This year we planted a whole pile of assorted seedlings. Twice. Both times I have gone out the next day to water and they have all been gone. Eaten by bleedin" slaters. We get slaters here. Lots of slaters. Some people say that they are not a problem, they only eat rubbish stuff, they help clean up the gardens. I say no, they are horrible little critters that eat any newly planted plant. They can eat out the inside of a rockmelon from the bottom up and you wont know until you go to pick the rockmelon. They eat potatoes. Tomatoes. Chockoes...
They hide under mulch and sneak out in the dark and gobble up anything green. So I have removed most of the mulchy stuff and because they seem to love Choko leaves that is what I am using for traps. I pick a dozen or so leaves and put them around the gardens. Overnight the slaters go to the leaves and start munching away. 
The next morning I come out early and lift the leaf and give the slaters a blast of flame from the gas gun. I hope it is quick, I try for it to be because even though I don't like them eating all our food I do want them killed in a humane-ish way. So quick is the aim.This is one job that I get slack on though. If I come out and there is only 1 leaf of the 2 in the trap left then I know numbers are dwindling. But I also know that I need to keep up checking, laying down leaves and blasting any slaters under them.
Without using poisons how do you rid your food garden of these pests?
Put onion, garlic, hot pepper in a blender with a cup of hot water. Blend. Cool in the refrigerator. Next morning, strain well. Use about 1/4 cup in a hand sprayer with a Tbsp of cooking oil and 1 tsp Dawn. Shake and spray the plants. You can actually kill the plant if you spray too much. This will repel bugs not kill them. I sprayed once a day and kept all bugs off my plants, using NO poison at all. Maybe you can soak the ground before you plant. You can use the one gallon sprayer. Kust add a couple of cups of the blended stuff and 1/4 cup or so of vegetable oil and same of Dawn. Do you have Dawn in AU? Get original formula or reduce the amount of the concentrated Dawn.
ReplyDeleteI was going to try this a few years ago but *forgot* One day when I have all those things spare I might give it a go, thanks. Not sure if we have Dawn but presume any detergent would work...
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