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scott_schluter

Nightime visitor

Scott Schluter
14 years ago

My bean and cabbage crops have been decimated. I finally figured out it happens at night. I went out tonight and saw a bunch of the same bugs on my plants. Anyone have any idea what it is and how to be rid of it...preferably as natural as possible?

TIA

Comments (13)

  • Scott Schluter
    Original Author
    14 years ago

    It sort of looks like a rolly poly but it is darker grey and the shell is less flat. I picked this guy right off of a leaf and noticed many more all around.

  • jimster
    14 years ago

    Can you describe the damage? For example holes all over the leaves, chunks eaten out of the edge of the leaves or stems chewed through.

    Jim

  • Scott Schluter
    Original Author
    14 years ago

    Holes all over the leaves. Entire leaves gone, leaving just the stems. Hoping this isn't multiple bugs...

  • Scott Schluter
    Original Author
    14 years ago

    I went out again and found some slugs. I have some slug traps out (put out this afternoon). Here are some pictures of the beans. There isn't anything left of my cabbage to take pictures of unfortunately.

  • jimster
    14 years ago

    The big holes, sometimes at the edged, sometimes not, as well as partial skeletonization, looks to me like slug dammage.

    Roly polys, potato bugs, pill bugs, sow bugs or whatever they are, do not cause that kind of damage that I know of. In fact, sow bugs, if that's what they are, do not attack living plants at all.

    Jim

  • Scott Schluter
    Original Author
    14 years ago

    Thanks, I think you are right. Will be kind of tough to rid myself of these, my beds are made primarily of leaves, compost, and seaweed. The traps got a bunch last night, I'll try some more tactics and see if I can knock down the population.

  • jimster
    14 years ago

    Sluggo is a safe and effective product.

    Shallow dishes of beer are said to work also.

    Jim

    Here is a link that might be useful: Sluggo

  • farmfreedom
    14 years ago

    That is a pill bug by the way and I agree they did not due that damage .

  • Scott Schluter
    Original Author
    14 years ago

    Got some slug control. *crosses fingers*

  • P POD
    14 years ago

    TIA, you took a pic of the little devils! See the tiny slugs in your second picture's upper left-hand corner. Slugs can decimate your beans in no time. It's good to get them under control from the get-go.

    Beer is a good bait but expensive. Here's a homemade bait, just as effective as beer, but much, much cheaper to use:

    WATER - wheat FLOUR - and - YEAST slurry.

    First make a slurry of flour and cold water. Stirr in one or two teaspoons yeast. Cover, set aside either in fridge (slow ferment) or on counter (fast ferment) for a day or so, or use some for bait immediately, and store rest in fridge.

    Wheat flour contains gluten, which together with water and yeast, ferments (the yeasts eat the gluten).

    Option: Keep a big batch in the fridge (in container with lid), stir before use. When dormant (the yeasts ate all the gluten), reactivate with water and flour. No more yeast is needed. Keep refrigerated.

    Keep your starter (that's what it's called when used for bread-making) active by adding water and flour occasionally. After the initial addition of yeast, no more yeast is needed, just add water and wheat flour.

    When you need more bait, stir the starter well, add water and flour, remove the amount you need for bait, and put the rest back in the fridge in a covered container. Everything must be clean to prevent bad bacteria from infecting your starter.

    Slugs apparently go mad with delight when they smell this delicious fermenting concoction.

    ===

    However, for the person, who has to empty the containers full of decaying slugs, it is no delight. Gross! Please don't have kids do this chore!

    Cheap styrofoam cups, quarter-full of bait slurry, sunk into the ground, work ok.

    ===

    Re: Monterey Sluggo:

    The active ingredient in Monterey Sluggo is Iron phosphate, a mined product, and the inert is wheat gluten. Monterey Sluggo is approved for organic gardening, and it is OMRI Listed, according to the manufacturer.

  • Macmex
    14 years ago

    BTW, as a transplanted Northerner, I always thought that sow bugs/rolly polies didn't cause such damage. But in some Southern gardens, they are TERRIBLE! I've had them eat entire plants, and that, over night.

    George
    Tahlequah, OK (where, fortunately, they haven't been a problem)

  • tcstoehr
    14 years ago

    Wood lice *will* eat young, tender plants. Especially when there are huge numbers of them. That mulch you have is perfect habitat for them. Some unfortunate people cannot mulch their gardens since it invites a plague of these things. A problem in parts of the PNW where I live.

  • Macmex
    14 years ago

    Here's a good thread on which deals with sow bugs.

    Here is a link that might be useful: Ruth Stout gardening/ OK gardening forum

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