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July 2, 2009
critters getting to herbs/fruits
i'm under attack by various critters. it seems squirrels have been stealing the strawberries, slugs are on the basil, and i can only imagine what's coming for the tomatoes once they mature. is there a panacea for all these, or do are there seperate treatments for each?
Comments
Panacea for all ??? Bomb!
Posted by: SenatorStreet at July 2, 2009 4:10 PM
Squirrels: cover the strawberries with chicken wire.
Slugs: Cover the base of the plants with coffee grounds.
No advice on the tomatoes -- but the squirrels will go after those as well.
Posted by: Silvermax at July 3, 2009 12:02 AM
I know it doesn't work for everyone everywhere but last year I had success keeping the squirrels away from the tomatoes by using diversion-feeding. I have a platform feeder and a little birdbath both of which sit on the ground and I keep them clean and filled. I read squirrels only go after tomatoes when they're thirsty so if they have a water source nearby they'll drink that instead. The squirrels ate most my tulips this year and I saw online recommendation to put vaseline on the tulip stalks. We did that on the few remaining tulip buds and stalks and it totally worked! They left those ones alone. So next Spring I'll be buying a big jar of vaseline. We also have a lot of bugs this year. Especially slugs.
Posted by: traditionalmod at July 3, 2009 10:30 AM
I heard that if you put out shallow dishes of beer for the slugs they will crawl in and drink themselves to death. I haven't tried this out yet though...
Posted by: StuyMom at July 5, 2009 8:10 AM
I use the beer traps, they definitely work for slugs. You can use a regular shallow bowl or saucer, but you can also buy traps with covers on them; that way they don't fill up with rainwater. The only downside is, it's a little gross to clean up the bloated drowned slugs.
Posted by: geekspice at July 6, 2009 9:12 AM
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