Joe's Farm: May 2011

The Rapture was big news for a few days and everyone said the crazy old man Harold Camping was wrong. Well, Joes Farm is here to tell you that he was right and there was a rapture. Although the rapture did not occur as Harold Camping had predicted on May 22nd, 2011, it did indeed happen. We at Joes Farm were able to witness and participate in the rapture one day late on May 23rd, 2011. The rapture did not involve people it involved demon squash bugs. It was not god that performed this rapture it was the hand of Joes Farm that reached down and raptured the hell out of these squash bugs. It was an joyous rapture to witness.

For the seasoned Joes Farm reader you are familiar with the problems that we had last year with squash bugs. They decimated the squash harvest and we went with out last year. This year we were able to identify and deal with the squash bugs before they have became an issue. We are not in the clear just yet but things are looking good.

When the squash bugs were first identified the hand of Joes Farm struck down the squash bugs and their filthy offspring with a good old fashioned rapture. We then followed that up with some research on the squash bugs. The first thing that we found in our research is that they suck. The second thing that we found was that there are not many organic ways to deal with these filthy insects. The best information that we were able to find is that they need to be dealt with by hand. So we started to squash the squash bugs. We knew from last year that they also stink when you squish them.

After sending those squash bugs to hell we had to put an end to the vicious cycle and find the eggs. The squash bugs lay their eggs on the bottom of the leaves of the plant and they are pretty easy to see. The approach that we took on Joes Farm was to cut the leaves off that had eggs on them and then set them on fire. This may seem like a drastic measure but if you had suffered the loss that Joes Farm did last year you would understand. Joes Farm had a score to settle.

The battle has been won, but the war continues on. The squash bug is sneaky combatant. They hide towards the bottom of the plant and come out at night. They suck the juices from the squash plant and they inject poison. If you see one there are bound to be more so you must be vigilant in your squash bug defense.

Here are some photos of the rapture.