So... about a week ago I posted about earwigs infesting my garden. It was a really, really bad infestation. I'd come out at night and no joke there would be 50 - 100 on a small vegetable plant. And the plant would be completely wasted and dead in 2 days with no leaves left. And then they'd just keep hopping to the next leaf.
So...
What's odd about this is that I've been gardening for about 10 years. And in that time, I've never had earwigs on this level. Sure I had 1 or 2 that I might see but not of this level. I had other pests like wasps eating leaves and sometimes snails. But never earwigs. And prior to this year, ALL of my fertilizer was local. It was locally aged out steer manure. Steer manure is good. So I don't want people to think it isn't. But prior to this year I'd never bought it from Lowe's before. I'd gotten it from a farm family living near me. I couldn't get it this year from them though because a relative interfered with that. :S
This year I'd gotten the steer fertilizer mostly from lowes in those 1.5 cubic foot bags.
Its very possible that the that steer manure came from out of state, from an area with high insect populations. (Gulf coast, or south?) I can't help but think that the steer stuff wasn't all the way aged out. There shouldn't be this many earwigs in my area. I'm in a semi-arid area with terrible water; earwigs don't like this climate.
From here forward I'm not going to get potting soil or aged steer manure coming from out of state.
So...
What's odd about this is that I've been gardening for about 10 years. And in that time, I've never had earwigs on this level. Sure I had 1 or 2 that I might see but not of this level. I had other pests like wasps eating leaves and sometimes snails. But never earwigs. And prior to this year, ALL of my fertilizer was local. It was locally aged out steer manure. Steer manure is good. So I don't want people to think it isn't. But prior to this year I'd never bought it from Lowe's before. I'd gotten it from a farm family living near me. I couldn't get it this year from them though because a relative interfered with that. :S
This year I'd gotten the steer fertilizer mostly from lowes in those 1.5 cubic foot bags.
Its very possible that the that steer manure came from out of state, from an area with high insect populations. (Gulf coast, or south?) I can't help but think that the steer stuff wasn't all the way aged out. There shouldn't be this many earwigs in my area. I'm in a semi-arid area with terrible water; earwigs don't like this climate.
From here forward I'm not going to get potting soil or aged steer manure coming from out of state.
