Marigolds and slugs?
mandolls
13 years ago
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ali-b
13 years agoRelated Discussions
Help! Something's eating my marigolds!
Comments (17)I have bought the standard orange marigolds from the six-pack at Home Depot as well and something is eating them leaves first and then right down to the stem. I have been using marigolds as a pest barrier for over 25 years and have never seen this happen to marigolds. I don't have slugs as none of my hostas have been treated and not one leaf has been touched nor have I seen a single slug in any of my gardening here in 4 years. i'm at a loss to know what is happening. What is the soap solution recipe? I might as well see if I can save the rest. I have to wonder if it is a tiny worm doing it b/c i can't find anything else. If it was a rabbit and we do have rabbits, they wouldn't nibble the leaves in such tiny increments, they would just munch it down. No, this is something very small doing this....See MoreRose Slugs repelled?
Comments (48)Yes I did repeat my Marigold experiment...Last two years I had other flowers mixed in with Marigolds/ This year I only planted ALL Marigolds...Results: Most of our roses have hardly any rose slug damage right now.... But we do have 3 roses still being eaten by rose slugs but the damage is still on the milder side at this point in time ....So?... So next year I'm going to mix other plants in with Marigolds like before... Plants that will attract more Predatory wasps etc. that will feed on the rose slugs... I also had finches etc. landing on our roses to help eat rose slugs... I feed and keep water here for birds so they stay... SO....I think a large part of the secret is attracting Predatory wasps etc, and birds to feast on rose slugs. Whether or not the stinky smell of Marigolds helps in any way I still really have no idea...??? All in all had 3 straight seasons of not much damage so will continue the practice......See MoreSomething eating my marigolds down to the stems
Comments (3)UPDATE: It definitely wasn't slugs. It wasn't rabbits either. We still don't know for sure but we got down face to face with the marigolds that are left and now they too are getting slowly eaten. We found that if we shake the plant, a tiny white worm will drop off each plant. By tiny I mean like 1.5 mm! We have no idea what it is but it moves like an inch worm stretching out and then hind end bunching up and moving forward. If anyone has a good soap recipe we will try it but we've lost more than half of all our marigolds at this point and don't know if we can save the rest. Any help at all would be appreciated....See MoreWrecked Marigolds
Comments (8)Thanks a lot all for the useful info.... Just a bit of a background, i have been in Kenya and India into gardening from when i was a kid and this is the first time this kind of a damage early in the lifecycle :) we had lots of frogs and toads that eat all these little buggers and may be that's why i haven't noticed them. And now after 10 years in England, I recently moved to a house with a garden from living in a flat and my gardening interest sprung back into action :) Ken: this is not the only one, had loads that i picked up and dunked in soap water every night on a daily night patrol with a torch light :) and i knew these were not slugs as the Google images were different and lucky got this forum to get the info. Also have roses and Lavender and this one has even chewed a couple of tender lavender stems too, have heard most pests don't touch lavender for the strong scent they have. Will definitely be starting again, but based on the numbers i have seen i guess i need some kind of a control before it gets out of hand as its becoming a bit tedious to do the night rounds. The beds were all newly built and filled with compost and top soil from the shop, may be the eggs were in the compost.......See Morecatalinagrey
13 years agolavender_lass
13 years agonatal
13 years agoscarletdaisies
13 years agomandolls
13 years agoscarletdaisies
13 years agoL Brogdon
7 years agojohn_mabbett
6 years ago
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