Saturday, July 10, 2010

Slug & Earwig Control

It's been a very wet summer here in Wisconsin. With all the moisture my worst garden enemies have found their way into my garden. Who are my worst enemies in the shade garden? Slugs and earwigs. Eeverything is so wet and it rains practically every day, there is really no good way to control them this year. So what are some ways to control slugs and earwigs?

Slugs-
non-chemical - 1. You can put shallow dishes of beer in the soil, which you will have to empty in the morning. 2. Some claim that copper tape keeps slugs off of hostas. 3. You can go outside at night with a flashlight and find them, throwing them in ammonia or smashing them (I like to feed them to my pond fish)..  4.You can spray a 10% ammonia 90% water solution on your hostas on and on slugs.

Chemical- You can use sluggo, which is supposed to be safe with children and pets.



Earwigs-
non-chemical - earwigs are hard to get rid of in the garden. 1. You can do things like bury old hoses or rolled up damp newspaper, and in the morning you will find all kinds of earwigs which you can shake into soapy dish water to kill.    2. You can pick them off your plants at night and throw them into soapy water.

Chemical- 1. I have used a solution called Monterey Insect spray in the past. It contains spinosad, which is a naturally accuring chemical. However it is known to be harmful to bees, so either don't use it or be very careful to spray while bees are not around.   2. I have not used Sluggo Plus or Sevin, but either of these products is also supposed to work with earwigs.

3 comments:

Candice Suter.....Sweetstuff said...

Great ideas! Earwigs are yucky bugs! I don't have much problem with them though. My worst thing is snails, mealy bugs and clover!

The Idiot said...

I used some slug pellets, but they just ignored them. Next I might try napalm!

Hosta Nerd said...

We don't have many snail problems in Wisconsin. But we grow huge slug armies. LOL