Tag: something ate it

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No more diatomaceous earth, now for oil traps

I talked with a nice county extension agent today who said anything soft-bodied could be hurt by diatomaceous earth (DE) including toads, though being large and hopping they’ll be less so than a slug or earwig. But, I love my toads, so no more DE.

She did however suggest oil traps to reduce their population while I work to make the habitat less absurdly full of rotting wood (thanks past Claire for all the mulch).

So, now we have five pitfall traps with about half an inch of oil in them.  Three have used fryer oil (vegetable oil) and two have fresh, unused vegetable oil.  (That big plant in the lower right is the Brunswick cabbage I have been nursing along under a glass jar.  Time for it to face the world!)
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Earwig prevention attempt again

I saw that the new bok choy and mizuna seeds are coming up so I tried all this diatomaceous earth again. I also put vaseline around stems of one each mizuna and bok choy as I read that can keep them from climbing too, though the seedlings are only barely 1/2″ tall so we’ll see.

All the white dust is diatomaceous earth.
Since the earwigs are desperate enough to eat onions I dusted the onions too.
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CAUGHT IN THE ACT

It’s earwigs.

Safe from bunnies, some innocent seedlings grow.
But there is an earwig. I dusted this entire area and the seedlings with diatomaceous earth. Yet here we are. But, the seedlings are still intact, so maybe it helps? We’ll see in the morning.
They’re even eating the onions. Is this why people don’t use pure compost to fill raised beds? Is mulch the problem? WHY!!! (I’ll try putting the diatomaceous earth around the onions tomorrow too.)
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Good, bad, and !!! news

Bad news: something ate the two baby Rudbeckia fulgida I put out yesterday.

Good news: all the fluttermill evening primrose, same size as Rudbeckia, are fine. This includes the three just a few yards away.

!!! News… A yucca may be sprouting???

See the tiny green point in the middle? Definitely not a usual weed! This is in one of the containers I left out all winter.
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Earwigs vs bunnies

Last night I took Briar out for her final business trip of the evening and noticed this big pile of earwigs feasting on fallen oak buds. Okay, I knew we had a lot of earwigs. I knew they nibbled on my purple potatoes last year. I have also suspected them of getting a few seedlings, like my coreopsis seedlings.

However, these earwigs chose an awfully suspicious place to dine. Right next to a denuded branch of moss-curled parsley.

Wes has just constructed me an anti-bunny defense screen for the front yard raised beds. So, soon we’ll find out… Are the bunnies really the culprits of the lost seedlings of mizuna, bok choy, and carrots? Did they, as suspected, eat all the leaves off my front yard parsley? Or am I going to have to find out if diatomaceous earth really works on earwigs?

Stay tuned.

The earwigs are above my finger and my finger points to the nibbled parsley.
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Seeds and apple tree on a drizzling morning

Paula came over and we planted many things, as well as doing some trimming and raking.

The semi-dwarf Arkansas Black Apple arrived.
We planted it and pruned it to ensure it will have lower main branches for ease of picking fruit. The hose there burst in the freeze (I didn’t drain it) so we’re using the break to water it.
We trimmed up the garlic (this picture), as well as Salvia greggii and mealy blue sage.
The potato experiment results say don’t plant potatoes when there’s about to be a major freeze. There was a lot of rot and slime.
We put the leftover seed potatoes in that I had saved from two weeks ago.
Four varieties of cabbage for Paula’s fermentation needs and Wes’ occasional soup needs. As soon as they sprout, the best seedlings will get covered with a jar to protect from bunnies. They seem to be tasty for bunnies. We also planted assorted other cool weather things (greens and carrots).
Better than nothing, Briar says, but why don’t we do something fun instead?
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Mystery consumption of coreopsis seedlings

I left the glass jar off the backyard newly transplanted seedlings last night and those two were gone. Genius move there. HOWEVER, in the front yard I also checked on the two new seedlings there. One was fine, the other was GONE and it was under a glass jar too. Earwig? Rolley-polley? We may never know. Paula has kindly and generously agreed to re-donate back one of the many I gave to her as her mortality rate is currently substantially lower. Like all of them are living. Thank you, Paula, for subsidizing my sink population.