I am supprised that the fire ants haven't found your rhubarb plant. They love the leaves and roots. Wish you luck on your plant, but you should have started it last fall in order for it to grow large enough to be able to eat this year. That is unless you have found rhubarb that can stand our weather this far south. I started a few from seeds in August of the year before and set them out as soon as there would be no freeze. As soon as they got to about 5" by 5" the fire ants came to visit. everything else I was able to ward off but they dig under the ground and eat around the roots so air gets to them and the plant dies. Maybe if I had used a little soap in the water they may have died or left I don't know. I would like to hear what kind of success you may or may not have. Paul

No you aren't alone! Slugs and snails take over the yards here especially in spring( here being Portland, OR). I stopped bothering with the "natural" solutions bc it was like trying to take out an army with a slingshot. I use sluggo (iron sulfate) it's the only thing that works that I can stay on top of. Luckily we had a super dry spring and summer so for the first time in years the slugs didnt eat all of my pole bean seedlings :) but even with that, my hostas have a few small holes as I haven't been on top of it. I only have a light green thumb though!

"I can't spell that other word." You can spell female, but not male? ;) I hear ya, sister!! ;) ("hermaphrodite" which is a cross between Hermes and Aphrodite.) Thanks for the feedback. The silver lining will be the cherries and peaches and nectarines. Yum! I put sluggo on my peas this morning. Kanan road was closed this morning due to snow! Couldn't believe it.

Rose, Plain old Slug-Go has always taken care of my pillbugs and sow bugs, and we have literally thousands of them in/under the heavy mulch in late winter/early spring. When I plant seedlings, I put a little ring of a few granules of it around each seedling...it doesn't take much. This year I didn't lose a single vegetable seedling of any kind to pill bugs or sow bugs. However, I did lose about a dozen small marigold plants to the pill bugs during a rainy spell from the end of April to mid-May when it was raining daily and I did not keep reapplying the Slug-Go. I'll add that Slug-Go is supposed to remain effective even after rain, but my garden is on a fairly steep slope, so I think mine my wash away or at least leach out of the raised beds and wash dow into the paths, so I repply it often in rainy periods. There is an improved version of Slug-Go called Slug-Go Plus that is labeled for use on pillbugs and sowbugs. It has the iron phosphate that's found in the original plus Spinosad, which is a naturally occurring bioinsecticide. I've used it, too, and it has kept the numbers of pill bugs and sow bugs manageable. They never completely go away, but I seldom see damage from any of them. In general, they are only a pest in my garden and landscape during the rainy spring season. We are very dry here....generally in drought.....most of the summer months and their population probably mostly abandons our garden and landscape for the cooler, more moist woodlands that sit to our house's west, north and south. Pure food-grade diatomaceous earth is not easy to find in stores, and I think it is getting harder to find because some companies are now carrying a DE product that has a chemical insecticide added to it and some retailers carry that instead of the natural, organic version. I used to buy it in big tubs (the size of Tidy Cat buckets) when I lived in Texas, but can't find it here in OK. So, I mail order it from an online company. I order 5 or 10 lbs. at a time and it lasts forever. I've linked below the company from which I have purchased DE in the past. I've been very happy with this company. They ship quickly and their customer service is great. Dawn Here is a link that might be useful: Garden Harvest Supply's DE Page