Take the caterpillar first. After watching white butterflies parading through my garden three weeks ago I decided to trial a tip I'd heard and dismissed years ago, and that is placing halves of white eggshells about the garden. I happen to have plenty of white eggshells, because I have Ancona chooks that lay them, and so through the garden they went, each half screwed gently into the soil leaving the cone visible. And, truly, I have not seen despite keen surveillance a white butterfly in the garden since. Not one. The theory is, I recall, that the passing butterfly or moth sees the eggshells and thinks, "Oops, too many butterflies laying eggs in there, too much competition for my offspring". But that's only half the battle with moths. The heliothis moth lays the egg for the caterpillar that destroys tomatoes, and the moth is not white. I'll be spraying with the bacterial Dipel again this year but inevitably I lose some tomatoes.

The fruit fly? Well, last year for the first time in decades I won that battle, and I did so using the new bait and poison, Eco-Naturalure, which unlike the traditional fruit fly baits attracts the female fly. Catching the male fly is good revenge but that's about all. As well I wrapped some tomato bushes in mosquito netting, and while that kept the fly out somehow the heliothis caterpillar reached the fruit. Perhaps the moth deposited the egg where leaf touched the netting. A solution this year may be to open the shroud regularly to spray for the caterpillars. (Go to "Fruit fly triumph" on Page 8 of my blogs to see photos of the shrouds.)

Another success from last summer was keeping the cutworm, snails/slugs and birds away from small seedlings by screwing bottomless clear plastic cups over each seedling. I'd cut the bottom off each cup, and remember to remove the cup before the plant gets too big.

We gardeners should unite in this war by sharing our pest-control tips. And what are you growing this season?