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Curmudgeons' Corner 3. I blame it on the scapegoat🐐

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  • wild edgeswild edges Posts: 10,497
    I've been out patrolling for vine weevils every night and only found one or two. This sounds great but given how many pots were infested with grubs over the winter I was sure I was just missing where they were lurking. Sure enough I just found 20 or so happily munching strawberry leaves. I'm happy that I know I can find them now I know what the food plant is for the adults but have they already laid eggs? :/  I guess I'll have to invest in some nematodes this autumn.
    If you can keep your head, while those around you are losing theirs, you may not have grasped the seriousness of the situation.
  • LiriodendronLiriodendron Posts: 8,328
    I've had to stop picking raspberries and late strawberries.  They're swarming with wasps...   :s
    Since 2019 I've lived in east Clare, in the west of Ireland.
  • wild edgeswild edges Posts: 10,497
    Found another 10 weevils tonight. :| The garden is also crawling with slugs. The neighbours on 2 sides have made it almost impossible for animals to get into my garden and the 3rd side where the house is also impassable. They're proliferating with the paucity of predators :/
    If you can keep your head, while those around you are losing theirs, you may not have grasped the seriousness of the situation.
  • Allotment BoyAllotment Boy Posts: 6,774
    @wild edges We have already applied one lot of nematodes and I am planning on a follow up dose in another 2 weeks or so. We to have only found a few adults while on slug & snail patrol. We did find a Toad on one slug patrol when I said he/she needs to step up as the number of slugs is legion this year it just sloped off into the shrubbery!
    AB Still learning

  • B3B3 Posts: 27,505
    Not many snails or slugs this year. Mostly because,much as I would like to grow them, I avoid slug food. I'm not really into growing vegetables so it's easier for me.  It must be so frustrating to lose a food crop. I would get murderous!!
    Do snails avoid tomatoes? Not seen one on mine - one of my pre b****hit panic grow crops.
    In London. Keen but lazy.
  • B3B3 Posts: 27,505
    Even water is poisonous if you drink too much of it - and I don't mean drowning.
    My gardens were and are full of poisonous plants that I wouldn't dream of eating. I have had a child, a dog and a couple of cats who survived because they never felt the urge to eat them.
    In London. Keen but lazy.
  • wild edgeswild edges Posts: 10,497
    5 or 6 more vine weevils tonight and the same last night. They seem to be at the eating stage still so hopefully they haven't had time to lay eggs. :/ All on strawberry plants though so I'm probably missing some on other plants.
    If you can keep your head, while those around you are losing theirs, you may not have grasped the seriousness of the situation.
  • LynLyn Posts: 23,190
    The little wotsits love the strawberry plants.  And the occasional fuchsia. 
    Gardening on the wild, windy west side of Dartmoor. 

  • Went to the Wyevale just down the road to get some cheap and cheerful colour to fill in some gaps. When will I learn! The place looked as if it was in the throes of a closing down sale with everything except a small and expensive range of annuals looking neglected and uninspiring.

    They did have some lovely echinaceas which appeared to be labelled "Summer Happiness". However I then realised that there were several different varieties with the same label and that this must actually be a company slogan. Anyway at £18 each they were much too expensive for my purpose.
  • wild edgeswild edges Posts: 10,497
    All the Wyevales have closed around here and gone back to being independant garden centres. I really hope it's a market shift away from the chain stores.
    If you can keep your head, while those around you are losing theirs, you may not have grasped the seriousness of the situation.
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