Rollie pollies are eating my garden. Update & questions.

Discussion in 'Planting, growing, nurturing Plants' started by Arby, Jun 20, 2007.

  1. Arby

    Arby Junior Member

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    Damned little buggers are eating everything but my onions, tomatoes and corn. I have pulled the mulch and large pieces of organic material away from my plants, set out traps (yogurt in containers), sprinkled sage brush leaves around the plants and sprayed w/ a cayenne pepper & chewing tobacco tea. They just keep chomping. :x

    Any ideas how to control these things without chemicals or the use of animals (chickens, ducks & geese not allowed where I live).

    Thanks.
     
  2. paul wheaton

    paul wheaton Junior Member

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    How about diatomaceous earth?
     
  3. Plumtree

    Plumtree Junior Member

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    What are they? :?
     
  4. paul wheaton

    paul wheaton Junior Member

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  5. Tas'

    Tas' Junior Member

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    Slaters!
     
  6. Tamara

    Tamara Junior Member

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    Slaters.

    I have some ducks for rent here in Bunyip. They could clean up in a few hours with direction (trust me). Someone nearer you may be able to lend you some.

    Much love,
    Tamara
     
  7. Arby

    Arby Junior Member

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    Diatomaceous might be a good solution. Not sure about the ducks. With as many pill bugs as there is here in my yard, I'd need an entire army of them. Still a good idea though.:shock:


    Thanks for the replies.:)
     
  8. sweetpea

    sweetpea Junior Member

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    Arby, I've got a ton of them, too, and I have made cuffs out of plastic garden edging that's 4 inches/10 centimeters wide fastened with paper clips top and bottom edge. I shove them a bit into the soil, and they keep the plants safe until they are tall enough to be out of range of rolly bugs, and when left on they don't climb them, so you could put the cuffs around your tall plants. Make sure you take your finger and clear out all the rolled up little guys before you shove the cuff in.


    I've heard they don't like coffee grounds, and neither do snails and slugs, and since they are so good for the soil, they are a worthwhile addition on top of the soil as a deterent. You can also make a batch of strong coffee and spray it on the soil and it will be a quick fix, but won't last as long as the grounds. It might even deter them laying eggs in the soil if there are enough coffee grounds. I am trying this now, and I'll see what happens :)
     
  9. SueinWA

    SueinWA Junior Member

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    These bugs don't eat live plants, just already dead plant material. They aren't a problem in the garden, just obvious.

    Something else is eating your plants.

    Pillbugs like dampness, the same conditions that plant-eating slugs, snails and earwigs like. Go out with a flashlight after dark and see what you can find.

    To "test" for slugs or snails, put some shallow pans of beer in the garden (bury them to the lip for easy access) and see what you find the next morning.

    For earwigs, put a thin layer of vegetable oil in a flattish pan, also buried to its rim. Or roll up newspapers and place them around the garden, then open them up or shake them into a bucket (etc) in the morning.

    Even if its not snails, slugs or earwigs, it isn't pillbugs eating your plants. Look for something else.

    Sue
     
  10. Tamara

    Tamara Junior Member

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    6 ducks can eat alot of slaters. I've seen it myself.

    There was something in last month's ABC organic gardener about slaters. It basically said get the soil etc. right and the slaters will even out in numbers

    Tamara
     
  11. paul wheaton

    paul wheaton Junior Member

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    pillbugs prefer dead material, but they will balance their diet out with some live material if it is around.
     
  12. Plumtree

    Plumtree Junior Member

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    Slaters/pill bugs will thrive on mulch, especially wood chips. They don't really do a lot of damage to live plants. It is one of the perils of mulching! The mulch retains the moisture and the slaters thrive.

    I would look for a more voracious creature! :twisted:
     
  13. paul wheaton

    paul wheaton Junior Member

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    I'm going to make a wild guess that pill bugs will make 95% of their diet be dead and rotting material. So if you have a lot of mulch, and then a lot of pill bugs, and while they eat a humble 5% live matter .... it starts to add up when there are a lot of them!
     
  14. Arby

    Arby Junior Member

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    You were right, Sue. I took the flashlight out last night and discovered it is indeed earwigs doing the damage.

    Is the veggie oil & news paper you mentioned a way to control their numbers or simply a way to test?

    Thanks and thanks also to all the others who replied.
     
  15. sweetpea

    sweetpea Junior Member

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    Arby, I think you can still use the coffee grounds thickly around plants for keeping earwigs away too.

    I have had rolly pollies eat seedlings, which is why I use the cuffs. Plastic cuffs also stop earwigs, be sure they are pushed into the soil. I don't use the beer method because the good bugs like beer too, and they end up dead. Beer is a bit too popular!!
     
  16. Arby

    Arby Junior Member

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    Thanks, Sweetpea.
     
  17. sweetpea

    sweetpea Junior Member

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    Arby, I completely forgot to say that toads, frogs, lizards, birds eat pill bugs and earwigs, and I have made lizard condos out of randomly stacked big chunks of concrete, about 2-3 feet high (they like the height, but they don't get lost in tall clovers or plants so the mower won't hit them), so there's shade and air going through them. I always find the lizards on them, and the frogs tucked into the shady corners. On really hot days I put green shade cloth over the stack, and they don't get too hot. If there's extra water, keeping these damp on the lower levels encourages the frogs and toads to hang out. :)
     
  18. Arby

    Arby Junior Member

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    Update! Improvment but need more. Lizards & chickens?

    Well, this gardening season was a bit better than last. I put cuffs (cottage cheese like containers w/ bottom cut out) around individual plants such as the squash, peppers & cucumbers. I also put some old plastic garden edging around the row of green beans. They basically had a 3" high fence around them and that helped keep some of the earwigs out-----enough to give me a 50% success rate. Additionally, I used diatomaceous earth and kept all the mulch I could away from the growing areas. However, the damned earwigs completely destroyed my turnips, carrots, beets, and Swiss chard. And after tons of effort and several re-plants, only six radishes made it to the dinner table. :-x

    My cold frame crop of greens on the other hand has done excellent this fall. :D I don't know if it was my liberal use of diatomaceous earth and coffee grounds or the freezing night time temps but there were not enough earwigs to do much harm. Any ideas there?

    Come spring, I'm thinking I'll catch a couple dozen lizards in the nearby desert and turn them loose in my garden----after of course I provide them with plenty of native rocks so they will at least have that familiarity. And although I'm not supposed to have chickens in the city I live in, I'm considering sneaking one or two in, not only for bug control but eggs as well. I have a large and fairly well screened lot so odds are no one would say anything. Would they provide good earwig control? What would prevent them from eating the same little tender plants that the earwigs have been enjoying? Will the chickens dine on my lizards?

    Sweetpea. I have tons of birds around and I like the idea of frogs and toads as well. I'm just not sure how to provide an easy to care for environment for them. I'm open to suggestions. :)
     
  19. sweetpea

    sweetpea Junior Member

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    Re: Rollie pollies are eating my garden. Update & questions.

    Arby, good to hear you had some success. It's tough to stop them. I meant, about the lizards and frogs, if someone already has them, provide better living conditions, because if you import them, they will eat your bugs and have nothing else to eat, and leave and die. If you're in a city they won't last long. My lizards escape down into the cracks in the clay soil for safety. I give them puddles of shade cloth to hide in, too, and they love that. And I can remove them easily to mow, then put them back.

    Also, if you keep cats and dogs out of your garden the birds will spend more time there. I have birds working my fruit trees several times a day for an hour or more. I mean, before the fruit shows up, they are eating bugs. Once the fruit is there, then all strategy changes! ha, ha!

    Here is a liquid they can drown in, 1 part vegetable oil, one part soy sauce, one part molasses. Fill at least an inch deep in a wide but shallow container. Empty every day. The only trouble with this is the good bugs like these liquids, too, especially beer, so I don't use that. But if it got so bad there was no other choice, sometimes you can't help it.

    Chickens wouldn't eat lizard meat, but baby lizards are very tiny, and I wouldn't be surprised if they chopped them down, thinking they were bugs. but chickens need special care, and you couldn't just let them out there and forget about them. Cats, raccoons, and a dog that might jump the fence would love to eat chickens, so they'd need protection. Neighbors will notice just about anything, so don't be surprised *L*
     
  20. Arby

    Arby Junior Member

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    Re: Rollie pollies are eating my garden. Update & questions.

    Sweetpea,

    It seems I had a brain lapse. I forgot to mention that I also set out traps, lots of them. I used beer (purchased it 4 days before my 40th and got carded. Made me feel pretty good :D ) and cooking oil, separately. Though I caught an innumerable amount of earwigs, it wasn't enough for the turnips, carrots, beets, and Swiss chard. I'm really confused as to why the earwigs didn't destroy the greens in my cold frame though. I planted towards the end of Sept and saw only minor damage. I have been eating out of these for 3+ weeks now. Not complaining but I'd like to understand it so I can apply what ever made it successful to my crops in the spring. Perhaps earwigs don't care as much for arugula, mache, escarlore and sorrell (1st time I've planted those)---or maybe it was my proactive use of diatomaceous earth and coffee grounds, the colder temps or a combination of all those.

    With all the trees and varying berries I have, I am bird rich. However, there are several cats that like to hang out and the neighbors unruly dogs visit more than I care for :x (seems the birds tend to stay high). And short of erecting a pricey fence, keeping them out would be no easy task. Being that earwigs are nocturnal, would the birds search and find them anyway though?

    I completely overlooked the obvious problem I'd encounter between chickens and the cats and dogs. I could keep the chickens in a large pen but I'd lose the benefits of their bug prowess, plus, I'm not sure it's a good idea not to let them roam.

    Thanks for the feedback. I welcome any more you or others may have.
     

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