ChristianC wrote:
The peas and salads already sown for a month have been ravaged by slugs - so, we have deposited ferramol in all the furrows including carrots, radishes and turnips, however less attacked.
It's always a bit the same: at the end of winter, the slugs are active, but not the main auxiliaries (staphylins, beetles) which are insects which "overwinter".
This is not specific to "covered floors"!
Observations in my greenhouse:
- the lettuce stalk the most attacked (2 large slugs - more or less the 2 phalanges of the little finger; 3 medium: last phalanx) was in the part ... "bare ground"
- often "bare soil" gardeners, until recently, did not bother with the "pesticides" problem and used metaldehyde, which is very effective ...
- when they switch to "organic" or "permaculture" mode, they switch to ground cover and at the same time abandon metaldehyde (which is no longer sold now); and suddenly, they put on the back of the blanket the absence of "radical chemical flytoxing"; it is often an analysis error ...
- the fact remains that at the end of winter, the situation can be serious, for the reasons indicated; I then recommend the "pickup" which seems tedious, but less so than you think! During the day, spotted the locations of the attacks. At nightfall, go with a headlamp: the culprit (s) is / are there, easy to catch (put on household gloves) ... For 2 or 3 days, the "stock" is there and we have the impression never to reach the end, and then it collapses ... And a few days the problem is solved. And with me, it is for the season, because afterwards, the insects swarm.
[Yesterday evening, during such a hunt - I spotted 2 spots - huge surprise to find me face to face with a golden carabe, probably awakened from its winter torpor by the ambient heat! And active!]