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Login Here Signup Here Signup using Facebooki live in LA, and i have noticed that every summer, tiny green bugs start appearing on the kale in the super markets, and then disappear again in the fall. i believe they are aphids, and they almost look just like little seeds, and i’m sure plenty of people don’t even notice them unless they pick up a bunch with a higher infestation. they FREAK ME OUT. it turns me off of kale in the summer bc i’m nervous that even with vigorous washing they just don’t all come off.
i’ve noticed that even in the really high quality organic produce markets this is a problem, and while it seems that dino kale attracts significantly fewer of them, if you look closely (which i do, as this is my “thing” ha) there’ll be a few there. so once the l’il buggies appear, that’s when i switch over to spinach for all my smoothies/ leafy green needs.
i was just wondering if anybody knows what’s up with this? or if anybody else has noticed this problem, and how you’ve chosen to handle it. i’m also curious if this is an issue all over the country, or just locally.
sorry if i’m spreading the paranoia… i’m actually not even weird at all about other bugs or washing dirt off my produce, etc… but the kale buggies… ew.
Comments
That’s funny. I am like that with broccoli buggies. They are tiny and black. And they are in cauliflower too. I got some broccoli from the farmer’s market and yesterday ate some and then it moved! It was a tiny green caterpillar! Luckily I did not eat it. But anyhow, produce is healthy if it has bugs on it but the soil could probably use some more ladybugs who love to eat aphids.
I don’t know how to say this delicately – smoothies?? I discovered some TINY bugs on my kale, might be scale, hardly bug-like, but bugs all the same and they were really hard to wash off, so I remembered a comment David Wolfe said in a video about ants and B12 and now I don’t search the leaves quite so hard. A Vitamix is a powerful thing. Caterpillars are another story, those are going back in the garden.
Haha, AmySue I love your remedy for that solution. I use kale either cut up in salads or sometimes smoothies, but since it is one thing I bring home from farm I volunteer at I go for the best handful of leaves possible. However kale is just coming in for us and I haven’t seen the bugs yet!
Mmmm… Protein.
Funny I don't ever seem to see these type of bugs on the kale I grow, though I have seen them on the store kale. Bugs only infest weak plants so then it makes me think, how much vitamins do week plants have vs healthy plants. Interesting though.
I'm with amysue though, little bug never hurt anyone..well almost any little bug. I'll skip caterpillars and a few others.
: p