I am not squeamish about most bugs. As a kid I handled spiders, grasshoppers, beetles, earwigs, caterpillars, rolly pollies, moths, butterflies, fire ants, grubs, butterflies, lady bugs, crickets, Daddy Longlegs, and millipedes (no bees, wasps or hornets for me, though). Then after a number of years with less exposure, my primal fears crept back. Five years of gardening like a madwoman have renewed my courage. However, I'm learning that with chemical-free gardening I can win the battle, but never the war. Take for example some Scarlet Runner Beans some friends gave me. These fellas popped out of the soil and began climbing heavenward about as fast as the Grimm Brothers could say "Jack and the Beanstalk." A couple weeks ago I went out early in the morning to check my garden and what used to be a healthy, happy plant, was a nubby inch of stem. Something had eaten the leaves off its neighbor and so I'd put a barrier around it to give it a chance to heal. But now, no more Mrs. Nice Gardener. After an evening garden tour (wearing my head lamp), I discovered that snails and earwigs were doing the initial damage, and the pill bugs were moving in like vultures to finish off my plants. I turned to the big guns: beer and yeast water. I used shallow plastic containers, dug small holes to get them near ground level and filled them two-thirds with beer. I bake a lot of bread, so I also use yeast (about 2 T. to 2 C. water, 1 t. sugar). Both worked well and I'm happy to report the leaf-eaten bean plant is making a strong recovery. The earwigs, on the other hand, met an unrecoverable end.
I have bees and they rarely go in the trap. Houseflies, pill bugs, and earwigs make up 95% of what I catch. Speaking of catch, I was also handpicking earwigs and snails each evening for a couple weeks.
I am not squeamish about most bugs. As a kid I handled spiders, grasshoppers, beetles, earwigs, caterpillars, rolly pollies, moths, butterflies, fire ants, grubs, butterflies, lady bugs, crickets, Daddy Longlegs, and millipedes (no bees, wasps or hornets for me, though). Then after a number of years with less exposure, my primal fears crept back. Five years of gardening like a madwoman have renewed my courage. However, I'm learning that with chemical-free gardening I can win the battle, but never the war. Take for example some Scarlet Runner Beans some friends gave me. These fellas popped out of the soil and began climbing heavenward about as fast as the Grimm Brothers could say "Jack and the Beanstalk." A couple weeks ago I went out early in the morning to check my garden and what used to be a healthy, happy plant, was a nubby inch of stem. Something had eaten the leaves off its neighbor and so I'd put a barrier around it to give it a chance to heal. But now, no more Mrs. Nice Gardener. After an evening garden tour (wearing my head lamp), I discovered that snails and earwigs were doing the initial damage, and the pill bugs were moving in like vultures to finish off my plants. I turned to the big guns: beer and yeast water. I used shallow plastic containers, dug small holes to get them near ground level and filled them two-thirds with beer. I bake a lot of bread, so I also use yeast (about 2 T. to 2 C. water, 1 t. sugar). Both worked well and I'm happy to report the leaf-eaten bean plant is making a strong recovery. The earwigs, on the other hand, met an unrecoverable end. 
I have bees and they rarely go in the trap. Houseflies, pill bugs, and earwigs make up 95% of what I catch. Speaking of catch, I was also handpicking earwigs and snails each evening for a couple weeks.
Eewww! I'm not usually squeamish about little critters, but seeing that many snails together reminds me of a nightmare. I've been looking for an excuse to buy beer (today I bought Coca-Cola for a rust removal project), so just add those to the weed problem, and I'm really going downhill fast;)
ReplyDeleteMy neighbor just had this happen to her beans, so I'm going to tell her what you did. I'm sure she'd prefer to not use chemicals, so this should really help. That picture of snails still gives me the creeps.
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