The Roly Poly Return
Once again, those pesky roly-polys have targeted my young seedlings, and this time it’s the zucchini taking the hit. They’ve managed to munch through the stems of two plants already — ugh! To combat this, I’ve started scattering diatomaceous earth around the base to kill them. The catch? I need to keep reapplying it after each watering or rain, which feels never-ending. With so many of the little devils lurking in my garden, I know I need to up my game.
While doing some research, I stumbled upon a fantastic article on the Growing Spaces website that offers several strategies to tackle these annoying critters.
The first tactic I’ve tried is the beer trap. And boy, did it deliver! After just one night, I found over 30 roly-polys belly-up, enjoying their final sip. I can see myself continuing this method for a week or two, but let’s be real — I hate wasting beer. I only have a limited stash of Michelob Lite left from a gathering, and I could use those parties for better purposes!
In addition I added a plastic cup with the bottom cut out and surrounding the plant. Pushing it down into the soil hoping to keep them out from coming in and munching on the the stem.
To tackle their numbers, I love the idea of using potato or orange peels as bait to lure them out of my garden. I’m also considering trying Sluggo and will be on the lookout to pick some up soon. Stay tuned for updates on my little experiments — let’s see if I can outsmart these critters! There so way tooooo many of them I feel I need to tackle them from every direction.
Who knew gardening could be such a comedy of errors?
UPDATE:
Looks like the ultimate solution for my plant woes was slapping a bottomless cup around them! The beer traps? Sure, they wiped out a bunch of critters, but I got pretty fed up with the constant refills. I left the beer cups there just for kicks, even though the liquid’s turned into a desiccated swamp. But you won’t believe it — every now and then, a daring little roly-poly still stumbles in, only to become a prisoner of my beer graveyard. So, while the beer is about as useful, that bottomless cup worked wonders in keeping those little munchers away from my plants! From now on, I’m totally employing this strategy whenever those pesky plant nibblers show up. Cheers to creative pest control!
