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Earwigs!
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Posted by ccroulet z9 CA Sunset 18 (My Page) on Thu, Feb 28, 08 at 12:19
| My Salvia leucophylla is blooming now (1 gal plant planted last June). It should have lots of flowers, but they disappear overnight. I checked it late last night, and there were earwigs all over the flower heads. They stripped off the flowers by this morning. Sunset Garden Book suggests a damp rolled-up newspaper as a hiding place and small tins of cooking oil. They are attracted to the oil and drown. I used cat food tins. Both techniques worked as claimed, but I'm wondering if I should use something more aggressive. |
Follow-Up Postings:
RE: Earwigs!
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| IPM (Integrated Pest Management): Always use the least aggressive/environmentally damaging option first. IF that doesn't work then you up the ante by the next least harmful.... keep using the damp rolled-up papers. Also, in order for the beneficial critters to come they have to have something attractive to eat to lure them in.... thus usually an early abundance of aphids, earwigs, etc. If you poison all the early ones, then the beneficials won't come at all and you'll be caught in the loop of always needing to use poisons. |
RE: Earwigs!
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| My local newspapers are experts at delivering wet newspapers that would be perfect for this, with capacity to hold thousands of earwigs :-) Alas, it doesn't look like we're going to get anymore rain for awhile. |
RE: Earwigs!
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- Posted by youreit z9b CA Sunset z8-9 (My Page) on
Fri, Feb 29, 08 at 9:32
| Ack, I feel your pain! I always have problems with earwigs, so I've used veggie oil in cat food cans. It works at knocking back most of them, and I don't have to worry about keeping newspapers damp in this warm weather we've been having. :) Hope you get to enjoy those blooms again soon! Brenda |
RE: Earwigs!
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| I've collected a lot of earwigs in the last two nights, but they still managed to strip the latest flowers (emerged yesterday) from the S. leucophylla. The earwigs don't attack the plant until after midnight. I despair that I won't get to see this plant in its full blooming glory. I have two flowering S. mellifera and a "Dara's Choice" nearby, and they haven't suffered nearly to the same degree, though I now know why certain emerging flowers have disappeared overnight. Since the S. leucophylla is probably toast for this season, my worry transfers to my four S. clevelandii, which bloom later. |
RE: Earwigs!
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| Follow-up: The tins of cooking oil appear to be working. The numbers of earwigs getting trapped in them has dropped to zero (i.e., I think they've been eradicated), and the flowers are surviving the night. The only problem I'm encountering now is a neighborhood opossum that likes to lick out and overturn the tins. |
RE: Earwigs!
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| by "cooking oil" do you mean canola, vegetable oil, olive oil, etc. etc.? Thanks Carrie |
RE: Earwigs!
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| Carrie: Yes, exactly that. I don't know why, but the earwigs are attracted to it and drown themselves in it. |
RE: Earwigs!
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| Thanks - lol that may have sounded like a "dumb" question, but I couldn't believe it was your run of the mill cooking oils - which I have lots of in the house - and three cats to supply us with cans - what a helpful tip! Carrie |
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