At 09:40 PM 6/24/02 -0400, Allan wrote:
Essie - would you mind including a little more 'how to' info on your pepper making?
What's your track record like?
-Allan
Allan -
Here's the procedure, as I've done it.
Collect as many specimens as you feel necessary. I collected a good 100 slugs, most adolescent, a couple of adults. All in one pass through the potatoes. Probably 50 potato beetles (dead), and maybe 70 potato beetle larvae (from lilies). The count is not exact. First I cooked the slugs. Put them in a small glass saucepan with cover (turned on the stove fan), and cooked them slowly until they were blackened. Then I crunched them up and cooked them some more until they were mostly (not entirely, however - I didn't have quite enough patience) white ash. Then cooled them a bit and put the ash into a small glass vial and put vial into bottom well of field broadcaster (slugs crawl rather than fly - hence bottom well).
I followed the same process with the adult potato beetles, but put that vial into the upper well (since they fly).
I followed the same process with the larvae, putting that vial into the bottom well. The larvae were shredding my Casa Blanca lilies (no others), and the shredded leaves were covered with what clearly was excrement, with larvae in the middle of the excrement. They definitely eat where they shit. And vice versa.
Now, I've previously only peppered with slugs. Five years ago, I did it once and had (truly) an 80 percent reduction in two weeks. The next year I did it again and had an 80-85 percent reduction. Until this year, I was virtually slug-free since then. But this year the potatoes were innundated, with both slugs and adult potato beetles. The lilies were shredded by potato beetle larvae, and I've never had that problem before, ever. My area is low and wet, easily prone to slugs. Also, I used a great deal of leaf mulch this year as well - which apparently served as a "Y'all come" to the slug legions.
Now, I made all peppers yesterday. Tonight, on patrol, I found two slugs, one beetle larva, and 11 adult beetles (10 of them copulating, two by two. The odd duck was doing something that could've been self-stimulating, but it was dark, the flashlight was weak, and I felt that the least I could do was to respect his/her privacy before squashing him/her. We've had a drastic change in weather since yesterday - from days of rain and drizzle to high pressure with some strong breezes and sun. The weather change definitely could influence the change in population. Stay tuned.
I'll report on population levels every few days. Now, I also do have flea beetles and no stinging nettle to make a tea. They are too small to catch and pepper, or, believe me, I'd do that.
Just to tack on a marginally related question - would application of equisetum tea be a good preventative for fungus on strawberries? Putting plants into tub with bubblers for a couple of days and then diluting a bit (how much?)?
Best,
Essie
"CIA stands for Capitalism's Invisible
Army"
Buckminster Fuller
Buckminster Fuller
