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nafex - Re: [NAFEX] weeder geese

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  • From: Kevin Moore <aleguy33@yahoo.com>
  • To: North American Fruit Explorers <nafex@lists.ibiblio.org>
  • Subject: Re: [NAFEX] weeder geese
  • Date: Fri, 19 Jun 2009 12:38:25 -0700 (PDT)

I think you may have better luck controlling other pests by interplanting your fruit with nectary plants to provide an alternate food source for pest predators, and providing appropriate water sources for them. Be sure to leave spent flower heads to overwinter so the predators have somewhere to spend the cold months. I don't have any of the pests you speak of (yet) so I can't say this will definitely work to control them.


From: Kieran &/or Donna <holycow@frontiernet.net>
To: North American Fruit Explorers <nafex@lists.ibiblio.org>
Sent: Friday, June 19, 2009 11:16:34 AM
Subject: Re: [NAFEX] weeder geese

Lon,  Garter snakes eat slugs up there?  I don't think ours do, though there is a cute little red-bellied snake that eats slugs.  The trouble with depending on something cold blooded to eat slugs is that they aren't moving in winter and early spring when a lot of slug damage is being done.  The couple of years we had ducks, they had the run of the garden in winter and we had no slugs to speak of.  One reason I'm sort of interested in talking about critters right now is that I'm tired of weevils getting all our chestnuts and plums.  According to that old article, "Who stole the plums?" I could fence lots of chickens under all my stone fruit trees to deal with curculios, but I'd have to get them all together.  I'm wondering if sheep or goats fenced in the fall under the chestnuts would eat up every chestnut and in 2-3 years we'd be out of weevils.  Of course by then I suppose that the gall midge or whatever it is that's headed our way will be here.  If I was to mess with goats or sheep again, would they eat up the curculio riddled plum drops too?  The goats of course would want to eat the trees too.     Donna




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