 Welcome to Alabama Smart Yards, we're creating beautiful landscapes that protect natural environments. Why? Because it's a smart thing to do. Today, Danny Carroll will talk about scouting for insects and the importance of knowing who's who. Vegetable gardens come in many different sizes. Whether you have a few tomatoes in a pot, maybe a raised bed, or a large in-ground garden, scouting for pest insects is an important tool in our management plan. When we go many days without scouting our vegetable plants, insect pests may get out of hand quickly. And once these populations are high, they can be very difficult to manage. Learn to identify insects and their life cycles. Different stages of a pest life cycle are easier to control and manage than others. Remember, the greatest majority of insects are beneficial. So identify the pest insect is your first step in a management plan. We can target the pest and not the good guys. Scouting involves looking at all parts of your vegetable plants, surveying as frequently as you can. Many insects may lay their eggs on the bottom of leaves. Some bore into the stem, while others may chomp the foliage from above. Use a magnifying lens. This can help with those tiny insects that are hard for us to see. Bug jars are another option to help with identification. And for even the tinier insects, gently shake or tap the plant over a yellow frisbee or a piece of yellow cardstock to sample for insect populations. Scouting our plants is an often overlooked part of our insect management plan in our home gardens, an essential and free tool to use.