Sow bugs/Pill bugs/"rollie-pollies"/wretched insects from hell
kevininphx
9 years ago
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gardengal48 (PNW Z8/9)
9 years agoernie85017, zn 9, phx
9 years agoRelated Discussions
Ants on strawberries?
Comments (34)For example, Texas Cooperative Extension says that strawberries and other fruit that touch the ground are especially suceptible. Of course. Strawberries that touch the ground tend to get infected with fungi, which causes the breakdown of the fruit, leading to opportunists like woodlice to clean out the infected and dead tissue. If you were to get rid of the woodlice, you'd find your strawberries had bad spots instead. Anyone whose grown strawberries knows that you're not supposed to let strawberries touch the ground; that's why mulching strawberry beds with a dry mulch is so important. If you hang around these forums long enough (and you know who you all are ;) It gets pretty easy to figure out who the real gardeners are Oh, so I'm not a real gardener, then. Thanks. I suppose I don't grow strawberries, either? I suppose I didn't just pick some yesterday? Here's one day's picking of last year's "imaginary" crop (staggered harvest): http://www.daughtersoftiresias.org/images/2006/06.%20June/Strawberries/small/...See Morepill bugs/ roly-polys
Comments (56)Effective Organic Control to use is Diatect V. This is from the Natural Gardener website: Protect your new vegetable transplants from trouble. Have you ever had a wonderful day of gardening only to return the next morning to find half your transplants have been cut off at the base? Well, there are two possible culprits, the cutworm or pill bugs (aka rolly-pollies). A cutworm is a caterpillar that lives in the soil and will wrap itself around a new transplant at the base and cut it off. You can either protect the plant with a collar around the base or place a stick next to the stem so the cutworm will wrap around the stick along with the stem and not be able to cut through. Once the plant is established, the cutworm is not affective. The Pill Bug will gnaw at the base of a seedling or a new transplant. Once the seedling or transplant is established, the pill bug will generally leave the plant alone, so you need to be diligent about protection for only a short period of time. First for pill bug control keep the area on the drier side. Water early in the morning. This allows the top part of the soil to dry before night, when the pill bugs are active. Also keep mulch away from plants during this period of time. In the evening dust with Diatect V, diatomaceous earth (D.E.) and pyrethrin, around base of plants. Set up boards, grapefruit halves or banana peels as traps for the pill bugs and scoop them up every morning and dump into soapy water to get the population down. Pill bugs, like many pests, have their place in life as decomposers of dead plants or weak plants, so control is only needed during the early stages of the plant's life. The rest of the time let the pill bugs do their work. Roger and John have been doing tests here at the nursery and have been having great success with the certified organic pesticide Diatect V. It is a mixture of Diatomaceous Earth (D.E.) and pyrethrin. It does not have piperonyl butoxide as many other D.E./ Pyrethrin mixes do. Some of the harder to control bugs that we have success with include four-line bugs, squash bugs, stink bugs, harlequin bugs and other hard-shell bugs. It is best applied with an applicator to really get the dust where the bugs are - on the underside of leaves and the ground where they jump when they are disturbed. We have several different types. RogerÂs and JohnÂs favorites include the pest pistol, which is a simple accordion style pump bottle, and the dustin-mizer which is a hand-crank applicator that electrically charges the dust particle so it is attracted and sticks the plant - a must for large gardens. When you apply this product, you must take care not to inhale the very sharp silica particles of the D.E. Here is a link that might be useful: Organic pest control...See MoreI really don't want to use chemicals but.....
Comments (10)Thanks Kimmsr, for that dense and concise post. I wish I could be more concise. [g] Very good advice. Even after gardening organically for 30+ years, I appreciate the reminder of growing plants that attract beneficials. You can never have too many. I'd like to encourage the OP that it is a journey and a very rewarding one to go chemical free. When I started gardening I was fascinated to discover that there was a whole ecology in my backyard. And while I make the effort to identify pests when I see them, often I just accept that there will always be more that I don't know than I know. I try to leave the garden to work out the balance itself because they know what they are doing better than I do. I try not to interfere unless the damage is major and even then, I search for a non toxic solution. On the other hand, I do try to see what my role is and work at that. Long ago, I took to heart the often repeated advice, to improve the soil with organic matter. The more I have worked at that the more I have seen my garden evolve in a positive direction. I also pay attention to growing clean and keeping up with the weeds, mulching, taking care of any disease issues quickly and growing varieties that are resistant to disease. I am focused on adding plant material that attracts beneficial insects and when that works out, it makes me very happy to see that. I'm always looking to add more and more. This year, I have more parsley and dill for the small parasitic wasps that take care of a lot of pests. I add alyssum for those small predators. Lots of long blooming perennials around the vegetable garden for the bees. I keep trying to sequence the bloom so there is always something to feed the beneficial insects. I've seen aphids on plants disappear in a week after ladybugs had a feast on them. I still get leaf miners on my columbine, but I cut all the foliage back to the ground after bloom and they grow a fresh batch of pristine, leaf miner free foliage. The leaf miner leaves go in the trash. I still get small amounts of Oriental Beetles which I knock into soapy water to dispose of them. Same with Red Lily Beetles and used the same technique two seasons in a row when I was overrun with earwigs. So it's learning as you go how to manage your garden in a different way. You won't get that in one season, it takes time. I haven't used any chemicals beyond an occasional home made spray made up of 1 drop of soap, garlic & red pepper. And in 30 years I can count on one hand the number of times I've used that. Later today, I'll take a photo of one of my vegetable beds that is looking pretty good at the moment and post it here. Interestingly, I was forced to purchase organic soil for raised beds when we increased the size of the vegetable garden in the spring. I was curious to see how the beds that had the soil from our old vegetable beds grew in comparison to beds with the new soil. There were two large beds of our soil and three large beds of new soil. Every year in our old beds the peppers were wonderful. Full, bushy plants with a very good amount of peppers. This year I planted peppers in the new soil and the peppers are pathetic. Absolutely pathetic. I don't think there's anything wrong with the soil. It is organic soil that had 10% organic compost added to it and other organic amendments. It does seem to have a higher clay content then mine. The water is puddling on the top of the beds when it rains. But I can stand over the beds with the soil from my old beds and spray the hose full force with the nozzle set to shower and the water just drains right down even standing there for 15 minutes. So I am about to pull those peppers. They are not going to produce much if anything and I don't want to have the same problem next year, so I'm going to add more compost and sow a cover crop, let it grow until the end of the season and turn it in come Fall. It won't be perfect next season either, but I'm on the road to improving it and at some point it will be as good as what I had in my old beds. Am I disappointed that I'm not going to have peppers this year? Sure. Peppers are one of our favorite crops. But I know it's a temporary setback and an investment in next season's garden to work it out this way now. I spent a lot of time reading books. First, the book by Ruth Stout on the no work garden. Later, Eliot Coleman's books on organic gardening. I'm sure there are a ton more books to read, but I spent a lot of time on GW in the Organic Gardening forum, many years ago when there were a lot of very dedicated organic gardeners happy to answer questions. I'm happy that I did, it's worked out very well for me. Good luck!...See MoreRollie Pollie- Pill Bugs
Comments (56)Funny but I didnt think they ate anything at all until I planted strawberries and then POW! They do love themselves some strawberries...Oh and by the way, baby pigeons and birds like to eat these, we get lots of baby pigeons roaming and waddling around the backyard looking for food. I started the strawberries from root bunch so they didnt eat them, they waited for the berries. Just when I think I get a nice berry, there they are underneath munching away. I just spray them off and eats what left. They are very clean, I will give them that. Interesting thing I just actually learned tonight...I was looking for something I dropped earlier out in the backyard, so I went out there with a flash light. As I began looking in the grass (which is about 20 feet by 60 feet), I noticed tiny little black bugs everywhere and I mean EVERYWHERE, they turned out to be rollie pollies. Some wear eating the dead grass, some were eating the tips of grass, some were just laying around, some were sleeping in bunches, others were "wrestling". I couldnt believe how many, possibly thousands. Tens of thousands. But yet I still have full strawberries if I find them before the bugs...They wait for them to get ripe BTW but when the berries get scarce, they begin to eat them when they are yellow. But they leave the actual plants alone. And I just finished planting a buttload of butterfly plant/weed seeds too. Which just happens to be their favorite. Pillbugs are not bugs, they are crustaceans, much like shrimp and crayfish. Pillbugs breathe through gills. Because of this, they need a lot of moisture or they will die. They cannot survive in water, but they must have water vapor in order to breathe. Pillbugs molt and shed, but they don't do it all at once. They shed half their exoskeleton and then shed the other half later. Pillbugs are like kangaroos because they carry their eggs in a pouch. The babies remain in the pouch for a few days and then move on. Pillbugs do not urinate. I found this fascinating because the thought of bugs urinating in the first place already seems weird and a little gross. Urine contains ammonia that must be excreted from the body, but pillbugs are able to deal with the ammonia gas and pass it straight to their exoskeleton. Pillbugs drink through their butts. They can drink through their mouths, but they also can take in water from the rear. Pillbugs eat their own poop. As if some of this information is not already alarming, pillbugs munch on poop and rotten veggies all day and even eat their own poop in order to recoup the lost copper in their bodies, which is needed in order for them to live. This is also known as coprography (or gross if you want a simpler term). Pillbugs have blue blood. The color is from a substance called hemocyanin which contains copper ions. When oxygen comes in contact with this substance, the blood of a pillbug becomes blue. Also when pillbugs get sick, they also turn blue. Pillbugs live up to two years and are active at night time....See MoreFascist_Nation
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9 years agoMaryMcP Zone 8b - Phx AZ
9 years agoMaryMcP Zone 8b - Phx AZ
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9 years agoMaryMcP Zone 8b - Phx AZ
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9 years agoernie85017, zn 9, phx
9 years agoMaryMcP Zone 8b - Phx AZ
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9 years agoPumpkin (zone 10A)
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