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Post by twosheps on Jun 22, 2007 7:19:41 GMT -5
Does anyone know the best way to send these little critters packing?? They're eating huge holes in my potted pansies! Sometimes I catch them traveling between pots! I think my front porch has become a 5-star caterpiller resort. Grrrr......  |
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Post by Dabbit on Jun 22, 2007 7:58:49 GMT -5
I don't perhaps Maria might know - she's our gardening guru!!! Something is eating my lettuces at the moment and I have sprayed them with anti bug stuff, and have a plastic ring around them to stop the slugs (oh the slugs) and wondered whether ants might do this sort of damage?
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Post by Maria on Jun 26, 2007 19:43:40 GMT -5
The short answer in getting rid of the caterpillars is . . be vigilant in picking them off the plants and putting them in a jar of water (use a jar with a lids). another way is to go to your garden center and ask for a non toxic chemic to spray your plants with it.
Of course, it really depends on what kind of caterpillars you have . . . more info on them and what plants they are eating would be helpful.
I hope this helps a bit.
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Post by Maria on Jun 26, 2007 19:46:38 GMT -5
Dave,
I also hate slugs. there is a whole chain of info on slugs here. Aren't they gross? Remember that they hate to cross over anything with sharp or with jagged edges. Hurts their tummies . . . ;D Also place saucers of beer around the yard. They love beer and drown in it. YEAH!!!!!
Then of course there is always the slugs pellets one can use to poison them.
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Post by Dabbit on Jun 27, 2007 1:40:16 GMT -5
Maria I've started cutting up old soft drink bottles (2 litre size) into plastic rings and putting them around my lettuces and other plants. It seemed to be working as I had no problems until we've had all this rain and the leaves have fallen over the edge of the plastic rim! Iknew they hated crawling across sharp pebbles and the like! I confess I mainly use pellets (some 'friendly' some not)...
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Post by Mark on Jun 27, 2007 7:28:25 GMT -5
Sounds like you guys are having a real 'slug fest'....
I wonder if a small ring of salt would work as well?
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Post by Maria on Jun 27, 2007 11:57:39 GMT -5
If you used a salt shaker on on slug, it would shrivel up and die. But to put salt in the ground is not good. Just think about all the damage from hurrican force winds coming off the ocean. The salt water kills plants --
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Post by Mark on Jun 27, 2007 14:43:43 GMT -5
Right. I was kidding, about the old saying about putting salt on slugs, though I've never tried it.
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Post by twosheps on Jun 30, 2007 8:14:32 GMT -5
thanks so much for all the comments! i tried looking for them on the plant and couldn't find them--don't know whether that means i have lush, beautiful plants or i'm just blind!
they're black, ugly creepy-crawlys and are eating my petunias and pansies. i bit the bullet and bought some spray. i sprayed last wkend--think i'll do another spray tomorrow.
love the idea of sharp objects, but the flowers are all in pots and if i put it around the pots, my dogs would get it before the catepillars! can you just imagine the vet bills......
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Post by Mark on Jun 30, 2007 9:17:03 GMT -5
TS, can you take a photo of your ugly creepy crawlies and post it? Maybe someone can identify them.
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Post by Dabbit on Aug 12, 2007 2:08:14 GMT -5
I've just got rid for some berry bushes in my garden as they were covered with catterpillars - my only real problem in this an otherwise fruitful year. That said I have left my raspberry which has a fair share of ruit considering its in its first year and that has some whole on the leaves... thought they are definetley not caterpillars
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Post by Mark on Aug 18, 2007 14:51:04 GMT -5
Possibly some sort of beetle then.
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Post by Dabbit on Jul 29, 2008 0:24:30 GMT -5
This year I planted cabbage and cauliflower - both of which attracted a fair amount of cabbage white butterfly. These in turn lay eggs underneath the leaves in batches which need to crushed between your fingers. That said I have had some delicious cabbage! And loads of strawberries!
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Post by Mark on Jul 29, 2008 23:22:25 GMT -5
Hmmmm.....I can taste some of that cabbage with some boiled beef.
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Post by Dabbit on Jul 30, 2008 7:14:11 GMT -5
Hmmmm.....I can taste some of that cabbage with some boiled beef. And the left overs fried up the next days with mashed potatoes (bubble and squeak its called here) yum! |
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Anne
Full Member
Posts: 29
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Post by Anne on Jul 30, 2008 9:26:06 GMT -5
Our garden pests this year are most definitly, Snails. Gosh I have never seen so many in the garden before. Large ones and even tiny babies. They have munched their way through all my pots of "busy Lizzies" and now they have started on my "Surfina" baskets!  I guess they mustn't be partial to "Begonias" though cos these appear to be still in one piece. Unless they are saving them for desert ;D |
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Post by Dabbit on Jul 31, 2008 6:54:47 GMT -5
Oh we've had lots of those too Anne! I can't say I see the point of the slug? Yes I know hedgehogs like them (and frogs I think - but whats the point of frogs). But Hedgehogs can live on cat food - so no need for them...
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Post by Mark on Jul 31, 2008 15:40:48 GMT -5
Well, even creatures we might consider to be loathsome have their niche in nature (how alliterative that sounds!....a 'nature niche')...anyway, if you did away with some species others that depended on it in some way might suffer, and they could die off or change their habits in ways which affected other species, ad infinitum. Best to let nature take its course, I always say.
Mind you, if I spotted something scooting across my floor, I might feel compelled to dispatch it summarily before it go inside the walls and started multiplying, if you know what I mean.
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Post by Dabbit on Aug 3, 2008 3:08:43 GMT -5
Yesterday we picked the rest of our cabbages and they had catterpillars on them (baby ones) so before putting them in the bin I had to crush most of the little blighters between my fingers so we didn't have a bin full of movement! I felt mighty guilty about it!!!
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Post by Mark on Aug 4, 2008 21:46:52 GMT -5
Yuck! Hope you were wearing gloves!
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