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CURMUDGEONS ' CORNER 5 - BAH HUMBUG!🍬

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  • LynLyn Posts: 23,190
    @wild edges. Have you got black out curtains at his window.? 
    Has he got a reason for waking up and keeping you up all night, is he ill, or just playing up? 
    Gardening on the wild, windy west side of Dartmoor. 

  • wild edgeswild edges Posts: 10,497
    Black out blind and thick curtains for light and noise but he sleeps through the baby crying so he's not a light sleeper. We suspect it's his teeth that give him trouble normally but he's getting over a cough at the moment which wakes him up sometimes too.

    Finding the first batches of vine weevils today while cleaning up plants for the winter. A load of my saxifrages are infected so I'll be trying to bare root repot those ASAP. I've got one weevil in a glass of water in the greenhouse to see if drowning them is an option. 24hrs so far and it's still alive so not looking promising.
    If you can keep your head, while those around you are losing theirs, you may not have grasped the seriousness of the situation.
  • Lizzie27Lizzie27 Posts: 12,494
    You must have a whole army of weevils in your garden @wild edges - I wonder why they like your establishment so much!
    There's no real answer to the 'teething and not sleeping' problem except for time, although I dare to whisper very quietly whisky has been known to work. 
    North East Somerset - Clay soil over limestone
  • wild edgeswild edges Posts: 10,497
    Weevils and me share a love of the same plants. Really we should be best friends but they struggle with boundary issues and the ensuing mass murder on both sides is making the relationship somewhat strained. I'm now considering finding the best ways to farm and harvest the grubs for free winter bird food which may put a more positive spin on the whole debacle.
    If you can keep your head, while those around you are losing theirs, you may not have grasped the seriousness of the situation.
  • wild edgeswild edges Posts: 10,497
    I'm happy to send them to you if you're feeling peckish. :)
    If you can keep your head, while those around you are losing theirs, you may not have grasped the seriousness of the situation.
  • Just buy the nematodes @wild edges they really do work and they are absolutely host specific. You will have to wait till next season now but they are worth it.
    AB Still learning

  • FairygirlFairygirl Posts: 55,117
    I think @wild edges' infestation might need more than a couple of applications....  ;)
    It's unfortunate that they love sedums so much.

    I found one in a tray of water and it seemed perfectly happy in there. Perhaps you could train them - like in the old flea circuses.  :D
    It's a place where beautiful isn't enough of a word....



    I live in west central Scotland - not where that photo is...
  • wild edgeswild edges Posts: 10,497
    I have a pre-nematode plan that I'm working through. If it doesn't work then next Autumn I may resort to nematodes for my pots at least. Step one was killing all the adults I could find. Step two is keep on top of the grubs this winter. Step three is plant out all my sedums in the spring so I have very few pots left (although this has been the plan for the last 2 years but every year I've had to repot due to vine weevil grub damage and ended up with more pots than I started with). Possible step four might be using bug mesh around the cold frames next year to prevent reinfection of some plants that I don't want to plant out. Step five is become a vine weevil, infiltrate their population and subvert their political system from the inside.
    If you can keep your head, while those around you are losing theirs, you may not have grasped the seriousness of the situation.
  • FairygirlFairygirl Posts: 55,117
    Not sure that last tactic will work @wild edges. I'm fairly sure you're slightly larger than most of them.... :D
    It's a place where beautiful isn't enough of a word....



    I live in west central Scotland - not where that photo is...
  • Fairygirl said:
    Not sure that last tactic will work @wild edges. I'm fairly sure you're slightly larger than most of them.... :D
    But you’re very small
    @Fairygirl ... perhaps you should volunteer to do it for WE. 😉 

    Gardening in Central Norfolk on improved gritty moraine over chalk ... free-draining.





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