I recently wrote about my serious aphid problem. Well, unfortunately (or fortunately, depending on how you look at it) that is not the only pest problem I have this year. Slugs have been a recurring pain in the neck each growing season, and this year is certainly no different.
One of the disadvantages of using a mulch like straw to keep moisture in and weeds down, is that you also end up creating more potential slug habitat.
In past years I have simply tolerated the crop grazing, primarily due to the fact that they didn’t really seem to have a major impact on my ‘important’ crop plants, such as the tomatoes and zucchinis. This year however, with all my garden expansions and a renewed desire to nurture the best garden possible, I definitely want to see if I can mitigate the slug problem.
I’ve heard that slugs love beer. Luckily, I don’t mind having the odd wobbly pop myself, so I decided to test out the ‘beer trap’ method of slug removal – making sure that all remaining slugicide did not go to waste.
My strawberry patch seems to be slug central this year, so I thought this was as good a place as any to do my testing. My ‘traps’ consisted of three shallow containers with some beer in them. Pretty straight-forward stuff.
So far so good. When I checked on the traps the morning after setting them up, each of them had at least a couple slugs in them, along with an assortment of other invertebrate party animals – ants, flies, beetles etc. Interestingly, I left the traps for an additional day, but didn’t seem to trap any more slugs. Hmmm…these beer traps could get expensive (and fun at the same time – haha).
All joking aside, I think I’ll be trying out some other methods. If anyone knows of any good techniques for getting rid of slugs (in an eco-friendly manner) please let me know. One possibility that I’ve considered is diatomaceous earth, but I’m a little worried about hurting ‘good guy’ critters like lady bugs etc.
Anyway, I’ll keep you posted!
Technorati Tags: slugs, slug traps, pests, garden pests, diatomaceous earth
Written by Compost Guy on June 25th, 2009 with 5 comments.
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As optimistic and excited as I am about my increased focus on eco-friendly urban farming this year, I’ve come to accept the fact that it’s probably going to take a season or two before thing are rolling along nicely. Seeing my big Honeysuckle (Lonicera sp.) completely infested with aphids as of late has certainly reminded me of this in a big way.
The cool thing about learning as I go (and encountering these issues) however, is that it gives me lots to write about here!
In the last week or two I’ve been trying to decide how I should best deal with this aphid explosion. Various possibilities have come to mind, but I still hadn’t settled on anything (I was actually going to write about it here to see if I could get some ideas from others with more experience).
Then, in a VERY bizarre turn of events, I started finding Lady Bug larvae on my deck. I’ve read that these ferocious looking things can eat something like 50 aphids a day, so needless to say I’ve been really excited to find them and have been transporting all of them over to the Honeysuckle.
It is amazing to watch these larvae at work! Literally, as soon as they are within biting distance of the aphids they start attacking them. I’ve even witnessed one grabbing them off the plant while still on the little piece of cardboard I was using to ferry it over – and believe me, once they’ve got one in their mouth they are more than happy to stay where they are and finish their meal. haha
In all honesty, I haven’t found enough of these larvae to have a serious impact on the aphid population, but it will be interesting to see what happens. Hopefully I’ll be able to attract some more lady bugs into the garden in general.
Technorati Tags: aphids, lady bugs, pests, ipm, natural pest control, insects, organic, honeysuckle, gardening
Written by Compost Guy on June 22nd, 2009 with no comments.
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Wow – it has certainly been a while since I wrote a new post here! I just wanted to let everyone know I’m still alive and well, and that I’ve simply been spending all my time over at Red Worm Composting. I am planning to get things rolling again here, but I know talk is cheap (especially when I’m the one talking – haha) so let’s just start with a new post and see where that takes us!
Last year I wrote a post about how much of a lousy gardener I am. While I’ve certainly dabbled in ‘growing stuff’ for many years, I’ve never actually taken the time to really learn how to do it properly, the way I have with composting/vermicomposting – until NOW that is!
This year I decided once and for all that I was going to really put in a concerted effort to learn all about organic gardening, and put a lot more time and effort into my suburban farming efforts. It’s really silly when I think about it now, but for a while I’ve simply been dreaming about buying a small farm, where I can finally create my ultimate sustainable paradise. Of course, this meant that I ended up ignoring some prime real estate under my own nose!
I guess I was worried about ‘resale value’ and other nonsensical things, but as my brother-in-law reminds me over and over, it’s kitchens and bathrooms that sell houses NOT backyards. haha
When it comes down to it, I really have a LOT of potential growing space to work with. Last year I was amazed how much produce I was able to grow with very little effort (my vermicomposting trenches certainly helped). This year I will be getting even MORE help from my population of composting worms, in the form of more (and larger) trench/windrow systems, and variations of my ‘garbage gardening method‘.
As you can see in the picture above, I have purchased some books to help me learn more. I seem to have lucked out with the ones I selected – they are all really excellent. I’ll more than likely devote individual posts to each of them once I have spent a bit more time with them.
Of course, the web will play an important role in helping me to learn more as well. I actually just happened upon a nice little site today, put together by one of my worm customers. It is called ‘Raised Bed Organic Gardening‘. I love small, easy to read websites like this – especially when they have a personalized feel about them.
Anyway, I’ll certainly be writing a LOT more about my gardening (and learning) efforts. I just wanted to get a post up today to get the ball rolling!
Written by Compost Guy on June 18th, 2009 with no comments.
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