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nafex - Re: [NAFEX] Spring Cleanup

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  • From: "Lon J. Rombough" <lonrom@hevanet.com>
  • To: North American Fruit Explorers <nafex@lists.ibiblio.org>
  • Subject: Re: [NAFEX] Spring Cleanup
  • Date: Sun, 11 Apr 2004 20:59:46 -0700

Title: Re: [NAFEX] Spring Cleanup
I just posted something to another list that applies to newts.  In short, they are great slug and insect eaters.  See the item below.



what is a newts role in the garden?  Do they eat my
berries like slugs?  Do they eat slugs?  Or do they just hide under
leaves and eat rotting bits of leaf where it is wet enough for them?  
That is, are they helpful, harmful, or neutral in my little garden?


  My oldest son, Chris, who is just finishing a degree in wildlife management, has been doing experiments in encouraging the local reptiles and amphibians.  He has placed old pieces of aluminum roofing around our yard and in the fields to provide shelter for them.  He has been successful in more than one way.  First, he has found as many as 31 of the native Garter snakes under the sheets, and he is now finding the native alligator lizard (a very small species that is quite harmless in spite of it's name, given because of it's appearance).  In the process, the local slug population has plummetted.  Chris was collecting slugs to feed some turtles he has, and he now has to go far afield to find them.  In every case, there is an ever-expanding radius around the sheets of alumuminum that are becoming free of slugs.  The lizards hunt at night or in the very early morning, and the snakes largely seek out the slugs underground where they hide.
  Ironically, when first placed, the sheets drew slugs from all over.  Then the snakes and lizards moved in because they had a food supply, shelter, and an area where they could get warm from the sun all in one spot.
  In short, if you don't mind the appearance of it, laying sheets of old sheet metal siding is a good way to control slugs, assuming you have some native reptiles and amphibians that will eat them, and you don't get in a hurry before the animals find the shelter island/food supply.
  Oh yes, the sheets keep weeds from growing in those spots, too.
-Lon Rombough


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