Earwigs

Hello everyone,
Earwigs are a real problem here too. I didn’t have any this year in my first year down patch where there were no weeds nor decaying weed material… Maybe keeping the soil clean helps.
A few years ago I decided that the earwigs must also feed on the plant material around the daffodils so I sprayed all the surrounding area of one patch with a systemic insecticide. I think it was orthene I used. I had no problems with earwigs in that patch so maybe the clue to avoiding the earwig problem is to spray the other things they feed on.
Some people use rolled up newspapers along the daffodil row. The earwigs shelter in the paper during the day so you just pick up the newspaper each morning and burn it.
As to slugs, I understand a flat dish of stale beer is effective in attracting and drowning them.
David Adams
Christchurch

4 comments for “Earwigs

  1. Dear David

     

    You wrote “As to slugs, I understand a flat dish of stale beer is effective …”

     

    I hope that you are using that Australian Fosters stuff. British beer is too good to waste on slugs.

     

    James Akers

  2. Dear David

     

    You wrote “As to slugs, I understand a flat dish of stale beer is effective …”

     

    I hope that you are using that Australian Fosters stuff. British beer is too good to waste on slugs.

     

    James Akers

     


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  3. Hello James,
     
    You are making a couple of assumptions which influence the response to your comments.
     
    Having never tasted it I don’t know what beer tastes like so can’t comment as to which is the most effective. I have not tried the stale beer theory to see if it actually works anyway.
     
    If British beer is so great then one assumes the slugs would like it better. Is the value of the beer of greater worth than having a potential Best in Show nibbled during the night?
     
    Two snails were sliding along a garden wall when one turned around and saw that they were being followed by a slug.
    She turned to her friend and said “Oh Frances, don’t turn around. I think we are being followed by a nudist”
     
    Dave
  4. We tried setting out beer many years ago for the slugs (our State mascot) and found that the raccoons got it first.  I presume we had some tipsy raccoons – we haven’t repeated the experiment!

     

    Theresa

    In rainy Portland, Oregon (where we had 1-1/4 inches of rain yesterday)

     


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