Garden Wars: Battle of the Slugs!

Last month, I showed you some of my early seedlings.

Jericho lettuce; does well in summer heat.

Well, they were planted and now they are almost all gone, along with a number of my broccoli and collards seedlings! Eaten by slugs! UGH!

I had slug problems last year in one bed, but it wasn't as bad as this year. What I learned then is that diatomaceous earth does NOT get rid of them. They definitely don't like getting sprinkled with it, but it neither kills nor deters them for long. This year, the problem has gotten out of hand. Time for a new tactic.

The best control is said to go out at night and hand pick slugs off of everything. Well, when I searched through the leaf mulch, I discovered dozens and dozens (and dozens) of quarter-inch baby slugs hidden in the leaves. Because of the numbers and size, I don't see hand picking as a realistic option. This year I decided to try beer and yeast traps. 

After 24 hours, there's some debris, but a few slugs too.

I guess they work. The yeast attracts slugs, that's for sure. Then they drown in the beer or yeast solution. Someone told me crushed eggs shells are a deterrent too. Also boards and inverted pots for hidey spots. In the morning, there seem to be quite a few to be eliminated. They apparently don't like copper, so ringing plants with copper is said to help. 

I've also noticed a slow-down in slug activity as the soil has dried out from windy days and two weeks of no rain. And, the other morning, I discovered one of the traps had been dug out of it's nest in the soil and all the drowned slugs were gone! I suspect one of our resident skunks found it and snacked on the slugs. But are skunks something anyone wants to add to their slug deterrent list???

My next concern is for my strawberries. 

Green strawberries, surviving lettuce, garlic, and olla. 

I know from experience that slugs like these too (as do birds. And skunks.) Fortunately, the strawberries are mulched with wood chips, which is probably why the lettuce has survived! But I'm thinking I may need to increase defenses if we want to eat strawberries this year!

So that's my first garden challenge of the year. What's yours?

Garden Wars: Battle of the Slugs! © April 202

by Leigh at http://www.5acresandadream.com

Update On My Homemade Garden Bug Spray

I just had to show you this. Here's what happened to my collard plants in less than two weeks after applying my Homemade Garden Bug Spray.

New growth in the midst of the old cabbage moth eaten leaves.

Close-up of new collard growth.

A picture speaks louder than a thousand words!

The collards were fall planted and pretty much neglected once the weather turned warm. The bed is resting this summer, so all I did was add more leaf mulch after pulling the onions. I have barely watered it and just left the collards to die and decompose on their own. They were still hanging in there at the end of July and looking pretty bad due to cabbage moth larvae damage. When I made up a batch of the spray I dosed them good. I sprayed them well for two days and reapplied after it rained a few days later.

The plant in the photo has the most spectacular results, although the others are recovering as well. I rewarded them with a good watering!

In case you missed it, you can find the recipe for the spray here.

Update On My Homemade Garden Bug Spray © Aug 2019
 by Leigh at http://www.5acresandadream.com

Homemade Garden Bug Spray

Speaking of the garden, here's something I wanted to share with you. I've been experimenting some with homemade bug sprays for the garden, and last year found one that really helped for cabbage moths damage. I found the recipe at An Oregon Cottage, and she sources Keeper of the Home for it. So I'm not taking credit for this garden spray myself, just passing on something I found that works!

The ingredients are simple and easy to grow.

Potted mint

Ingredients

• 3 C fresh mint
• 2 bulbs fresh garlic
• 1 or two fresh cayenne peppers or 2 tsp cayenne powder
• 3 qts water
• biosafe dishwashing soap

Homegrown garlic

To Make

Chop garlic, mint, and cayenne peppers if using fresh. No need to peel the garlic because it's strained later. Just chop it as is. When handling hot peppers, always be sure to wear kitchen gloves! Put these three ingredients into a gallon pot with the water. Bring to a simmer.

Cool and strain into spray bottles. Add a small squirt of dish liquid and you're ready to go. Don't forget to spray the undersides of leaves too.

Last year this simple spray saved my cabbage and basil plants. This year I'm going to try it on my squash and cucumbers as well. I'm not claiming it will take care of all my garden pests, but it's helped so far.

It's a pepper spray, so it's best not to get it on your skin and especially not in your eyes. I store the spray bottles in the refrigerator and reapply after watering or rain.

UPDATE: August 1, 2019, you can see how well it works here.

Homemade Garden Bug Spray © July 2019
by Leigh at http://www.5acresandadream.com

This Is Not a Paper Bag

It may look like a paper bag, but it's not.
It's a pseudo-hornets' nest.

There is an idea floating around the internet for a deterrent for carpenter bees and wasps. Take a small brown paper bag, fill it with plastic bags or newspaper, and hang it in the area where carpenter bees or wasps are a problem. We have a terrible carpenter bee problem and have tried various recommended deterrents, so far without success. Since some people say the paper bag works for them, I decided to give it a try.

Tell-tale sign of carpenter bee sawdust ...

... all over Sam's kitty bed (and all over Sam).

After Dan hung it up the carpenter bees showed up as usual and it did indeed stop them in their tracks. A number of them spent the rest of the day hovering a safe distance from the bag, watching it. They would zoom away and back again, always to halt short of that bag and stare at it.

We were cautiously optimistic that perhaps we had found a solution to the problem. The only reservation in declaring it a success was in not knowing how smart carpenter bees actually are.

The one on the right is bored between two (sistered) porch roof rafters

By about the third day they figured out that no hornets were forthcoming, so they proceeded to ignore it and resume their annoying burrowing in our porch roof rafters. Wasps, ditto. We removed two wasp nests in the same time period, but maybe the wasps weren't smart enough to notice.

Here's one in one of the front porch posts. I filled it with
silicone window caulking, but they cleaned it out again.

If paper bag method has worked for you, then I'm not going to brag that our carpenter bees are smarter than yours, I'm just going to wish it worked for us too.

This one is in the goat barn. From it and the photo
above, you can see that they are not respecters of paint.

I also read that they don't like citrus and found some directions for a DIY citrus spray. Next time I go shopping I'll get some oranges or grapefruit and make some. I'll let you know how it works.

This Is Not a Paper Bag © April 2017

by Leigh at http://www.5acresandadream.com/