Slugs!
All I'm growing in my garden is slug fodder. Are other people having slug problems? Any clever ideas other that beer traps and Diatomaceous Earth?
posted by Amy Z. @ 3/06/2006
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Monday, March 06, 2006
All I'm growing in my garden is slug fodder. Are other people having slug problems? Any clever ideas other that beer traps and Diatomaceous Earth?
10 Comments:
In the past, I had some success with crushed eggshells. The snails don't like slicking over the jagged edges of shell, that is until it rains. Then the shells lose their zam. In the end, at least you're adding calcium to the soil.
What are they eating?
During the rainy weather on Monday I found slugs muching vigorously on my onions. I was just thinking about how to get rid of them. Time to get some cheap beer I think. I'll save egg-shells and I have diatomacious earth, but I think the rain neutralizes them both. Um, how do I set up the beer traps?
And the tunafish traps for earwigs as well?
Karl
You could try making a mini palisade wall out of wire window screen. Unravel a couple of strands of wire so that the veritcal wires stick up like little spikes. Ha ha take that slugs! I did it last year around my lettuce bed and it worked well, even after the rain. I've never tried it but encircling plants with copper tape/pipe/flashing is supposed to work too. Apparently it zaps (yes, that's a technical term)the slugs when they crawl over it.
Hmm, wire mesh, eh? I'm thinking about surrounding my strawberries with a little impassable fence for slugs and such, maybe I might try that.
I got an interesting idea for using beer to trap slugs from a book -- it worked well last year. Get a plastic gallon milk container. Cut some 1" holes about 4"-6" from the bottom -- around the perimeter of the containter.
Pour beer into the bottom of tghe container. Then here's the fun part. Bury it so the bottom of the holes are at ground level. The slugs can just slide on in and no critters will knock over your beer container. You should collect a lot of slugs, and will need to dump the mess and add new beer (or just get a new milk container) and start over. It worked pretty well for me.
The book I got the idea from is called "Slug Bread and Beheaded Thistles: Amusing and Useful Techniques for Nontoxic Housekeeping and Gardeening" by Ellen Sandbeck. She also claims that making slug bread, a yeasty concoction -- will trap the slugs. Good luck!
Of course, you could electrufy the copper fence or wire mesh with a solar panel... ;)
No, seriously, the milk carton thing sounds like a really good idea but please don't use that yummy stout. Try Bud instead!
We had earwig problems moreso than slugs last year. We found that the veggie oil in a can worked great. It was always nasty dumping the dead earwigs and oil out though.
In a variation on the milk jug, I take cottage cheese or margarine containers and cut 1 inch holes about an inch up and bury it with the holes at ground level. The nice thing is that it doesn't take much beer (a bottle of beer will bait two traps) and the lid keeps the rain out and the traps working for about a week. Then you can reuse the container but be warned that it gets yucky.
Pest control in the perennial garden
http://home-gardening.blogspot.com/
If you have any good tips please post them on my blog
One of the many advantages of growing perennials is the ability of these beautiful flowers to return to full bloom season after season. While this ability to bloom repeatedly is one of the things that makes perennials so special, it also introduces a number of important factors into your gardening plan. One of the most important of these is a proper pest control regimen.
While a garden full of annuals starts each season as a blank slate, the perennial garden is essentially a work in progress. The fact that the plants stay in the ground through winter makes things like proper pruning, disease management and pest control very important. If the garden bed is not prepared properly after the current growing season, chances are the quality of the blooms will suffer when the next season rolls around.
One of the most important factors to a successful perennial pest control regimen is the attention and vigilance of the gardener. As the gardener, you are in the best position to notice any changes in the garden, such as spots on the leaves, holes in the leaves, or damage to the stems. Any one of these could indicate a problem such as pest infestation or a disease outbreak.
It is important to nip any such problem in the bud, since a disease outbreak or pest infestation can easily spread to take over an entire garden. Fortunately for the gardener, there are a number of effective methods for controlling both common pests and frequently seen plant diseases.
Some of these methods are chemical in nature, such as insecticides and fungicides, while others are more natural, like using beneficial insects to control harmful ones. While both approaches have their advantages and disadvantages, many gardeners prefer to try the natural approach first, both for the health of the garden and the environment.
There is an additional benefit of the natural approach that many gardeners are unaware of. These days, it is very popular to combine a koi pond with a garden, for a soothing, relaxing environment. If you do plan to incorporate some type of fish pond into your garden landscape, it is critical to avoid using any type of insecticide or fungicide near the pond, since it could seep into the water and poison the fish. Fish are extremely sensitive to chemicals in the environment, especially with a closed environment like a pond.
As with any health issue, for people or plants, prevention is the best strategy to disease control and pest control alike. The best defense for the gardener is to grow a garden full of the healthiest, most vigorous plants possible. Whenever possible, varieties of plants bred to be disease or pest resistant should be used. There are a number of perennials that, through selective breeding, are quite resistant to the most common plant diseases, so it is a good idea to seek them out.
Happy gardening,
Stan
http://yourebooksuperstore.com/vegetable/
Hi, I was out bloigging and found your site. It certainlhy got my attention and interest. I was looking for Silk information and even though this isn't a perfect match I enjoyed your site. Thanks for the read!
Anyone have any luck using diatomacious earth to kill spiders? We have a gravel dog run and it's full of spiders but I don't want the dog walking on pesticide. She brings the bugs into the house on her coat!
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