Garden / Glasshouse Bugs and Their Control

[Big Eggy]

Hello UK'ers,

I though this would be good here as i only want to concentrat on UK Bug.

I would like to hear of other people experiances with garden pests and how if at all they were dealt with.

First up is a nice easy one:

The Common Centepede (Lithobius forficatus)

Misconceptions about this little beastie are that it is a pest.. It is infact a gardeners friend, It has a pair of large poison fangs to kill its prey, but is not able to harm humans. It lives under stones or in decaying vegetation, often in compost heaps, emerging at night to hunt. It is a very useful predator of soil pests.

I often find massive ones in my compost heap or living in plant pots..
It feeds on ground dwelling invertebrates, including creatures larger than itself:

• Fast woodlouse
• Flat-backed millipede
• Oniscus asellus
• Pink woodlouse
• Porcellio scaber
• White-legged snake millipede

I often also find while digging something that looks about the same size but not as thick and a light shade of yellow.. I've yet to get a photo but when i do hopefully you guys will be able to help me identify it.

Next will be my nemisis ANTS!!

 

[Big Eggy]

Red Ants

Red Ants

Red Ants (Myrmica Rubra)

There are seven species of the Myrmica family found in this country. These ants tend to be a deep red in colour and can deliver a painful sting. The most common of the seven species is Myrmica ruginodis which can be found throughout Britain and live in small colonies with between 100-300 members, but can have many egg laying queens in one colony. It is interesting to note that there are two sub-species of Myrmica ruginodis; one that has queens which are visibly larger than the workers, and the other has queens which are almost the same size as the worker. Myrmica rubra is polygynous with larger than worker queens. They are aggressive and seem to be happier attacking than running away

I've have an ongoing battle with these buggers.. normally only a problem for lawns but they have built a nest in a clematis i recently planted and they killed it, they seem to love my free draining soil mix that my MJ also loves and i'm getting worried that they might start a nest in them also. I've tried various metords and these have been my results:

Cheep Ant Power.
I forked the nest to agrivate them applied the powder and watered in.. It worked a treat but! killled the grass where it was applied and they just seemed to pop up somewhere else with a new nest.

Borax/Honey/Sugar
This mix is ment to be taken down into the next and kill the queen but as red ant have more than one queen it has not been as afftective as it was on black ants.

I've yet to try posion traps as they are about £3.00 each and each nest requires two traps and i'd need about 10 of them. But i think i'm gonna have to suck it up and pay for them as they cause a nasty bite and i have two young children.

If anyone has a full proof methord i'd love to hear about it.. the cheeper the better.

Eggy

 

[paulo73]

Nice thread and cool info about the Centepede. I never trusted the info saying that they were a pest to gardeners. They are carnivores and must keep other pests under control.
I like ants but they are nasty little creatures when comes to having a tidy garden.
From leaf cutters to aphids farmers it´s all bad
I try to avoid nasty chemicals in my gardens, sometimes it´s impossible, and i´ve learn that ants communicate through pheromones so they hate some specific and strong smells.
My guess is that those smells mess with their chemical imbalance and damage their communication skills and "collective intelligence".
Smells that they hate:
-All citrus, the stronger the better. Spread the peel of any kind of citrus all over the garden.
- If you use a coffee machine never bin the used coffee. Spread it a thin layer of it around your prized vegs and most ants will stay at large. If even like that they climb to the high parts of your plants grab a old cloth and dip it in some weak coffee and put it around the stem of the plant.
- A solution of water, bleach and detergent usually ends with most nests. Better do this at dusk because ant workers have returned to the nest for the night.
-Powdered Sulfur also works well in nests not to deep or with easy access.
-Ants hate most cooking herbs. So spread mint, lavender,Satureja brownei and your favorite cooking herbs all over your garden and they will leave it to rest.
Take care

 

[Big Eggy]

Hi Paulo73,

Thanks for the info on Ant control.. i'm gonna give the orange peel a coffee a try before i fork out for the traps.. if i can just get them to piss of next door i'd be happy. one of my beds i planted up last night as the start of a colony forming, probably because i have recently dug the ground over. I have planted Lavenda, Tyme and Rosemary so hopefully that will be enough to discorage them form setting up camp there.. as for the nest in the lawn (if you can call my Moss/Taraxacum officinale/Lolium perenne mix a lawn). I think it's gonna be chemical treatment.

Hmm just deciding on what species get the spotlight next?? Slugs & Snails or Woodlice????

Please feel free to add your own critters guys.

Eggy

 

[Marathanman]

Slugs and Snails are always my biggest problems outdoors. Copper tape, Slug Pellets and an half empty beer can in the ground normally sorts the little blighters out.

 

[fizzbomb]

I had an ant problem last year, found the best thing to kill and get rid of them was Mr Muscle kitchen cleaner, spray them with that and its instant death, not sure how it works but it does lol, would not spray anywhere near my plants but it does kill ants, only costs about £2 for a big bottle.

 

[Big Eggy]

Slugs

Slugs

Black Slug (Arion Ater)

Common Grey Slug (Deroceras reticulatum)

Garden Slug (Arion hortensis)

Lepoard Slug (Limax maximus)

There are more than 30 species of slug in the uk above is a list of the more common types. The tend to feed on all types of vegitation but do have their faviotes Hosta's im my Garden but as we know from this forum can be very bad for young MJ plants.
Found under stones, under logs, in compost heaps, and buried in soil your most likely to see them form April - November on damp warm days.

As mentioned by marathon man there are many controls against slugs copper tape, beer traps, green sand (crushed glass), salt, egg shell's etc....

I must admit i dont really have a problem with slugs but maybe because i have some of the following natural preditors in my garden:

• Frogs
• Thrushes (not the yeast infection)
• Some beetles
• Hedge Hogs
• Common Shrew
• Centepedes (should add that above)
• Common Nwet
• Ducks
• Chikens

It's worth noting that some Slug pellets can Posion a preditor above and then in trun posion their preditors, so if using pellets please try and choose bio friendly ones.

It's also worth noting that the Lepoard Slug (Limax maximus) only lives of mold so not really a problem in the garden and could possable be considered a friend to compost makers.

Eggy

 

[Big Eggy]

Earwigs

Earwigs

Earwigs (Forficula auricularia)

The common Earwig is a gardeners friend and foe so it leaves me with a bit of a paradox.

They are omnivorous and feed on live or dead aphids, other small insects and some plant material. They tend to attack the petals, buds and flowers of ornamental plants. I havn't noticed any problem with earwigs munching on my MJ but i do hold them to account for the holes in my Hosta's although it might not be them. I know it's not slugs or snails as they are in pots and well protected and it just little holes here and there.

There is an 'old wives tale' that they attack eardrums, but there is no evidence for this.

Controls are to Remove debris and hiding places close to vulnerable plants. Use inverted flower pots stuffed with newspaper or straw perched on a cane as a trap, check regularly and dispose of the contents or move them to another part of the garden where they can do no harm or If you want to hunt them down, try spraying them with soap and water. They will die right away.

But seen as they eat Ahpids they are probably left alone unless they are causing you a problem.

 

[Marathanman]

Good info not seen a leopard slug before.

 

[Big Eggy]

Hmm i've found something i cant identify.

I've got what looks like tiny yellow spiders on my plant in the garden.. maybe 0.5mm in size. I've got a good look at it using binoculars turned round the wrong way. it looks like it could be a mite or a baby spider but i'm not sure.

i've seen them on the plants in small numbers one or two per plant.. they dont appear to be doing any damage. i thought prehaps they were baby aphids but defenatly look aracnid in apperance. They seem too big to be Spider mites and they are bright yellow. and definatly note two spotted mites.

I cant find a picture or take one due to their size but does any one know what these might be.. i dont want to keep killing them if they are harmless.