Rule #21: Watch your garden closely...Pests show their ugly faces around NOW (July)

So after loosing power for 5 days in conjunction with a heat wave, the garden was not a super happy place.  On a positive note, the tomatoes seem to be doing well.  After the "Deracho" storm our neighborhood was a huge mess.  Huge trees down on cars and houses and wrapped around electrical poles.  So we feel lucky with the minimal damage to the garden. Some peppers and parts of the tomatoes had to be propped back up, but all of the plants survived. We did have the generator going, but it was working hard to pump in some a/c for parts of the day so we didn't water as the water pump would need to be powered as well.
I am guessing the lack of water and my absence in the garden contributed to the webbing spider mites taking over the green beans.  My mature round of green beans were totally destroyed and my newer round were starting to go as well.  I yanked all the old ones and spayed some insecticidal soap on the young ones.  I need to get more though and really spray the undersides. Before the storm I was doing really well keeping an eye on the pests and crushing those little yellow caterpillars and eggs that usually get my green beans. Webbing spider mites are a new pest to me and I have read that if the plants also have less water they can be more susceptible to damage from the mites.  Boo. Hopefully my new round will survive.
The dreaded squash vine boror struck again this year.  I knew it was there, but I just didn't have time to deal with it until the past two nights. One of my four was beyond repair and totally wilted to I yanked that one. The other two got emergency surgery last night after the girls went to bed. One of the romanesca zucs is huge and I really wanted to save it.  I found 3 buggers in that one and four in the other romanesca that is smaller. There were 2 in the last crookneck. I then buried the stem under some good dirt and am hoping for the best. I would have taken pictures but I was just lucky to get out there and do something in the garden that I just didn't have the time or heart to get the camera out and document the process. In the past weeks I have been keeping an eye on the leaves and getting rid of any squash bug eggs that I find so they haven't been a problem yet. Saw a big guy on there last night though and will be spraying with a dish soap/ water combo tonight.

I don't know what this is but he didn't seem to be causing any real damage so I left him alone.

He was a wild looking thing!

Pre-Storm Haul

Funny when this happens

I also got to freeze my first ever Borlotti Beans!

Here are my babies. Let's hope this wasn't the last of them.

So there we have the two vegetables that were my focus this year devastated.  They have done better this year and I guess time will tell if they are truly destroyed. I even got to freeze a round of green beans! The zucs actually look good this morning. Fingers crossed.
On a more positive note I am looking forward to the lower temps this week to start my radicchio and endive for the winter garden (*smiles*).  I also roasted my beets and am going to pickle them tonight.  I did not get a chance to plant another round of them so I will try to do that this week also.  Good luck gardeners...it's a battlefield out there!

OK....so I am adding some post-mortem pics of the Zuc!

Yucky Frass.

The remaining Zucs...16 hours Post-Op!

De-Bugged (Hopefully) and covered up

Another Post-Op

Last Post-Op

Boo

Pickling the Beets