Something’s been eating the kale and cabbage. And there have been these mellow, small orange bugs hanging out. Today, after some quick research, discovered that Harlequin beetles have moved in.

I am always interested in discovering “new life and new civilizations” but the internet assured me that these beetles are voracious destroyers of brassicas (cabbage family). They even leave cute collections of eggs that look like itty bitty sushi rolls.

These beetles are slow movers, and fall easily. Culling them by hand is relatively simple.

It’s worth noting that this bed only has a single rue herb, and no marigolds whatsoever. The rue (beetle-repeller) has been smothered by tomatoes (tomatoes pretty much smother everything), as well as the chives (known to ward off some bugs). So, in proportion to the vegetables, the defensive plant presence is tiny.

I am not sure if these bugs were just parking on the kale to make the next generations of beetles, or they were indeed eating the kale. I cut a few leaves for dinner and found an inch-long green caterpillar on the underside of a leaf, which, after some internet searching, looks like a “cabbage looper”. There’s one in the photo above, in the top left corner. Very suspicious!

Either way these bugs are going to be competition and it’s in my interest to reduce them. Something tells me the caterpillars are the ones doing more damage, and the bright orange bugs are just a distraction …

Nature is also course-correcting the garden:  if bugs have arrived and are eating the kale, that’s a pretty clear sign that kale time is over, and to get ready for the fall planting.

Harlequin Beetles are Here by mehron is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International