Slaters in Growbed

Tony From West Oz

I have been plagued by Slaters in my grow beds following using the grow bed as a table during moving some pot plants.
The Slaters have devoured seedlings and seeds.
Finally, I have a remedy, which has been successful in removing this pest from my growbeds, for anyone who has a similar problem.

The remedy:
Pour very hot water into the GB.

If the fish are likely be affected by the hot water, plug the GB outlet until the water cools down.

If you have worms in your GB, take some out first and return them to the GB when the water has cooled down.

Regards,
Tony

Stuart Chignell

You might be better off creating a trap and then feeding them to your fish.

Judy and Mark

[quote="Stuart Chignell":*now Paul, stop that*]You might be better off creating a trap and then feeding them to your fish.[/quote:*now Paul, stop that*]

WE have heaps of slaters in our worm farm, and have done exactly this, we feed a lot to our chooks as well.(we do need a better trap design though if anyone has one) I didnt think they would become such a problem in growbeds, now im worried, how many people are having trouble with this?.

DecalsbyJT

not sure what slaters are

bunson

You can also over-flood the GB and leave it flooded for a while -- slaters aren't very good swimmers and have a tendency to float, so they can be skimmed from the surface. Some more slaters will also be carried with the water back to the FT when you eventually drain down. Do this once a day for a week or so, or until the problem is solved.

Scott

rrjl6572

DecalsbyJT wrote:

not sure what slaters are

You may know them as wood lice or pill bugs.
Ours are grey and when disturbed they curl into a ball.
Supposedly they eat decaying plant matter but it turns out they love young plant growth better! :evil:

We have had some good measure of success in trapping them with beer traps and the SP just love them :cheers:

Slaters are the reason that we started looking at different ways of organic gardening which then led us to AP

DecalsbyJT

still not sure.... are they in the slug family?

got a pic?

scotty435

Sounds like they are pill bugs JT. I've never had any problems with them where they became enough of a pest to worry about though.

http://images.search.yahoo.com/search/images?_adv_prop=image&fr=yfp-t-701&va=pill+bugs

keith

we call em potato bugs

faye

You can use upside down citrus skins. Eg cut an orane or lemon in half and juice, the hollowed out fruit allow a place for the bugs to shelter and trep them. I have an infestation in a dirt garden bed and at night the surface is writhing with them. They cover potatoes, but they also shelter under teracotta saucers and under moist cardboard.
I practice my fine motor skills on weekends by picking them out of a flooded grow bed and feeding them to my fish as a treat. They do drown, I am still working on finding out how long that actually takes, but minimise the infestation by flooding and picking them out.
I have also used some Multiguard when planting new seedlings, though it does stain the water. Johnfenn also mentioned that he had been using this product recently with success.

Delgrade

Multi Guard is that the Iron based snail and slug pellets? i use that in the dirt but not tried it in the AP works well but needs to be put on quite heavy for slaters and the little blighters always come back in a few months

and that link scotty posted is definatly slaters good thing is fish love em if you can catch them, iver even wondered about making a slater farm kinda like a worm farm but for bigger woodier bits ..

Cheers
pete

DecalsbyJT

Thanks..... now I know what they are...

I have one bed that's got lots.... so will try flooding them out..

jT

Delgrade

I find that works, i have gravel beds so as the water is rising i grind as many of the little buggers as i can into the gravel, then i catch the ones that float and feed the fish

i find that they are realy only a problem with seeds and seedlings once plants mature they dont bother them as much

Cheers
pete

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