[jude]

I've read about the eaten Broad Beans, but mine are fine, It's the eaten cucumbers that's the problem. I've read it might be woodlice, but what do I do to prevent those. P.s I'm trying (yes well) to be organic. :roll:

[Phoenix]

I dont know if ant powder wot be considered organic but i know that kills woodlice aswell...... havent got a problem with them so cant suggest anything else soz

[John]

Not totally relevant but we were selling a house and the first viewers were due when I noticed about half a dozen woodlice on the floor ot the porch which was red painted brick. So I sprayed them with some cat flea spray. About half an hour later the door bell rang and I opened the door to see we had a grey floor. Completely covered in hundreds of dead woodlice.

I didn't think they were much of a problem in the garden, though

[Jake]

A slug or 2 ate all my fennel seedlings :cry:

I have one big one that I planted indoors at beginning of feb (It said May on the pack) but it is outside in a pot at the mo and doing well. I had done 3 others early as well, about mid march and they are ok.

But the 15 I had on the go from 3 weeks ago are gone. I'm going to sow some more but I think its a bit late. Gutted.

My broad beans have black spots on them. What's that?

Peas are ok now. Lost a few but a good 25ish are ok.

Sorry, I have loads of woodlice in the garden but they don't seem to do any harm, don't know how to kill them. Are you sure its them?

[Heather_S]

Woodlice do not do any damage to plants.
Slugs and snails seem to eat everything usually. You can get pretty close to organically approved slug pellets that biodegrade into iron and phosphate which is just fertilizer. I forgot what it's called now, look for ferric phosphate on the bottle, they're a bit pricer than other slug pellets but they work well.

[noshed]

Yep - slugs have got my dwarf beans. So I think I might have to succumb to pellets. Lemonade bottles seem to be protecting my brassicas well at the moment.
And the wind hasn't blown my bean arch over - phew.

[Diggin' Jo]

Hi, I'm a newbie - both to allotmenting and the forums.

 

Woodlice do not do any damage to plants.

I'm sorry to say that woodlice DO eat live plants, at least my woodlice do, despite Alan Titch telling us they only eat dead material.  Every  day I have to shoo hundreds of the blighters from my radishes - they are responsible for large wounds on those which are exposed from the soil. :evil:

Back in the days of growing flowers (now - 'why grow flowers - you can't eat them??!!') I used to catch those little beasties munching newly unfurling viola and pansy petals.  I am absolutely convinced they are responsible for this damage and will try and get a photo posted if I can work out how to do it.  

The flea spray thing sounds both cunning and interesting but I'm not sure how organic that is??

[John]

Diggin Jo - the flea spray wasn't organic at all  and it was used in the porch on a wall rather than a plant.  It was so amazing to see how many were living in our wall

I'm also talking 25 years ago - the can was probably full of CFCs as well!

The Iron Phosphate slug pellets are called Growing Success Advanced Slug killer

[stompy]

I planted 4 courgettes in one of my raised beds and have only got half of one left, i think it's slugs. :cry:

I'v placed an old lemonade bottle over it and it seems to be fighting back.

I'v also got 24 purple sprouting broccoli, but i dearnt put them out incase they meet the same fate as the courgettes, i don't have enough lemonade bottles to covet them all.

Other than slug pellets does anyone have any other ideas what i could do :?:

[Lesley Jay]

Apparently they love rhubarb leaves. Just put a rhubarb leaf on the ground and the next morning collect all the slugs which should be sitting on the rhubarb leaf.

[stompy]

Do they eat the rubarb or do they use it as a shelter.   :?:

If they use it as a shelter they will eat my broccoli and then go hide.  :evil:

[noshed]

I get everyone at work to give me their plastic bottles. And I was thinking of scrounging some from our local pub. What I really need is the 5L ones for my sweetcorn/bean planting but I haven't found any yet.

[Lesley Jay]

Stompy they eat the rhubarb leaves. This is a tip that I picked up on another forum - it is even published in the new Grow Your Own magazine. It must be worth trying!

[stompy]

OK, my purple sprouting broccoli are in your hands  

[Jake]

I like to wander around at dusk and snip the slugs in half. Yes it is horrid but you get an instant effect and other slugs tend to investigate the snipped in half one.

Unfortunately I don't have the time to do this as much as is needed on the plot so pellets are used too.