent them. We believe that there are harmless ways to treat these frequent problems of the gardens, rather than using chemicals. We came across to this recipe to create a powerful […]
Caterpillar That Eats Passion Fruit Leaves
This beautiful orange and black butterfly looks sweet, but it lays hundreds of eggs on our passion fruit vine leaves. At first, the eggs are bright yellow, but after a time, they turn a browner shade before hatching. The tiny caterpillar babies favor these passion fruit vines leaves (maracuya) and will quickly grow much larger. […]
Natural Predators as Allies on the Farm
Here I’m creating an ongoing article exploring the symbiotic relationship between our farm, and the natural creatures that live in the jungle around us. How can we help each other? What can we do to encourage the right type of critters to come to dine on the bugs and beasts that bother us? The following […]
Godzilla attacks the farm
This vegetarian monster, known as a green iguana tried to get into our lizard-proof garden, and found a weakness, which was that one of the posts wasn’t covered with tin. He climbed it and ate many peppers before being discovered and captured. These can grow up to 6 feet long, and is even bigger than […]
Small Caterpillar who eats our greens
What is this bug and what do we do about it? If you recognize it, and have an organic solution, please help us out. We’ve been spraying our plants with a powdered mix of chili peppers and garlic, but this bug seems to be pretty resistant to it. We don’t have a lot of […]
Iguanas
Iguanas like the one shown above (technically called “Cnetosaurs”) are common here. I love them because they are small dinosaurs, and who doesn’t love dinosaurs? But I’m not happy about them snacking on our organic veggies and fruits. It’s hard enough getting stuff to grow here without these giant lizards coming along and helping themselves […]
