Not much wind this morning and a trap worked

 Very little breeze though it's cooler this morning and last night. I took liquid soap and the scrap bucket down and made some traps. But first, a butterfly! Mourning Cloak butterfly landed on the tall jade as I walked by so had to snap a picture.

 

 Took about four to try and time it for when it opened the wings completely. I love the colors of blue, brown and white on these. They prefer elm trees to lay eggs so I'm safe. Just wish I had more nectar plants for the butterflies.

One of the zinnias in the raised bed, I decided to just pull it. Not worth the work for so little. The leaves on the radishes are getting seriously munched. Going to reset the traps there with better bait tonight.

Traps and covers set the small piece of bark is covering a pudding cup with the cut end of a tomato a little water and soap. The other traps all had cauliflower leaves because that's all the scraps I had. I found a tiny tomato that had, what looked like, leaf miner damage took it upstairs and tried to inspect but didn't see anything. Tomato works a lot better than cauliflower leaves and there must be a nest that hatched right under where I am planting the cucumber.

 

Look at all of them! They're all tiny and just dozens of them! Even as I pulled that cup out there were still more breaking through the soil in the area. So yeah, going to be having a tomato today and bring down the cut top and a few bits. That green thing is the small tomato I dissected so even a green one will work. With as many tomatoes I have, I can afford to spare one or two.

Nada in the other traps, maybe one or two bugs and a lot of springtails in the left picture. that cup was near the trellis. the other one I should have put in more water but now I know what works will be putting deeper cups and better bait out. I just dumped the dry stems on the ground and tossed the cup dregs into the compost bucket. Yeah I know, I'll be using the compost and that will be in there but the compost bucket with decaying scraps isn't done for a while. I did not put them into the finished compost!

 

The sunflower shifted position it seems, which is not a bad thing just notable and the onions are getting to size, now I just need a jalapeño plant and the tomatoes to get ripe for some salsa!

 

Just more pictures of the tomatoes. Can see the difference in color from older/more sun ones and younger shaded ones. They get shinier as they get older as well which is another sign of ripening. 

The little zinnia that could, in the shade of tomatoes. No sign of damage or anything but there's less compost in that bed and more clay so despite that, everything is doing great.

Then there's the hole in Layla's bed I noticed yesterday, right under the wall. Wow. I double checked the south bed to make sure there wasn't any dirt moved and it's still good so far.

I had a 2 liter bottle from sodas yesterday and remembered a trap for wasps or something where you cut the top off and reverse it in the bottle. I don't have wasps or yellowjackets and thought, maybe put it on it's side and put bait in to see what gets in? A bit big, might do that with a water bottle but then I looked at the conical top and opening and thought it would be much better for putting over the cucumber when it gets bigger.

Until the pill bug nest is cleared have to keep up the traps to make sure there's nothing much left to bother the seedlings. Maybe also try a 'yeast' (bread) trap for slugs and snails too.

Glad that trap was a success but wow, was not prepared for how many got in there!