Its that time of year.....
- Slugs ate 80% of my red runner beans but none of my Chinese beans (thank goodness). Time for Sluggo.
- Slugs are also eating my basil, and I'm finding baby slugs inside the lettuce heads when I wash them. I transplanted the basil to fill in the holes and sprinkled on some Sluggo.
- Leaf miners are all over my beets greens. I should have covered them earlier, but did not. I'll just ignore them and hope some new leaves can out grow the miners.
- My potatoes and tomatoes have buckshot holes from flea beetles, but not too bad. This pest is short lived, with a spring life cycle of about 1 mo.
- I can't see my cabbage, broccoli or kale because I covered it last week to keep the cabbage worm off. I think its doing well.
- The chipmunks ate my first big red strawberry today. I have some chicken wire covering ready to go on tomorrow in hopes of having a nice strawberry martini for myself soon.
- Chipmunks also have been eating the sunflower seeds from the roots of my sunflower seedlings. That basically kills the plants....I suppose a chicken wire cover in the top of the soil wold help if I grow some more sunflowers.
19 comments:
I have a huge groundhog who keeps finding a new way under my fence and into my garden loves my lettuce. I also have chicken wire around gardens. Any tips?
my goodness- dito on the chumpmunk sunflower seed bandits over here! I can't keep those critters out of my yard!!!
Michele~ Topsfield
I have chipmunk-strawberry problems also. My dog hasn't convinced the little bugger to leave. I currently have the trays from purchasing plants covering them. Would like to see a picture of your set up.
Kathy
I invested in some food grade diatamaceous earth this year for the soft body insects ... for the rodents, I am using fencing for the rabbits, and working my dog over time for the squirrels and the lone chipmunk we have.... I am just hoping the chipmunk does not invite his friends.
I was also having a problem with slugs in my garden so I dug a cup into the ground so the opening was roughly at ground level and filled it up with some old beer. In one night I found about a dozen slugs in the cup, and I no longer have the problem.
I've started to notice slugs, too. The dogs keep the chipmunks and squirrels out of the yard so but slugs are threatening my garden and it's making me mad. Guess I'll try some sluggo. water damage Aldine TX
You can also use an slug electric fence around your boxes. Just uses a 9V battery and some bare wire. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZoBeKS64_xc
Are chipmunks scared of owls? There are some great owl statues where the head moved in the wind and even some that are solar powered. I really liked the beer solution for the slugs. Too bad we can't get the chipmunks a little tipsy!
Enjoy that strawberry martini, you deserve it.
I was just rehearsing my garden pests tonight: random birds pecking at anything green (green beans, chard, rhubarb, tomatoes, zucchini, corn); my own Lucy (Brittany) who likes to make "nests" in any bare dirt when I'm at work and of course some random slugs and snails thrown in.
Chipmunks can fit through the chicken wire holes very easily, I watch them do it all day.
Try a combination of fencing and netting: around my strawberries, raspberries and blueberries, I have a sturdy 6' garden fence (for the deer) and then this weekend, draped it with bird netting over the entire structure to keep out various beasties bent on eating my fruit. I need to get pictures up.
Slugs are also devouring my strawberries and I have a combination of beer traps, DE and Sluggo to try and stop them. I have to say, going out in the early AM (hard to do because I leave for work at 7am and have a child to get ready too) has allowed me to catch quite a few slugs which then go to the chickens!
We don't have big problems with slugs here in Virginia (little problems, but not big ones!), but have been battling Colorado Potato Beetles and cabbage moths. UGH!!
For the folks with groundhog problems, I partially buried some salvaged 1' wide, 1/8" thick plexiglass ~8" under the dirt with approx 4" above ground to deter weed roots (mint from neighboring plots, for example) from getting into my garden plot. That might help deter those pesky critters from your veggies.
Hi! :) I just wanted to let you know, I found a freaking awesome price on Sluggo - $14.95 for a POUND. Here's the link if you are interested!!!
http://www.kelp4less.com/shop/sluggo/
One of the best and easiest ways to deter slugs from crawling onto your plants is to make it impossible for them to get near the plants. By placing a barrier of sharp and rough objects around the plants that are being eaten you make it impossible for the slugs to get near their meal. Slugs have soft bodies that they need to protect, crushed up eggshells or mulch cause harm to their soft bodies.
We have rabbits that are invading our garden. Any ideas on how to keep my veggies from those critters?
I enjoy your blog.
Matt Sullivan
I love reading about Americans' battles with gophers, chipmonks and all the other assorted critters you guys have to contend with. Makes me feel SO grateful that my only foe is pigeons!
I'm in NJ, and I had a terrible Chipmunk problem in my garden a few years back. They would take bites out of all my tomatoes. I'm too embarrassed to say how I got rid of them, but it was not nice. The past two years, I have used something called Plantskyyd. You can find it on Amazon. Its granules that you sprinkle around, and they say it is all organic. It worked like a charm last year. I spread it this year, but my tomatoes aren't ripe yet. They say it works on all small critters.
I just went to my garden plot hoping to pick peas, put had almost none. I'm blaming it on the chipmunks! I wonder if Planskyyd will work for me?
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