pests: problem solving in the garden

Like many other gardeners I know, I love kale. The last 2 years in a row, I've had a lot of trouble with what seemed to be root maggots, eating the roots and main stalks of my kale and broccoli to the point of their death. Kale is one of my favorite garden vegetables, so I haven't been able to give up on it, but it's been super frustrating.

Last spring, when I found maggot infestations in the roots of my first planting of cucumbers, I decided to investigate a little bit further (this would not be a typical plant for root maggots). I started to notice that where ever I found little white larvae, I would also find tiny white organisms with legs (millipede babies), and small millipedes (closer example here). Are there two problems, or are they all related? Still slightly unsure on this but I am thinking two.

Millipedes feeding on a decaying artichoke flower. If you look closely you can see babies as well.

After some research on millipedes, it seems pretty likely we have an issue with overpopulation. The garden provides nearly ideal millipede conditions, with lots of decaying matter in the form of mulch and woody compost, and steady moisture. Millipedes aren't usually problematic in a garden, but they will eat what ever is at the site of their hatching, including the roots of young seedlings. So in the event of an overpopulation, seedlings may start to become a more likely food source.

Lacinato kale, interplanted with arugula

This year I'd been holding my breath a bit. It's been drier and warmer than usual this spring, and my kale has been growing strong. We had the first rain in quite a while this week, and when the sky started to clear I went to check on the garden. Seeing the kale all flopped over from breezy rain reminded me of past issues, so I started poking around. I found that nearly every single one of them had many millipede babies in their roots, and at least one with maggots burrowing in the main stalk. I also found quite a lot of mature millipedes. I cleared out all offenders that I could, and then moped off feeling pretty grumpy and defeated. But yes I know, moping doesn't accomplish anything... 

I tried to feel out the situation to see if a solution would come to me. I thought of all the usual things I knew of... insecticidal soap, neem oil, wood ash, coffee grounds... but none of them really felt quite right, and then coffee came to mind. Brewed coffee. The feeling was to brew some coffee and pour a bit at the base of each plant - enough to saturate the immediate root supply. I haven't heard of doing this, but it just had that feeling of effectiveness, you know? Do you ever try that? To just feel for a solution? Sometimes I have come up with amazing solutions this way. I don't know if this one will work, but I'll be watching closely.

Later, I looked online to see if I could find any literature on using coffee as a pesticide, and actually found a few mentions of using brewed coffee as a spray on plants to deter slugs. Apparently the caffeine is toxic to them. I have to say, it was satisfying to find some backing to my less than scientific vision.

I used the grounds too.

If anyone has encountered issues with root maggots or millipedes and has found an organic way to deal with them, you have my full attention. This has probably been my biggest gardening frustration (lucky? maybe). It's hard to see beautiful plants you have grown up from seed just suddenly waste away.

While life will surely go on if I lose all my kale, I like to try to tackle these challenges and not give up. I've become a more patient and more enduring person in my day to day life by sticking it out with these kinds of perplexing challenges in the garden.

let's talk about slugs

In the Pacific NW, spring means slug season. When my family first came out west when I was little, I had never even seen a slug before. The first time I discovered one, I was pretty intrigued with the unusual little beast I had found. And of course, I soon learned the strange and horrible things that kids knew to do with slugs - like pouring salt on them (horrible!), or licking a banana slug to see if your tongue really went numb (strange!). I also have clear memories of my mom out in her flower beds, struggling with slugs and the damage they would do. Slugs are a big deal here, especially if you are trying to grow things.

All that said, slugs are interesting creatures. They are hermaphroditic, meaning they each contain both sexual organs. If necessary, a slug can mate with itself and produce offspring, making reproduction easy. They breathe with a single lung, through a respiration hole near the top of their head (the anus and sex organs are located at the bottom of this hole), and they can also breathe through their skin. They have 2 sets of tentacles. The upper set senses light, and the lower set senses smell. And their tenacious slime has a number of purposes - luring mates, protecting themselves from dryness and harsh surfaces, and allowing them to move along all kinds of slopes without falling. Slugs have teeth - like, 27,000 of them, with which they consume decaying matter, fungi, plants, animal droppings, and some are even predatorial and will eat worms and even other slugs (for the visually squeamish, this is a warning...).

Here in the NW there are what I consider to be 2 main categories of slugs that I encounter. The Banana slug, a native species here; and the the very common European red and black slugs which are considered invasive.

Native Banana Slug

note the 2 sets of feelers

While banana slugs are native to the NW, it is fairly rare that I will find one in the garden. Even at their impressively large size (said to be the 2nd largest terrestrial slug species in the world), I don't mind finding them around our place. They prefer to be on the forest floor, processing leaves, animal droppings, fungi, and dead plant material. They are an important part of the ecosystem here, recycling decaying matter into rich humus. And it is true, if you lick one, your tongue will go numb. Their slime contains an anesthetic, which works as a defense mechanism against predators (if you picked something up with your mouth, and it went numb, you would probably drop it!).

note the reddish edge along it's belly. I think this is a red slug variant.

The European red slug, the European black slug, and their variants, are considered invasive to our region and as such, tend to do excessive damage and reproduce rapidly. As my experience tells me, they are truly problematic. And their damage is not confined to the vegetable garden.

I have spent a lot of time in our garden hunting countless slugs and replanting losses to them. During wetter seasons, they have taken whole beds of small seedlings, chewed the stalks of well established sunflowers right off, wasted beds of daffodils and chewed the giant leaves of rhubarb patches until they are all completely riddled with holes. It's kind of impressive, and can be really frustrating! I even once saw a slug eating an earthworm (sorry?). It was a first, for sure. It's a predator universe out there...

 Ha, but with that said, with a pretty solid no-kill motto here, even if something is considered a pest (not to say that I have never killed a slug, though I have more than kindheartedly relocated hundreds of them), we went searching for options. We have tried many (non poison) options without real success. For the curious, this included crushed egg shells, crushed nut shells, coffee grounds, cedar shavings... they didn't seem to mind any of it at all.

Enter copper tape. This particular option is still a work in progress, but it feels like we have found an option worthy of pursuing. The reason we have been rearranging the layout of our garden, as I mentioned earlier, is to create a path around the perimeter. This, in part, will create a gap between outer vegetation and the interior of the garden, so there will be less places for slugs to hide and live, but it will also provide a place to apply copper tape. The vegetable garden is surrounded by 2x lumber - example above - making for a relatively easy application of the tape, if the wood is kept clear. Last year I installed copper tape to one side of the garden, and then spent embarrassing amounts of time out there quietly watching to observe it's effectiveness at repelling slugs. In short, it does repel them and they do not care to cross it. But there will be those occasional larger, more adventurous slugs that will work up the courage, and the thickest slime barrier, to arch over the tape. It was truly pretty arduous though, and took quite a long time. I would say the thickness of this particular copper tape (about 1 1/4") is a little on the narrow side.

a section installed last year (stuck down and then stapled in place)

I will keep you posted on the project and the changes within the garden once it's complete. 

Another longer term preventive that interests me, is to create habitat for some of their natural predators, particularly frogs, snakes and certain birds. Their natural predators include frogs, toads, snakes, moles, mice and some birds such as ducks, thrushes and robins.

Do you have slugs in your zone? If you have come up with an organic solution for keeping them under control in your garden, I'd love to know how, and what you have learned. Thanks for reading with me! I enjoyed researching this, and I enjoy finding solutions that work.

controlling pests

i might be the only gardener out there that sinks into a deep, dark hole when pests begin taking control of the garden. thoughts like, "why do i even spend my time doing this?!" and "i hate my life!" are pretty common when i find holes in leaves or shriveled fruit on the vine. thankfully, the garden is a team-effort & my husband is much more level-headed.

well, a similar episode occurred in the garden this weekend. we left for a family reunion & returned only two days later to an aphid & caterpillar attack! usually, aphids (pictured above) are not so bad. in our case, we were not so lucky. thousands of aphids took cover under our lush pumpkin leaves & began their trek of multiplication toward our butternut & acorn squash plants. after a minor panic attack on my part, my husband & i took action.

making a clean cut with our pocket knife, we removed every leaf & blossom within contact of the aphids. i noticed two pumpkins that were beginning to shrivel on the vine. after much research on aphids, i found that aphids can carry viruses that will stunt the growth of various fruits, especially squash & melon. another interesting observation was the pack of ants hovered around the aphids. although at the time we believed the ants were on our side, they actually act as a protector for aphids. aphids & ants have a working partnership... how frustrating! a great way to prevent aphids is actually to rid your garden of ants, too. creating an insecticidal soap or garlic spray will do the job, too.

unfortunately, our pest issues were not over. after our episode with aphids, we soon noticed caterpillar droppings on the leaves of our tomato plants. we took action immediately, checking each leaf & stem of our tomatoes.

we found five caterpillars & squished them relentlessly as they cried, "mercy!"

the moral of the story is, of course, keeping a close eye on your garden as a key to controlling pests. that, & keeping an insecticidal soap close by just in case aphids begin taking refuge under your beautiful pumpkin leaves.

recipe for insecticidal soap
1 to 2 tablespoons liquid soap
1 to 2 heads of garlic
1 quart of water

mix & add to a spray bottle clearly labeled.

garden pests: cutworms

this year as soon as we transplanted our broccoli, broccoli raab, brussels sprouts and cabbage seedlings, we installed cutworm collars. after two seasons we know (and perhaps we should have known after just one) that cutworm collars are necessary to save us the heartache of waking up only to find all of our brassica seedlings cut off at the stem.

cutworms are active in may and june. if you've been digging in your soil and have noticed a red pupa case, beware. these pupae will turn into cutworm moths which will lay eggs and produce more cutworms. the worms are grayish brown and usually will curl up if disturbed. a quick google search will provide you with photos of the worm, the moth, and the pupa case.

the solution is easy. just install a collar around each and every small seedling that you plant, particularly the brassica crops. we cut up old yogurt containers to make our own. the collars need to be pressed firmly into the soil to make an effective barrier. when the seedling grows and is sturdier, you can easily remove the collar and save it for next year.

by paying attention to the insects in your garden, you can garden smarter.

do you use cutworm collars?