I am am having a lot of trouble dealing with earwigs that are stripping all the new growth of passionfruit vines, apple and apricot trees. I have plant pots stuffed with paper around the garden that I use to capture (and remove) earwigs during the day. I have taken at night to removing any earwigs I find on my plants, but obviously can't do this all night. I tried reversing sticky-tape on the trunks but they seem able to walk straight over it. Does any one have any ideas of what I might do next??? Thanks, Pat
Hi Pat, I have not had experience with these myself, but here is an info page at Green Harvest: https://greenharvest.com.au/pestcontrol/ ... intro.html Don't know if that helps...
Ghastly critters Try vaseline barrier strip on the trunks and or trellis support , if push turns to shove vicks vapour rub will deter most creatures , again a barrier on the tree trunks , set up more traps like scraps of carpet with a tempting lettuce leaf or similiar underneath , they will go for and drown in used cooking oil (our dogs raid ours though) and linseed oil too i believe , havnt tried that yet , we too are getting hit by them lots of young ones just turned up in the last couple of weeks . Last year in desperation i grew the early veggies in water well pots on a bench with the legs in water containers to prevent access by nasties , it was really successful , once we get into summer the problem seems to resolve itself i guess natural predators start to take effect but generally just when you want to start mass planting the bugs turn up . We got a recharchable car vacum cleaner last year it was fantastic for collecting them also for catching those orange harliquin type bugs that suck the sap out of everything . good luck Terra
The bug department at the University of Wisconsin (U.S.) says to put some fish oil or vegetable oil in cans and partly bury them in the soil. the oil is supposed to attract them, and once they get into the oil, they can't get out of the cans. Then you can dump them into a bucket of soapy water to drown them (then add them to the compost pile), or just feed them alive to the chookies. Sue
Extra info about 'earwigs': I've been very pleasantly surprised to find that our chickens eat earwigs, they go nuts over them.
I've had moderate success with a dust made of about half diatomaceous earth and half wood ash. The ash dilutes the purchased D.E. and the blend seems just as effective. Earwigs, along with slugs and pillbugs, are the main reasons I have abandoned a policy of continuous heavy mulch around my vegetables, as this provides a habitat for all three....
