Garden pests and Eco-solutions

This has been a frustrating Spring / early Summer.  Seeds had to be planted over, and over, and over again.  I think I sowed bean seeds four times before I finally got some seeds to poke their inquisitive little shoots above ground.

I was going nuts - I couldn't figure it out.  What was I doing wrong.  And who was causing the damage...?

Finally, I caught two culprits.


Firstly, I had a hadedah which kept paying my seedling patio a visit.  They give me the creeps because, to me, they are prehistoric looking creatures.

Hadedah Ibis Bostrychia hagedash

(pronounced hah-dee-dahs)

It's long beak is specially designed to dig deep into the ground to find whatever juicy cutworms, earthworms or insects that it can.  Normally I have no problem with them, for I welcome their devouring any cutworm they can find.  But, if they decide that my poor seedling trays are going to be their latest treasure chests, then they better know I have their measure.

And it comes in this form...

... a recycled stryrofoam container with netting (and a weight to prevent the South Easter from blowing it off.)  This works against snails too :)

And secondly, the starlings.

Below is the damage that both the hadedahs and the starlings caused to my seedlings.  I even tried covering the seed trays with a clear plastic tray (recycled) cover.  One, or both of them, worked out how to knock the cover off...!

  

The starlings also decided that the coir baskets round my strawberry baskets would make ideal nesting material.  So they proceeded to "purchase" a mouthful as the whim took them.  I discovered that nest construction always took place before 9.00a.m. in the morning.  Obviously!  The rest of the day was devoted to filling their stomachs!

My poor strawberries produced only a couple of fruit in the early spring, and then stopped.  I could only imagine that they weren't getting enough water, for the starlings removed so much of the coir that water just ran out of the holes the birds had created.


My cure was to line the baskets with some weedguard - no, it doesn't look pretty, but I'm talking about growing strawberries here, not creating a work of art.  I have left the edges protruding over the top of the baskets in order to fill the basket with as much water as possible.  And an added beauty of the weedguard liner is that it allows the water to escape s-l-o-w-l-y.  Water it in the morning, and the next morning the water will still be dripping from the underneath.  And the soil is not drowning - guess the water is lying somewhere between the coir and the weed guard.

And I foiled the starlings from eating all the strawberries also.  I have covered the containers / baskets in netting.  Take that, you dratted birds!

And finally,  I have tried copper coils, I have tried empty loo roll holders.  I have tried egg shells and coffee grinds - the latter two blow away with the good ol' South Easter.  These wretches still manage to get through the barriers.  But, there is one thing that they just can't resist.


And RMan is going to go short here...


The snails cannot help themselves - they have to have their gulp of beer - daily.  Flat beer, bubbly beer - any beer.  As long as it's beer!

Snails in the process of being
exterminated by beer :)

I wonder what attracts them to beer.  Is it the yeast?  Would yeast, sugar and  water work?

Personally, I'll buy them beer whenever they run out.  Or perhaps I should make them some.  Anyone got a good recipe?