Whats been eating my veggies?

[mhargis]

Hello all, in Utah we have animals and bugs that snack on our garden, what do we have to look forward to in Puna?
Thank you, Michael & Christi

michaelhargis.com

[jlgerk]

wild pigs

[Carey]

Depending on where in Puna and what you plant - along with the wild pigs there can be feral cattle, chicken, goats & sheep, whiteflies, slugs & giant african land snails (GALS), thrips, scale, leafhoppers, beetles.... lots of insects

& squatters & neighbors & drive by fruit collectors...

[mhargis]

So what do you do to save the garden from the onslaught?
Thanks, Michael

michaelhargis.com

[Carey]

We have a fenced orchard, so that limits the ferals & some of the humans (still have had people up in our tree branches...but it limits that...

For insects, all I do is use an oil spray with dish detergent & vegetable oil.... sprayed through out the plants when they need it (the whiteflies & thrips fall off quickly, and the scales seem to go away.. We were able to get the oil for free, used fish fry oil, so the cost is really low

For the GALS & slugs, we plucked hundreds a week when we first moved to the lot.... and used them as 'Zen speed bumps' to reduced the drifting that was a problem for a bit (more than a couple of times the drifting would knock down newly planted trees... so the lack of that now is a great side benefit...) and the GALS & slug count are now pretty low...still do have slugs , but a plastic container on the ground will yield a small amount that get salted.

[Lee M-S]

Carey,
you mentioned "zen speed bumps" in another post, too. Whatchu talkin' 'bout?
Lee

quote:

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Originally posted by Carey

We have a fenced orchard, so that limits the ferals & some of the humans (still have had people up in our tree branches...but it limits that...

For insects, all I do is use an oil spray with dish detergent & vegetable oil.... sprayed through out the plants when they need it (the whiteflies & thrips fall off quickly, and the scales seem to go away.. We were able to get the oil for free, used fish fry oil, so the cost is really low

For the GALS & slugs, we plucked hundreds a week when we first moved to the lot.... and used them as 'Zen speed bumps' to reduced the drifting that was a problem for a bit (more than a couple of times the drifting would knock down newly planted trees... so the lack of that now is a great side benefit...) and the GALS & slug count are now pretty low...still do have slugs , but a plastic container on the ground will yield a small amount that get salted.

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><(((*> ~~~~ ><(("> ~~~~ ><'> ~~~~ >(>

[Carey]

As much as I do not like those GALS, I didn't want to use the rain safe snail bait (not the nicest pesticide)....

I also didn't want to have to deal with a bucket of those large dead things most days... so I placed them on the edge line of the road... If they did not slither into the road & no car ran over them...well that is the Zen part...but the speed bump is what always happened, as cars would drift over into the sidewalk....