The fix for the shield bug problem ended up being to till under the mustard crop. Those little critters are tenacious. They moved onto the overgrown radishes which were on the way out anyway. Now they can be found on the turnips and brassicas. They are not too bad though. I think they have rasping mouthparts that leave little streaks on the leaves but won't harm the broccoli or cauliflower heads to much. The plan right now is to keep reducing their numbers by promptly removing all spent crop residue from the field. The next step is to just to wait and see how the changing season effects them. I suspect that they might just leave this veggie field alone in favor of the wild mustard that has began to sprout up on the surrounding hillside after the last storm. They seem to prefer the few mustard weeds in the walkways to anything else, usually chewing them down to crispy nubs. Another option would be to try using row or two of mustard as a trap crop and spray that with peanut oil.
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