Wednesday, May 14, 2014

Slug traps

There are a lot of strawberries grown in our area. 
Unfortunately they are grown in tunnel houses and sprayed with enormous quantities of chemicals to keep them in perfect condition for the consumer.  I know that most commercial growers here have a separate patch for their own consumption that they do not use excessive sprays on.......it must mean something when the growers are not even willing to eat their own product!
Anyway, I started off with a few strawberry plants which have multiplied each year and this year I am harvesting about 1kg a day of strawberries in this season.  Not too bad considering I use no sprays, very little fertilizer and some old net that was lying around to keep the birds out.   I was having a fantastic run this year with very little insect damage - mainly because we had a really, really dry spell.  Unfortunately that dry spell has turned into what it beginning to feel like the rainy season, so the slugs have started to come out and enjoy my wonderful strawberries.  
My solution for now is cornmeal.  I read somewhere that you could put jars with a bit of cornmeal in them on their side and the slugs will be attracted by the smell and go in for a feast, but then be unable to get out again due to the coarseness of the cornmeal.  I was a little skeptical, but I tried it yesterday and it seems to work - and the chickens love the feast they get of the mixture of cornmeal and delicious slugs! 
The raspberries are now starting to flower like crazy and although they don't get bothered by slugs the rain tends to rot them before I can pick them so I'm thinking my next job may be to create a roof for the raspberry patch..... the jobs never end!





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7 comments:

  1. audible10:59 am

    Where do you get cornmeal? I've noticed that while my strawberries are out early enought his year to avoid the crabs, the slugs are eating through the berries as soon as they ripen.

    At the veg. garden I keep overturned clay pots. They're a good place for the toads and and easy way to targed slugs. I've done the shallow dish of beer as well, but beer is expensive and slugs don't like happyo-shu.

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    1. Jo Tomooka9:38 pm

      I think I bought the cornmeal at Foreign Buyers Club, but it may have been Tengu Foods. I bought it a long time ago thinking I would use it for something and have had it in the fridge ever since! I'm glad that it is now finally being used!

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  2. MummyDing6:36 pm

    nice advice for planting strawberries!
    it is still cold up here in hokkaido and the hardware store hadnt start selling the saplings. i used to grow them in the planters but wasn't successful with a bountiful yield like yours.
    i noticed there are dried grass laid around. what are they for?

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    1. Jo Tomooka9:41 pm

      I always mulch around the plants with dried straw from our rice fields. I cut it up fine and put it as thick as I can. Any strawberries which are in direct contact with the soil tend to rot or get eaten by slugs so the straw helps to keep them okay. It also stops weeds taking over the strawberry patch.

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    2. MummyDing9:26 pm

      Thanks for the reply!

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  3. Casey7:42 am

    slug tempura for chickens! inhad a lot of slugs on my potatoes last year, maybe i'll give this a try...

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  4. David R Munson7:00 am

    You might also want to try a shallow dish with some beer in it. This is what we always used for slug traps and it was always surprisingly effective.

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