I had no idea individuals could grow tobacco. I just assumed it was all regulated. Now that I know that, I'm definitely gonna try this next year. Plus the added bonus of being a deer deterrent, yippee. I much prefer natural solutions if possible.
I saw my first egg carrying hornworm this year. It was a happy site to see nature at work. I usually pick the hornworms off and feed them to my chickens. Like you said, I left that one alone.
I really enjoyed your article and will be looking forward to more.
It certainly is interesting getting to see nature at work with the wasp eggs. The first time I ever saw one, it definitely stopped me in my footsteps trying to figure out what I was seeing.
I've been trying to work on keeping steady lady bug populations around too recently, along with praying manteses as well. Natural living "insecticides" are the best!
And thanks for stopping by and checking out the post!
I have several bug houses. I keep most around my gardens and perennial plants. I have houses specifically for lady bugs and butterflies. I also have several for bees and pollinators. So far nothing for the mantis' but the houses are really working. The ones for the pollinators are super easy. It can just be stacked wood with varying size holes drilled in them. I use river cane as well (native bamboo).
These are the plans I used to build my ladybug house and butterfly houses.
https://feltmagnet.com/crafts/how-to-build-a-ladybug-house
That's awesome! Thanks for sharing that. I'm nowhere close to having a setup like that, but certainly is what I would like to have at some point. How long have you been doing this for?
In regards to the bees - that's in the plans for one of my next projects and hoping to have a few hives set up by next spring.
I've been using the houses for about five years now. I don't have any honey bees, no hives, just native pollinators. There are lots of other bees and flies that make a huge difference in crop production. Those are the ones that use the logs.
Good stuff. I really need to work on getting a setup like yours going at my place. I really like how you did yours.