Pumpkin Harvest

Saturday was a good trip to the farm.  The pumpkins were ready and we picked them all.........but much to my surprise, there were a couple NEW big jack-o-lanterns forming on the vines.  The vines had recovered amazingly well from the hail and put out new shoots and blossoms and the new "babies" were about soccer ball size already!!!!!  We may get a few more!

 

As you can see there's evidence of the hail damage......but that should just give a face another creepy dimension for Halloween!

We finally brought some Japanese Beetle traps with us.  These critters do MORE damage to the trees in July and August than anything out there!  Spraying really helps, but we decided to try these traps as an added control method.  As we assembled them on the tailgate of the truck, we started getting buzzed by a few of the bugs.  By the time we got the first two traps ready to hang, we had swarms of them flying around us.  One even dropped into the trap before we hung it!  When we hung the second set on the opposite side of the orchard, as I walked back toward Jeff hanging his, I could see a cloud of beetles in the corn taking flight to find the scent!  The bags look like they will hold about a quart of beetles.  I will bet they are full when we go back next weekend.

So, I wonder, what happens inside the bag on the trap?  You've lured these bugs to the trap with a powerful pheromone.  They drop into the bag below, still smelling this pheromone making them as amorous  as can be.  Now you have a bag FULL of horny bugs.  Do they just screw each other to death?  We'll find out!