doccat I like your idea I knwo surfing around there are alot of places to find but who is to know which is the best and where to find the best bargain....mmm wonder if ya could find coupons for them ...LOL
Villainous Two
rutholive,
I think I have pill Bugs eating my Spinanch seedlings. I'm not sure what to do about them either. I am also looking for an organic solution to the problem. I also have something eating holes in my Mustard Greens leaves.
Diatomaceous earth sprinkled around your spinach should slow down the little critters. Take a good look at the Mustard Greens, it may not be the pill bugs feasting.
Okay, I'll have to take a closer look. I'm also trying to google it on the net.
http://www.pestcontrolcanada.com/INSECTS/pill_bugs_sow_bugs.htm
Quoting:
When the rain falls, they emerge from the compost you've lovingly spread around your garden. For the most part, pill bugs are harmless and can even beneficial. They break down organic matter into smaller bits. The problems start when they start munching on seedings or a red ripe strawberry. Protect seedlings with a little diatomaceous earth or a bit of drinking straw split and wrapped around the stems.
Natural predators include frogs, newts, toads and small mammals which live and hunt at night in the moist areas where the Pill Bugs live. Sometimes as they moult, when they are still soft, they can be eaten by their own kind. Another main enemy is a spider which dispatches them with venom before devouring the contents of their body.
Removing plant debris to discourage them is all that is required in most gardens. But the valuable contribution they make to the decomposition process in vegetable matter means that unless they are a direct threat to seedlings or crops, they should be left well alone. In the commercial setting they can be controlled by soil sterilization with steam or methyl bromide .
You can also effectively trap pill bugs using a half of a cantaloupe that's placed upside down where pill bugs are a problem.
Thanks, Zany, How do you quote anyways?
Yes, do tell. Is there a thread that tells us how to make the quoted items appear in the box?
[ ] ( with the word quote insidethe brackets) and [/ ]with the word quote at the end.
very simple once you get used to it.
Quoting:
Zanymuse: very simple once you get used to it.
or you know html coding LOL
http://davesgarden.com/faq/forums/#131
This will tell you how to use BOLD . itallics etc. better than I can explain it. Oh and underlining or strikethrough are other options
This message was edited Feb 20, 2008 4:09 AM
Thanks Zany. I knew there had to be a guide to that somewhere.
I always wondered what "they" did with all those old WordStar programs. LOL!
You are quite welcome. It seems like just yesterday that I was asking how do they do that myself.
Thanks Zany!
I bought 2 or 3 pounds of diaotamaceous earth a couple of years ago and spread some of it along the inside of my raised beds. Did no good ridding the area of the pill bugs that i could see. I have smashed quite a lot also with gloved hands. I think my guinea fowl guy would eat them if they were out where he could see them. I do have a lot of birds but mostly they also like greenery.
Donna
Well, all I can say when you are using organic methods there are no guarantees. Pill bugs like damp, dark wet areas. And if you are using diatomaceous earth, you have to renew if it rains. Make sure you keep that area super cleaned up and hopefully as you start picking that will open the area up to more light and air. Something the pill bugs don't like.
Diatomaceous earth is supposed to work on slugs too, isn't it?
Yep, it pierces their soft bodies and splat, dead slug. I've also use the beer in the bowl method, seems like a terrible waste of beer to me, who wants slugs for drinking companions? I find if I lay boards down, the slugs will crawl under that nice dark, damp place and voila! We flip the board and the birds have a feast.
Whenever I run across a grub or slug when gardening they get tossed into the road or onto the driveway - they never seem to be there very long :) Yeah, seems like a perfectly good waste of beer to me too! I like the idea of that board - I'm going to do that this year where I know the sluggies like to hang out.
Since you mentioned it, doccat- I recommend installing a birdbath.
We bought ours a couple of years ago, and have a lot more birds watching over the garden now.
Only downside - have to put bird netting around the tomatoes - they love to sample them.
If you have room for them, ducks are terrific at controlling slugs and snails. They won't pull up all your sprouts the way chickens and geese do. Plus, they make wonderfully endearing pets.
Chickens and ducks do a good job of controling these little critters around here. don't know if I have pill or sow bugs or both. Don't really care.
Well, I searched for pill bugs to photograph this morning and only found one. The birds and toads must have finished off the rest. But I thought a single bug would do for photos so I laid it on the concrete patio and turned on the camera just in time to see my goofball dog eat the bug!
As the weather clears up I am sure there will be a lot more of them around. I really don't mind them too much since I have such a small garden that I don't bother with seedlings any more and there is not enough sun for fruits or veggies so there isn't much for them to do except break down the compost and act as food for the birds.
When I first moved in the snails and slugs ate everything. But after trapping and picking them every night for a couple years they are under control if not gone. I had the people upstairs going crazy though trying to figure out what that nutcase downstairs was doing out there every night with a flashlight saying AHA! I got cha... over and over agian ;~}
Now they just ignore me.