Published on Saturday, June 6, 2026

By Victoria Torley

As if I didn’t have enough trouble with the leaf cutter ants, now I have clusters and clusters of caterpillars all over my passion flower vines! What a horror!

I noticed the first writhing cluster when I was in the pool. Well, naturally I had to get out and grab the Raid to deal with them. Unlike the leaf cutters, they were easy prey. A few squirts and they were dropping like the proverbial fly.

Not that this was an enjoyable task, mind you. Caterpillars turn into butterflies and pollinate any number of plants, but this was too much. I had wondered what was eating into the buds and chomping at the leaves, but this is the first time I caught them in action. Too much action. There were hundreds of them on my trellis creating havoc, so they had to go.

We gardeners always hope to strike a balance between the natural world and the world we are creating with our plantings and sometimes they are in conflict.

If, for example, you want to make burnt earth for your containers, you have to burn things for a day or so (that got me in trouble with the opponents of carbon pollution).


Or maybe you have a fungus on your orange trees and have to spray. Sometimes it’s either go to science or give up and buy fruit and veggies at the market and who knows what is on tomatoes from the market. 

 

I know that there are natural solutions out there and believe me, we have tried them, but what is all that vinegar doing to the soil except making it more acid. Then I have to buy calcium to neutralize the acid and the calcium has to be mined and processed and bagged... sigh.

Right now, we are trying to encircle the fruit trees with lemon grass which is supposed to be a natural repellant. When I say “encircle” I mean the entire grove of trees which means a circle of 100 meters with a double row of plants. Plant them with the lemon grass. Their natural pyrethrin is an insect repellant.

One way or another, I intend to win the battle against the bugs, but I really am sorry about the butterflies...

Plant for the week. Peppermint (Mentha × piperita) and Spearmint (Mentha spicata) do emit a strong menthol and menthone scent that naturally deters ants. The intense aroma acts as an excito-repellent, overwhelming the ants' sensory organs, physically irritating their antennae, and completely masking the invisible pheromone trails they use to navigate and forage.

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Find more interesting stories about gardening in Costa Rica on the AM Costa Rica Garden Magazine. Questions on this article, Ms. Torley, gardener columnist, can be reached by emailing victoriatorley1@gmail.com
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