I’m sure you all know by now that I am waging a slater war :D

The raised vegie bed is resting at the moment as we’ve topped it up with a bunch of stuff that needs a while to break down. However I’m starting to plan ahead to when we’ll be wanting to grow stuff in there..

It is SWARMING with slaters. Only the hard shelled ones, curiously – last time around there was a mix of both.

What I tried last time around was beer traps, and it didn’t work at all. I ended up manually catching them and tossing them into the traps, but I don’t have the heart for that, there’s no way I could put a dent in the horde.

I’m thinking of trying this diatomaceous earth: http://www.gardenersdirect.com.au/commerce/search/products/?product_id=DEfab001&merchant_id=2135

Has anyone tried it? Is it really not dangerous to worms, birds etc? Are there any potential problems I’m missing, like killing off of good bugs/spiders?

I’m not bothered about wiping slaters out from the garden, they’re welcome to hang out everywhere BUT the vegie bed. Since the bed is raised.. 800cm I think, I don’t think they will be able to repopulate it unless I re-introduce them with manure/mulch.

What would you guys do??

The only other thing I’m contemplating is little lengths of old hose, since I have a bunch of old hose available. I did try squishing toilet rolls and using those, but it didn’t work. I’ve never tried orange peel halves – would that also work with lemons? I have spare lemons :)

Oh, and.. anybody who wants to say “slaters only eat dead material, they don’t eat living plants” can go sit in the corner – I’ve watched them ringbarking my seedlings and munching away on tomato leaves :D

Thanks :):)

Well I put toilet rolls around my seedlings and I think this works…not sure but it stops something rinbarking the seedlings…

After dinner, I’ll look up my Encyclopaedia of Organic Gardening for you…should be a hint in there…you do need more birds, do you get pee wees (pied mud larks) over there? Willie Wagtails are good too…

can you push the mulch back a part at time (like one quarter or one third), and expose the slaters in the early morning (overnight?) ? This might attract the birds as well…just thinking here…

Oh, I just realised.. I think I also have some of that iron-based slug and snail killer which I think is supposed to kill slaters too, so that’s another option.

Would they be breeding in a dry compost heap somewhere? I often have colonies in my compost which is a cool compost most of the time…

Dinetta said:

Well I put toilet rolls around my seedlings and I think this works…not sure but it stops something rinbarking the seedlings…

After dinner, I’ll look up my Encyclopaedia of Organic Gardening for you…should be a hint in there…you do need more birds, do you get pee wees (pied mud larks) over there? Willie Wagtails are good too…

can you push the mulch back a part at time (like one quarter or one third), and expose the slaters in the early morning (overnight?) ? This might attract the birds as well…just thinking here…

Hi Dinetta :)

I reckon toilet rolls around the seedlings would work for normal slater populations, but this is a plague. I could count about 20 slaters or so in a 10cm by 10cm patch of the bed, I reckon. And half of them are mating at the moment :(

We do get mudlarks, and the occasional magpie. But they’ve never shown any interest in the vegie bed. Unexposed isn’t the problem – the slaters are crawling everywhere in plain view. I reckon the mudlarks must have seen them by now and just aren’t interested.

Dinetta said:

Would they be breeding in a dry compost heap somewhere? I often have colonies in my compost which is a cool compost most of the time…

Oh, I’m sure they’re breeding everywhere :D I think they originally made it into the vegie bed via manure and mulch, but now there’s a self sustaining colony.

By the way, after your advice ages ago, I did put a little bird bath in the middle of the vegie bed in the hope of tempting the birds in :)

Google says ducks love them.. sigh can’t wait until we have the new house sorted and we can get some duckies :)

“Backyard Poultry on Cleaning up Slaters”: http://forum.backyardpoultry.com/viewtopic.php?t=7957725

Try there…I used “slater plague in garden” as a search topic in Google…your “little white flag” post in your blog kept coming up too!! :D

Dinetta said:

Backyard Poultry on Cleaning up Slaters

Try there…I used “slater plague in garden” as a search topic in Google…your “little white flag” post in your blog kept coming up too!! :D

Whoops put an unnecessary space in the link name…

If the worst comes to the worst, either put the garden contents into a compost bin and make a hot compost of it…

or…

make a hot compost ON the garden bed, that’ll cook the slaters? You will have to do without home grown goodies for a while..

Borrow some chookies together with a chook tractor?

Dinetta said:

“Backyard Poultry on Cleaning up Slaters”: http://forum.backyardpoultry.com/viewtopic.php?t=7957725

Try there…I used “slater plague in garden” as a search topic in Google…your “little white flag” post in your blog kept coming up too!! :D

hahaha :) Yeh, the slaters are an ongoing bloody drama here :D It seems from Googling that they’re especially bad in Perth compared to the rest of the country.

I just finished reading that thread, the poor girl who started it is in the same boat as me! Diatomaceous earth still seems like the best bet to me.

bon008 said:

Diatomaceous earth still seems like the best bet to me.

What is the diatomaceous earth going to do? (as a matter of idle curiosity, like)

Just dug up Josh’s advice on the subject: http://www.abc.net.au/gardening/stories/s2748796.htm

Snail pellets seem like the most applicable thing for my particular situation. I’ll go see if I can find the ones I think I have – the impossible state of the laundry/shed/pig style is another ongoing drama. If I’m not back in a couple of hours, I’ve been squashed by falling tools and bitten by spiders… :D

Dinetta said:

bon008 said:

Diatomaceous earth still seems like the best bet to me.

What is the diatomaceous earth going to do? (as a matter of idle curiosity, like)

I think it’s the same stuff you see in some of the dehydrating “do not eat this sachet” things you get in packaging sometimes. It’s tiny tiny sharp dry particles – the sharpness damages the protective coating on insects, and they dry out.

This is what the Gardeners Direct (where I buy most of my supplies) website says about it:

“DE-feat-a-bug is 100% organic food grade diatomaceous earth. It is produced from finely ground prehistoric fossils. It kills undesirable household and garden insects. The fine powder is distributed in areas that insects inhabit. It destroys insects by breaking down the waxy cuticle on their external skeleton that leads to total dehydration and death. It is non poisionous to mammals, birds, worms, fish or reptiles. Controls; Slaters, Silverfish, Spiders, Cockroaches, Ants, Aphids, Fleas, Bed bugs, Termites, Millipides and all other crawling insect pests. Apply the powder around, in or under the area where the insects will walk. Once they have it on their bodies they are doomed. Avoid inhalation of dust when applying.”

That other website also said that it’s really good for chooks (and humans!) to eat, which boggles my mind a bit. It is food grade… =/

I found pretty much the same thing here:

Diatomaceous Earth and how it kills bugs

bon008 said:

Just dug up Josh’s advice on the subject: http://www.abc.net.au/gardening/stories/s2748796.htm

Snail pellets seem like the most applicable thing for my particular situation. I’ll go see if I can find the ones I think I have – the impossible state of the laundry/shed/pig style is another ongoing drama. If I’m not back in a couple of hours, I’ve been squashed by falling tools and bitten by spiders… :D

take care! :P

Dinetta said:

bon008 said:

Just dug up Josh’s advice on the subject: http://www.abc.net.au/gardening/stories/s2748796.htm

Snail pellets seem like the most applicable thing for my particular situation. I’ll go see if I can find the ones I think I have – the impossible state of the laundry/shed/pig style is another ongoing drama. If I’m not back in a couple of hours, I’ve been squashed by falling tools and bitten by spiders… :D

take care! :P

Done! It did involve some precarious balancing on a tub of B&B to reach a high shelf :)

The instructions on the packet were SO helpful – 70 pellets per sqm! Dingbats.

Anyway, I spread it around, then stayed a couple of minutes to watch. Blow me down, the slaters didn’t just nibble on the pellets – some of them picked ‘em up and carried them around! So that’s a good sign, but I’ve got the diatomaceous earth to fall back on if the pellets don’t work well enough.

ground up fossils.. are you sure?

If we had that many fossils we’d know a lot more about prehistory..

to get rid of slaters.
rake the top 10 cm of soil up make sure you get all the mulch and humus.. take it to the garbage tip.

Never water again.

roughbarked said:

to get rid of slaters.
rake the top 10 cm of soil up make sure you get all the mulch and humus.. take it to the garbage tip.

Never water again.

eh RB ??
explain please.

seriously though

Slaters do build up when you use a lot of mulch.

They also make snails look like angels simply because snails have nothing to hide.

of the snail baits, The red one is good for snails and slugs and your garden for it is only chelated iron
The green one is good for snails and slugs but contains Methiocarb
but if your target is greater than slugs and snails .. ie; slaters earwigs and millipedes Then you’ll need to use the blue stuff. Whuch contains a higher percentage of Methiocarb.

Just remember that Methiocarb is a residual problem so only use it around your seedlings. Use it only when you need to. Don’t make a habit of it as it is a bad habit.

The better habit is to make your compost properly and apply it over the tops of your beds. Don’t use a mulch unless it is well composted or still hot off the press.. Forget anerobic composting.. It only causes problems.. Get out there and turn your compost every day .. keep it hot till it rots. Keep applying well rotted compost as a surface mulch.

The slaters are there because you gave them the breeding conditions.

Happy Potter said:

roughbarked said:

to get rid of slaters.
rake the top 10 cm of soil up make sure you get all the mulch and humus.. take it to the garbage tip.

Never water again.

eh RB ??
explain please.

The slaters breed on our lack of effort.

The more lazy we become, the more slaters we get.

the one way to not have slaters is to not have a garden. Slaters don’t really like bare earth. but on the other hand, if you want to garden organically you’ll no doubt find that slaters are both your friend and your worst nightmare.

Show me the slaters in this picture.. http://www.flickr.com/photos/99559986@N00/4891820047/

roughbarked said:

Happy Potter said:

roughbarked said:

to get rid of slaters.
rake the top 10 cm of soil up make sure you get all the mulch and humus.. take it to the garbage tip.

Never water again.

eh RB ??
explain please.

The slaters breed on our lack of effort.

Ok. Things learnt.
Thanks :)

Happy Potter said:

roughbarked said:

Happy Potter said:

eh RB ??
explain please.

The slaters breed on our lack of effort.

Ok. Things learnt.
Thanks :)

Just that whenever I have left my garden untended, I get slaters everywhere. When Ilook at natural bushland I see no slaters.

If I do my composting and gardening religiously. Slaters aren’t such a problem.

roughbarked said:

to get rid of slaters.
rake the top 10 cm of soil up make sure you get all the mulch and humus.. take it to the garbage tip.

Never water again.

The first paragraph makes sense but the second doesn’t???

Will read on…

roughbarked said:

The slaters are there because you gave them the breeding conditions.

MMmmhmm altho’ I did read in my speed research of the matter, overpopulation of slaters is a common problem in the WA…

roughbarked said:

Happy Potter said:

roughbarked said:

The slaters breed on our lack of effort.

Ok. Things learnt.
Thanks :)

Just that whenever I have left my garden untended, I get slaters everywhere. When Ilook at natural bushland I see no slaters.

If I do my composting and gardening religiously. Slaters aren’t such a problem.

Good advice RB.
I don’t have a slater prob but I’ve noted re the hot composting and the baits. No mulch here atm, ground is still too cold. But I know the earwigs are gathering.

roughbarked said:

Just that whenever I have left my garden untended, I get slaters everywhere. When Ilook at natural bushland I see no slaters.

If I do my composting and gardening religiously. Slaters aren’t such a problem.

I’ve often wondered… this was a theory of mine after watching Bon’s posts…and now it’s confirmed…

Dinetta said:

roughbarked said:

Just that whenever I have left my garden untended, I get slaters everywhere. When Ilook at natural bushland I see no slaters.

If I do my composting and gardening religiously. Slaters aren’t such a problem.

I’ve often wondered… this was a theory of mine after watching Bon’s posts…and now it’s confirmed…

.. wot..? that I’m nutter? I already knew that . :)

roughbarked said:

Dinetta said:

roughbarked said:

Just that whenever I have left my garden untended, I get slaters everywhere. When Ilook at natural bushland I see no slaters.

If I do my composting and gardening religiously. Slaters aren’t such a problem.

I’ve often wondered… this was a theory of mine after watching Bon’s posts…and now it’s confirmed…

.. wot..? that I’m nutter? I already knew that . :)

for goodness sake RoughBarked…I don’t think you’re a nutter! I was wondering if Bon was providing her slaters with Slater Hotel de Luxe (7 stars), with all that mulch….. lol!

I’ve even blamed slaters for moving glyphosate from target plants to the plants I wanted to keep.

roughbarked said:

I’ve even blamed slaters for moving glyphosate from target plants to the plants I wanted to keep.

On their feet? sounds reasonable I guess….if you’re speaking of seedlings ..

I’ve even blamed slatersfor moving glyphosate to the wrong plants.

I also noted that just after we had that earlier slater discussion.. Josh did a segment about slaters.. Proving me correct in that yes, slaters are pests if they are present in great numbers.

They are a new problem in WA, where they weren’t such a problem in the past.

Slater Hotel de Luxe (7 stars), with all that mulch….. lol!

>

A great phrase .. may I use it?

roughbarked said:

Slater Hotel de Luxe (7 stars), with all that mulch….. lol!

>

A great phrase .. may I use it?

Absolutely! :)

I’ve also noted that slaters aren’t so fond of mulch that contains Eucalyptus.

Because it’s oily I suppose…eucalyptus oil is a vegetable oil stain remover and a human eye irritant…

roughbarked said:

Dinetta said:

roughbarked said:

Just that whenever I have left my garden untended, I get slaters everywhere. When Ilook at natural bushland I see no slaters.

If I do my composting and gardening religiously. Slaters aren’t such a problem.

I’ve often wondered… this was a theory of mine after watching Bon’s posts…and now it’s confirmed…

.. wot..? that I’m nutter? I already knew that . :)

a garden nutter..well I can relate. hehe

…but then the Mother of All Herbs plant will deter (but not prevent) toads from digging little mud baths for themselves in your pot plants…

Dinetta said:

…but then the Mother of All Herbs plant will deter (but not prevent) toads from digging little mud baths for themselves in your pot plants…

I meant to say, because it is strong with aromatic oils…I thought it was related to the Vicks Vaporub plant…must look that up later…

roughbarked said:

I’ve also noted that slaters aren’t so fond of mulch that contains Eucalyptus.

Oh, that tells me why I have certain beds that don’t have slaters or earwigs. All the Euc’ leaf mulch I get blown into the carport I use.

roughbarked said:

to get rid of slaters.
rake the top 10 cm of soil up make sure you get all the mulch and humus.. take it to the garbage tip.

Never water again.

Umm, yeh. But that would just kill my garden. I know water and mulch is creating the breeding conditions. But you can’t grow anything in my sand without water and mulch. I don’t want to eradicate the slaters entirely, necessarily. Just reduce from plague proportions (where they will rapidly kill seedlings) to normal proportions (where they seem to be happy eating the mulch/manure).

Anyway, looks like there’s a lot more in this thread overnight… climbs

I didn’t have time to check on the progress of the bed this morning, but I should be home before dark tonight so I’ll go out and check after work.

Dinetta said:

roughbarked said:

Just that whenever I have left my garden untended, I get slaters everywhere. When Ilook at natural bushland I see no slaters.

If I do my composting and gardening religiously. Slaters aren’t such a problem.

I’ve often wondered… this was a theory of mine after watching Bon’s posts…and now it’s confirmed…

Well I’m never going to be a religious gardener. I’m just not passionate enough to give it that commitment and I’ve got other things that are higher priorities.

Religious composting? Maybe if my health ever stabilises and I’m not working full time.. won’t be holding my breath.

So the short answer is no, no one’s ever tried diotomaceous earth.

roughbarked said:

I’ve even blamed slatersfor moving glyphosate to the wrong plants.

I also noted that just after we had that earlier slater discussion.. Josh did a segment about slaters.. Proving me correct in that yes, slaters are pests if they are present in great numbers.

They are a new problem in WA, where they weren’t such a problem in the past.

Seems reasonable – we’ve just had a massive “mulch everything” push in WA which certainly made for slater-ready conditions. It HAS done wonders for my fruit trees – it just took me a while to realise that the vegie beds don’t need that much mulch.

I don’t use a lot of mulch on my veges as a rule. It makes sense that you have a plague of slaters is everyone has all of a sudden started mulching. Perhaps in time a balance will be reached?

bluegreen said:

I don’t use a lot of mulch on my veges as a rule. It makes sense that you have a plague of slaters is everyone has all of a sudden started mulching. Perhaps in time a balance will be reached?

I’d love to know whether anything else in the garden eats slaters. I can imagine skinks would goggle up the soft slaters, but I think small skinks would have trouble with the hard-shelled slaters??

I’ve never seen anything eat a slater in my garden, but then I don’t generally have time to sit back and watch the goings on.

bon008 said:

bluegreen said:

I don’t use a lot of mulch on my veges as a rule. It makes sense that you have a plague of slaters is everyone has all of a sudden started mulching. Perhaps in time a balance will be reached?

I’d love to know whether anything else in the garden eats slaters. I can imagine skinks would goggle up the soft slaters, but I think small skinks would have trouble with the hard-shelled slaters??

I’ve never seen anything eat a slater in my garden, but then I don’t generally have time to sit back and watch the goings on.

Birds, ants are the main predators though I’m sure that frosts help.

roughbarked said:

bon008 said:

bluegreen said:

I don’t use a lot of mulch on my veges as a rule. It makes sense that you have a plague of slaters is everyone has all of a sudden started mulching. Perhaps in time a balance will be reached?

I’d love to know whether anything else in the garden eats slaters. I can imagine skinks would goggle up the soft slaters, but I think small skinks would have trouble with the hard-shelled slaters??

I’ve never seen anything eat a slater in my garden, but then I don’t generally have time to sit back and watch the goings on.

Birds, ants are the main predators though I’m sure that frosts help.

Hmm. Well my birds are pretty hopeless :) I suspect that we would get more birds without the dog though. She’s here to stay however!

Stacks of ants crawling all over the ground, but I haven’t noticed them in the raised vegie bed.. I wonder why…

Don’t really get frosts, I don’t think. I mean, there are some frosty nights, but I don’t think people who get real frosts would call them frosts, if that makes sense :)

Ah, I have no dogs or cats. Personally believe they do not get along with gardens but this is a personal choice. Thhe birds love me for it. They regularly service my yard. Mobs of blue wrens, thornbills, silvereyes and even sparrows gang up together and do full yard sweeps vacuuming up all the small insects. The honeyeaters gorge on insects as well. A pair of magpies will eat a lot of slaters. It is the walking birds that eat slaters.

roughbarked said:

Ah, I have no dogs or cats. Personally believe they do not get along with gardens but this is a personal choice. Thhe birds love me for it. They regularly service my yard. Mobs of blue wrens, thornbills, silvereyes and even sparrows gang up together and do full yard sweeps vacuuming up all the small insects. The honeyeaters gorge on insects as well. A pair of magpies will eat a lot of slaters. It is the walking birds that eat slaters.

I wondered what those birds were and now I know…they’re silvereyes…I’ve not seen them here before (and I have 3 c-a-t-s) maybe they were just passing through…but the eyes were distinctive…

roughbarked said:

Ah, I have no dogs or cats. Personally believe they do not get along with gardens but this is a personal choice. Thhe birds love me for it. They regularly service my yard. Mobs of blue wrens, thornbills, silvereyes and even sparrows gang up together and do full yard sweeps vacuuming up all the small insects. The honeyeaters gorge on insects as well. A pair of magpies will eat a lot of slaters. It is the walking birds that eat slaters.

Yeh, as I said earlier – gardening is not my top priority. The dog is much more important to me. If that means the garden will never be a “success”, I can live with that.

bon008 said:

roughbarked said:

Ah, I have no dogs or cats. Personally believe they do not get along with gardens but this is a personal choice. Thhe birds love me for it. They regularly service my yard. Mobs of blue wrens, thornbills, silvereyes and even sparrows gang up together and do full yard sweeps vacuuming up all the small insects. The honeyeaters gorge on insects as well. A pair of magpies will eat a lot of slaters. It is the walking birds that eat slaters.

Yeh, as I said earlier – gardening is not my top priority. The dog is much more important to me. If that means the garden will never be a “success”, I can live with that.

If you don’t keep “feeding” them mulch, they will die out eventually…then you might be in a position to start again…but you will get a vegetable garden one day…

bon008 said:

roughbarked said:

Ah, I have no dogs or cats. Personally believe they do not get along with gardens but this is a personal choice. Thhe birds love me for it. They regularly service my yard. Mobs of blue wrens, thornbills, silvereyes and even sparrows gang up together and do full yard sweeps vacuuming up all the small insects. The honeyeaters gorge on insects as well. A pair of magpies will eat a lot of slaters. It is the walking birds that eat slaters.

Yeh, as I said earlier – gardening is not my top priority. The dog is much more important to me. If that means the garden will never be a “success”, I can live with that.

And to provide more detail – we do get stacks of honeyeaters. The dog is fascinated by them but I don’t think she bothers them.

We do get magpies and mudlarks. I often see mudlarks wandering around on the ground, but I’ve never seen one in the vegie bed, where they would be quite safe from the dog, she can’t jump that high. However it could be that she makes them uncomfortable.

The magpies rarely come any lower down than the jacaranda.

I have a theory that dog or not, larger birds are a bit uncomfortable in the confines of a small, enclosed garden. But there’s definitely not enough to tempt them in at the moment. I’ll be getting a really large birdbath/water feature one day, but I didn’t want to buy it now and then potentially have it nicked when the house is demolished.. or need to store it somewhere else.

Dinetta said:

bon008 said:

roughbarked said:

Ah, I have no dogs or cats. Personally believe they do not get along with gardens but this is a personal choice. Thhe birds love me for it. They regularly service my yard. Mobs of blue wrens, thornbills, silvereyes and even sparrows gang up together and do full yard sweeps vacuuming up all the small insects. The honeyeaters gorge on insects as well. A pair of magpies will eat a lot of slaters. It is the walking birds that eat slaters.

Yeh, as I said earlier – gardening is not my top priority. The dog is much more important to me. If that means the garden will never be a “success”, I can live with that.

If you don’t keep “feeding” them mulch, they will die out eventually…then you might be in a position to start again…but you will get a vegetable garden one day…

Well I’m happy to eventually stop mulching the vegie bed, but I don’t think I’ll ever stop mulching the rest of the garden. Every where else, the mulch does a lot more good than harm. As do the slaters.

Birds like shrubs more than trees…so I’ve observed…

bon008 said:

Well I’m happy to eventually stop mulching the vegie bed, but I don’t think I’ll ever stop mulching the rest of the garden. Every where else, the mulch does a lot more good than harm. As do the slaters.

I was really only referring to the vegetable bed, which I thought was the problem…

Dinetta said:

bon008 said:

Well I’m happy to eventually stop mulching the vegie bed, but I don’t think I’ll ever stop mulching the rest of the garden. Every where else, the mulch does a lot more good than harm. As do the slaters.

I was really only referring to the vegetable bed, which I thought was the problem…

Yep. Although I’m still not sure if the slaters will be able to repopulate the bed, from the rest of the garden, all by themselves? My instinct says no, but I’m no expert…

You are demolishing your house?

Hopefully to rebuild?

Cheap and not so nasty bird baths can be made out of any dish on a stick basically.

Dinetta said:

Birds like shrubs more than trees…so I’ve observed…

nods

At the moment there’s not much apart from the fruit trees. Nectar bearing local natives are part of the long term plan, but nothing on the long term plan will be tackled until the house demolition/building is out of the way.

roughbarked said:

You are demolishing your house?

Hopefully to rebuild?

Cheap and not so nasty bird baths can be made out of any dish on a stick basically.

Yes, eventually. Aiming to preserve as much of the back garden/fruit trees as possible, but I’m not going to invest time/effort in any new plantings knowing that I will be moving out some time and unable to look after them. All the effort at the moment is going into trying to stabilise the garden so that it can cope as well as possible in the period when we won’t be there every day to tend it. Ha. No idea why I just typed “we” and not “I”.. :D

Although once we have house plans, I think I may invest in some vigorous local groundcovers to help with the weed situation – just don’t want to do that just yet as I don’t want to plant them somewhere which will end up being under the new house :D

Yep, I have three small bird baths already. Oh, and one tiny one in the vegie bed. But on the long term plan, I want a really massive one like my dad had in his last place – big enough for the black cockies to land and have a drink. And high enough up off the ground to minimise any discomfort the dog might cause to the birds.

The raised bed will be a haven for slaters if you use loose mulches. Though I find if I remulch lightly and constantly with things like well rotted compost, sand, lawn clippings then my slater problem seems to disappear.

Alternately you could net your bed in and chuck a couple of king quail in. The only problem would be picking veg or working on the garden without letting the quail loose for the dog to gobble in one gulp.

roughbarked said:

You are demolishing your house?

Hopefully to rebuild?

Cheap and not so nasty bird baths can be made out of any dish on a stick basically.

A 44 gallon drum with an upturned lid suits the bigger birds…

OK, well.. I checked on the bed last night – still crawling with slaters, but is it my imagination or are they all crawling a bit more slowly than usual?

And, wonder of wonders, this doesn’t happen often.. I had a spare minute to check this morning before work.. HA! Covered in stationary slaters! They had all made their way to the edges of the bed, and whenever there was something sticking up to climb (like a bit of straw) it was covered in stationary slaters. They’re either very sound asleep or the iron-based snail pellets have done the trick. I’ll check a few more times to be sure.

woohoo!

You could be on to something Bon, keep us posted… :D

Slaters will eat all the snail baits it is just that the iron based ones don’t have as “gooda tha kill asa the olda one” as an old Italian described modern chemicals to me

Yes the iron may work even more while heavy frosts are about but I’d say many of the slaters you looked at this morning will have moved since. When slaters are dead they usually lie on their backs.

If you really want to do a good job of your slaters go down to the garden section of your supermarket or wherever and look at ant sand.. or powder. the one with the Pyrethrin type.. not the antichlorisinase ones. Sprinkle this powder on the soil and every slater will die.

roughbarked said:

Yes the iron may work even more while heavy frosts are about but I’d say many of the slaters you looked at this morning will have moved since. When slaters are dead they usually lie on their backs.

If you really want to do a good job of your slaters go down to the garden section of your supermarket or wherever and look at ant sand.. or powder. the one with the Pyrethrin type.. not the antichlorisinase ones. Sprinkle this powder on the soil and every slater will die.

Some were on their backs. Most weren’t, but if I poked them, they were very unresponsive (at a time of day when they are normally moving around with great haste). Hence, I will check again after work, if I get home before dark and it’s not absolutely pelting with rain.

… I don’t want to kill any ants who might make it into the vegie bed.

bon008 said:

roughbarked said:

Yes the iron may work even more while heavy frosts are about but I’d say many of the slaters you looked at this morning will have moved since. When slaters are dead they usually lie on their backs.

If you really want to do a good job of your slaters go down to the garden section of your supermarket or wherever and look at ant sand.. or powder. the one with the Pyrethrin type.. not the antichlorisinase ones. Sprinkle this powder on the soil and every slater will die.

Some were on their backs. Most weren’t, but if I poked them, they were very unresponsive (at a time of day when they are normally moving around with great haste). Hence, I will check again after work, if I get home before dark and it’s not absolutely pelting with rain.

… I don’t want to kill any ants who might make it into the vegie bed.

Yep that’s why it wasn’t in my original recommendations but I will point out that it will only kill a few ants.. it won’t hurt the major population.

Pyrethrum based products are basically very short lived and will only kill insects that are contacted by them. After a couple of days it will be inactive.

Got home before dark, and in between showers.

Vegie bed is much as before, except – there are now a bunch of slaters upside down/on their sides. The ones that were clinging to high straw etc have disappeared. Most are curled up in balls, some are still moving but VERY slowly. Nothing like the crawling squiggly carpet you usually see.

bon008 said:

Got home before dark, and in between showers.

Vegie bed is much as before, except – there are now a bunch of slaters upside down/on their sides. The ones that were clinging to high straw etc have disappeared. Most are curled up in balls, some are still moving but VERY slowly. Nothing like the crawling squiggly carpet you usually see.

sounds like you’ve given them a serious tummy ache :)

bluegreen said:

bon008 said:

Got home before dark, and in between showers.

Vegie bed is much as before, except – there are now a bunch of slaters upside down/on their sides. The ones that were clinging to high straw etc have disappeared. Most are curled up in balls, some are still moving but VERY slowly. Nothing like the crawling squiggly carpet you usually see.

sounds like you’ve given them a serious tummy ache :)

Looks like a bleedin’ killing field! I almost felt a bit bad..but then I remembered my lovely bean seedlings.. all ringbarked :(

bon008 said:

bluegreen said:

bon008 said:

Got home before dark, and in between showers.

Vegie bed is much as before, except – there are now a bunch of slaters upside down/on their sides. The ones that were clinging to high straw etc have disappeared. Most are curled up in balls, some are still moving but VERY slowly. Nothing like the crawling squiggly carpet you usually see.

sounds like you’ve given them a serious tummy ache :)

Looks like a bleedin’ killing field! I almost felt a bit bad..but then I remembered my lovely bean seedlings.. all ringbarked :(

they’ll feed the soil.

bluegreen said:

bon008 said:

bluegreen said:

sounds like you’ve given them a serious tummy ache :)

Looks like a bleedin’ killing field! I almost felt a bit bad..but then I remembered my lovely bean seedlings.. all ringbarked :(

they’ll feed the soil.

since you used the red stuff your soil should now have more iron in it.

By the way, how thickly did you apply it?

bon008 said:

Got home before dark, and in between showers.

Vegie bed is much as before, except – there are now a bunch of slaters upside down/on their sides. The ones that were clinging to high straw etc have disappeared. Most are curled up in balls, some are still moving but VERY slowly. Nothing like the crawling squiggly carpet you usually see.

Sounding more positive now. We get a few slaters in the compost bins but I can’t imagine what they would be like in plague proportions.

pomolo said:

Sounding more positive now. We get a few slaters in the compost bins but I can’t imagine what they would be like in plague proportions.

Too much of a good thing, apparently :\\

roughbarked said:

bluegreen said:

bon008 said:

Looks like a bleedin’ killing field! I almost felt a bit bad..but then I remembered my lovely bean seedlings.. all ringbarked :(

they’ll feed the soil.

since you used the red stuff your soil should now have more iron in it.

By the way, how thickly did you apply it?

Not very. The instructions said “70 pellets per square metre” which I thought was EXCEPTIONALLY unhelpful. I did look around for a “Note: x pellets per average handful” but found nothing.

I probably did.. a bit denser than a handful per sqm? But I have very small hands – one of my handfuls is about 1/3rd of my husband’s handfuls. Did notice the pellets are tiny compared to traditional green snail pellets.

Once the slaters are all knocked off, should I dig the pellets in a bit to help them break down?

bon008 said:

roughbarked said:

bluegreen said:

they’ll feed the soil.

since you used the red stuff your soil should now have more iron in it.

By the way, how thickly did you apply it?

Not very. The instructions said “70 pellets per square metre” which I thought was EXCEPTIONALLY unhelpful. I did look around for a “Note: x pellets per average handful” but found nothing.

I probably did.. a bit denser than a handful per sqm? But I have very small hands – one of my handfuls is about 1/3rd of my husband’s handfuls. Did notice the pellets are tiny compared to traditional green snail pellets.

Once the slaters are all knocked off, should I dig the pellets in a bit to help them break down?

I’d leave them thre for the next wave. Anyway just normal weeding and mulching buries them in no time..

roughbarked said:

bon008 said:

roughbarked said:

since you used the red stuff your soil should now have more iron in it.

By the way, how thickly did you apply it?

Not very. The instructions said “70 pellets per square metre” which I thought was EXCEPTIONALLY unhelpful. I did look around for a “Note: x pellets per average handful” but found nothing.

I probably did.. a bit denser than a handful per sqm? But I have very small hands – one of my handfuls is about 1/3rd of my husband’s handfuls. Did notice the pellets are tiny compared to traditional green snail pellets.

Once the slaters are all knocked off, should I dig the pellets in a bit to help them break down?

I’d leave them thre for the next wave. Anyway just normal weeding and mulching buries them in no time..

I won’t be doing much mulching in this bed in the future :D

bon008 said:

roughbarked said:

bluegreen said:

they’ll feed the soil.

since you used the red stuff your soil should now have more iron in it.

By the way, how thickly did you apply it?

Not very. The instructions said “70 pellets per square metre” which I thought was EXCEPTIONALLY unhelpful. I did look around for a “Note: x pellets per average handful” but found nothing.

I probably did.. a bit denser than a handful per sqm? But I have very small hands – one of my handfuls is about 1/3rd of my husband’s handfuls. Did notice the pellets are tiny compared to traditional green snail pellets.

Once the slaters are all knocked off, should I dig the pellets in a bit to help them break down?

Isn’t WA soils traditionally or should I say typically low in Iron around the Perth region anyway? So some extra Iron won’t hurt too much…

Oh yeh, I keep forgetting to update you guys.. :)

Having never seen any ants in the vegie bed before – now that the slaters are all dead, there are ants everywhere!! I have seen them eating the undersides of the hard-shelled slaters.

My theory is perhaps that ants act as a control for soft slaters, but maybe when the hard shelled ones roll up, the ants can’t get in to hurt them?

All trace of the slug pellets have disappeared now, too.

bon008 said:

Oh yeh, I keep forgetting to update you guys.. :)

Having never seen any ants in the vegie bed before – now that the slaters are all dead, there are ants everywhere!! I have seen them eating the undersides of the hard-shelled slaters.

My theory is perhaps that ants act as a control for soft slaters, but maybe when the hard shelled ones roll up, the ants can’t get in to hurt them?

All trace of the slug pellets have disappeared now, too.

There’s either rain coming, or your ants are cleaning up…or your garden bed is now very dry…

Dinetta said:

bon008 said:

Oh yeh, I keep forgetting to update you guys.. :)

Having never seen any ants in the vegie bed before – now that the slaters are all dead, there are ants everywhere!! I have seen them eating the undersides of the hard-shelled slaters.

My theory is perhaps that ants act as a control for soft slaters, but maybe when the hard shelled ones roll up, the ants can’t get in to hurt them?

All trace of the slug pellets have disappeared now, too.

There’s either rain coming, or your ants are cleaning up…or your garden bed is now very dry…

Rain just been and rain still coming. But I don’t know that that explains it – I have ants all over the garden all the time – just not in the vegie bed, until now.

bon008 said:

Rain just been and rain still coming. But I don’t know that that explains it – I have ants all over the garden all the time – just not in the vegie bed, until now.

Great little scavengers, ants, unless they’re in your worm farm…they’ll downsize their numbers when the food runs out…not “milking” anything in the vegetable patch, are they?

Dinetta said:

bon008 said:

Rain just been and rain still coming. But I don’t know that that explains it – I have ants all over the garden all the time – just not in the vegie bed, until now.

Great little scavengers, ants, unless they’re in your worm farm…they’ll downsize their numbers when the food runs out…not “milking” anything in the vegetable patch, are they?

Vegie patch is empty, except for dead slaters and manure :D

My worm farm at home is just for the dog poop, so the ants aren’t interested, thankfully.

but maybe when the hard shelled ones roll up, the ants can’t get in to hurt them?

>

if the ants can’t get a grip they’ll go find one that they can grab.

bon008 said:

Vegie patch is empty, except for dead slaters and manure :D

My worm farm at home is just for the dog poop, so the ants aren’t interested, thankfully.

You’d be surprised, I went to collect Elle Wuffle’s deposit from last night, very unusual for her to deposit in her enclosed yard, and the meat ants (and others ) were decimating it…should have left it I suppose but I put it in the toilet (septic)…

Dinetta said:

bon008 said:

Vegie patch is empty, except for dead slaters and manure :D

My worm farm at home is just for the dog poop, so the ants aren’t interested, thankfully.

You’d be surprised, I went to collect Elle Wuffle’s deposit from last night, very unusual for her to deposit in her enclosed yard, and the meat ants (and others ) were decimating it…should have left it I suppose but I put it in the toilet (septic)…

Hmm, don’t think we get any meat ants. Well the farm’s been un-moated for years and there have been ants all over the garden for years – it’s just never been a problem. Slaters, on the other hand, love the dog poop – usually transfer a few into the farm every time I’m transferring poop.