Or in other words... *&$^ THIS!
It's hard enough for little plants to survive all the insane 35-40 degree heats we keep getting. No rain in all of December and none so far this year either. How the hell are they supposed to deal with THIS?
I'm giving up to a certain extent. We got some good harvests and can still harvest some tomatoes, basil, and celery. But no new effort is going into the vegie bed for the time being. Too damn hot, too damn many slaters. Humbug.
11 comments:
You need more birdlife...
from Dinetta (not "into" posting much on these things)
Piggy spiders!!!! That's what we called them when I was little. They look to be in plague proportions. The weather has been terrible for vegie gardens. And puppies too: Gilly dug up the tomatoes....
Thanks for posting Dinetta :) Yes, more birdlife is definitely in the long term agenda - we're just not planning to plant out any areas of the garden (with nectar-producing plants) until after we're through the uncertainty of house demolishing & house building. Don't want to plant stuff, move out for ages, and then have everything die! I'm also on the look out for a large bird bath that I can raise up out of the dog's reach, but I can't quite find the one I want.
Hi 2paw :) Piggy spiders sounds too cute for such a destructive little thing! Actually as I kid I loved slaters, especially the hard-shelled ones that roll into a little ball when you pick them up. So it was Gilly who got into the tomatoes! Cheeky puppy! I thought it must have been Peri Naughty :)
You should try feeding them!!! Give them all of your organic waste, put those little champs to good use.
:o)
Hi Tim,
Well, I'm quite happy for the slaters to hang out around the fruit trees - they munch away on the manure and the mulch there, and that doesn't bother me at all because they don't damage the trees.
But in the vegie bed.. if I gave them extra organic waste, might that not just build up the numbers?? And then when the "slater food" isn't enough for the number of slaters, they would really get stuck in to the vegies. I'm stumped, really...
I'm not sure if slaters actually eat fresh plants anyway, would that not make them easier targets for birds / bigger insects?
http://www.ento.csiro.au/education/allies/isopoda.html
That page suggests that they like to feed on "decaying vegetable matter and associated fungi and also on animal matter", maybe the garden beds are too wet and everything is starting to rot?
I say use em! If you've got a compost heap, move all of your moist matter there (leaf litter, sticks, decaying veggies) and move the slaters too if not too difficult, if you keep all of the decaying stuff in one area they should stay away from what you want to eat... or get some chooks/ducks and let them take care of it for you while they fertilise the soil and give you eggs (would also cure any snail problems you might have)?
Hi Tim,
The slaters not eating live plants is a big fat MYTH!! When you only have small numbers of them, they do stick to decaying material. But when you have a plague, they'll go for anything. They've ringbarked my basil and beans, gnawed away at the leaves and stems of tomato plants, defoliated the marigolds, and are now tucking into celery. I know, because I've watched them. I think you'll find that the world is divided into people who've never had a slater plague and think they're lovely to have in the garden (I used to be in this camp), and those who have had slaters marauded and killing their precious vegies (now in this camp!)
Josh Byrne talks about it here: http://www.abc.net.au/gardening/stories/s2748796.htm
I caused the problem myself by overmulching :( So when we finish harvesting from this bed and then start over, I will be using a lot less mulch, and a different kind of mulch to boot.
My vegie bed is definitely not too wet :) I do most of my composting in a tumbler. I'd be happy to move the slaters to the fruit trees - where they already are in smaller numbers - but how do you move a plague of slaters??
I think I just need to give up on that bed until I can re-build the soil and reduce the mulch dramatically. We'd love to have ducks one day - it's on the list - but we simply don't have the time to look after them properly at the moment. Hard enough making sure the dog is walked as often as she needs to be!
So the sneaky little buggers are hiding under the mulch and devouring the base of your plants? That's rather nifty of them...
You could try and convince the dog that slaters are as tasty as moths? We used to have a Labrador who went crazy over moths, I assume it's a dog thing... Then the dog will also get much needed exercise hunting down a meal!!! Okay... so maybe not so helpful.
Good luck?!
Crikey!!!!
I used to love slaters and keep them as pets. I adored my slaters so much that one night I took the box into bed with me to sleep. When I woke up in the morning, they had had babies and there were little white dots everywhere! So if you need anybody to help take them off your hands, I'm back in June!
Hi Katie!! Nice to see you here :)
If I've still got slaters in June, you can have all of them... :D
Post a Comment