Anti-Hopper Flour Dusting, Does It Or Doesn't It Work?

Recently I went over a couple of methods of keeping away hoppers from my bush plant.  My first method was the dishsoap and water liquid solution which I came to the conclusion barely worked at all.  Then I had read somewhere about dusting the plants with baking flour, the flour acts as a glue and seals the hoppers' mouths shut after taking a bite out of a dusted leaf, cruel I know.  Well I dusted the bush bean leaf and it's been a couple of weeks since, so here is the result...

Dusting plants under hopper attack.... Works!  I was actually pretty amazed, I thought if the dishsoap and water liquid solution didn't work then everything else was helpless as well (I really don't know what gave me that idea in the first place).  After dusting, the bush bean was visited by two different hoppers in that same week of dusting but I haven't seen any since, what a relief!  Although, I am quite concerned that I am killing the cute little things, I'm hoping in their little insect world they're singing to each other passing the word around, "don't go near that bush bean, it'll kill you".

Read previous post Oh For Goodness Sake! Grasshoppers!

Anti-Grasshopper (Dishsoap & Water) Solution, Does It Work?

Over the past weekend I decided to regain control of the bush bean from the rampant baby hoppers that have been demolishing the leaves, quite literally too!  Boy do these little things have an appetite, half to a whole leaf can be gone over night!  As a way of defending the bush bean I mixed a solution of water and dish soap (2tbsp/1gal water) where I read somewhere was supposed to work.  I sprayed the leaves of the bush bean and gave it a couple of days to see what would happen, everyday that past I looked in on the bush bean carefully taking note if there were any new missing leaves or baby hoppers still hanging about.

As you can see from the picture below the hoppers didn't miraculously disappear but my leaves continuously did.  Okay, okay so I may be exaggerating a bit... in all honesty, the solution may have worked a little bit but not entirely and not nearly enough in my opinion, every day I find a new hoppers on my bush bean and I've noticed that they found the second bush bean as well, so here's to finding a new way!  I really didn't want to go to the extent of killing these little dudes (because they are kinda cute) but I'm afraid my choices are very limited and I'd rather have my bush beans than a yard full of hoppers.

So... Second line of attack, dusting the bush beans with baking flour.  Apparently a good dusting of baking flour will kill the hoppers, when they try to eat the leaves covered with baking flour the flour acts as a glue in their mouth sealing their mouths shut, eventually they die of starvation (which is kind of sad I know) but here goes for the sake of saving the bush bean and finding out what works!

WHAT I NEEDED (and what you'll need too if you decide to give this a go):

1. 1/2-1 cup of baking flour (I used all purpose flour since that's all I had in the pantry, I figure flour is flour? - I hope)

2. Sifter (easier to dust with, I would have much rather preferred a smaller sifter but this is all I had, on the brighter side it'll cover more space in a short period of time).

Armed with my baking flour and my sifter of steel I traversed down and pass the creaky back patio and dusted with my all!... The bush bean.

At first there was a gust of wind and that didn't work out too well for me but gusts of wind in SoCal is pretty far and few inbetween, I only had to wait for a few seconds to go on with my dusting, and it only took me less than a minute.  I hope this works, we soon shall see so check-in for updates!  Until then, happy gardening!

Read the previous post, Oh For Goodness Sake! Grasshoppers!

Read the later post for results on baking flour dusting, Anti-Hopper Flour Dusting, Does It Or Doesn't It work?

Oh For Goodness Sake! Grasshoppers!

Little tiny baby grasshoppers can be cute as hell (as all most tiny things are) but they sure become a nuisance faster than you can go "aww, how cute".

What the heck is eating the bush beans?!  This was the question for the past two weeks or so, huge gaping holes and large missing parts of the leaves of the bush bean had me pondering up a storm, some leaves were completely demolished.  Then I saw these little green hopper dudes, like I said, cute as hell right?  I mean, just look how tiny he is in the picture below, but boy does he have an appetite. And in the back of mind, although I didn't want to outright admit it or perhaps it was more that I didn't want to come to terms with it, I knew this little hopper wasn't alone.  And I was right, I saw more little hopper dudes on my basil plant, that's when I realized I had to regain control.

I read somewhere on a gardening forum about a home remedy made of water and a little bit of dishsoap that can be sprayed on leaves being attacked by hoppers, apparently they don't like the taste of dishsoap very much, this is supposed to help thwart the hoppers from making a dinner out of your grows.

I bought a small spray bottle for $1.99 at a random store, filled it with a couple drops of soap (apparently the solution calls for 2tbsp of dishsoap per every 1 gal of water) so I figured a couple of drops would suffice for a spray bottle this small.  I filled the spray bottle with the solution and went right to spray mode.  I'm not quite sure if this will work, it seems to make logical sense that yes, the hoppers wouldn't like the taste of dishsoap, so I have my fingers crossed with the little hope that I can see it working.  In any case we soon shall see, so make sure to check in to read results!

Read the results, Anti-Grasshopper (Dishsoap & Water) Solution, Does It Work?

A Beer Bottle Trap For AA Slugs Don't Work

If you've been reading along with my endeavors to grow an organic vegetable & fruit garden you'll know that I planted bush beans and that along with growing bush beans I've found countless amounts of slugs that was helping themselves to the leaves of my bush bean seedlings.  I tried the bottle trap (laying a bottle down on the ground near the bush bean filled with just a bit of water), the idea is that the slugs which are attracted to moisture will get trapped in the bottle- this didn't work.  Upon finding the bottle trap not very helpful at all I instead sprinkled a little bit of coffee ground around the seedlings which worked like a charm.

Upon reading up on a small section regarding slugs in my book, Grow Great Grub by Gayla Trail, I realized that the bottle trap was actually supposed to be a beer bottle trap, not water but beer.  So then I edited my slug bottle trap by adding a little bit of beer into the bottle instead of water.  Two, three, and four days went by and still no slugs in the bottle.  Apparently the beer bottle trap doesn't work either!  Or maybe the slugs in my garden collectively go to AA, who knows.

While the bottle trap may have been fun to do had it resulted in trapped slugs drowning in a stupor of beer bliss I am not all too disheartened or frustrated for I found that the coffee ground works absolutely great.  I had my worries that too much nitrogen from the coffee ground would affect the bush bean but I've only had to sprinkle one round of coffee ground around the bush bean and no more, more than a week later since my first sprinkle and still no sign of slugs around the bush bean.

Read previous posts on saving the bush bean from slugs: 

In An Effort To Save The Bush Beans

In An Effort To Save The Bush Beans, Part II: Coffee Grounds 

In An Effort To Save The Bush Beans, Part III: Slugs! 

In An Effort To Save The Bush Bean, Part III: Slugs

Can you spot the slugs?

Taunted by the fact that my first round of security measures (the bottle trap and plastic cup barrier) did not work, the thought that whatever was eating my bush bean leaves weighed heavily on my mind and even after sprinkling coffee ground around the newly sprouted bush bean leaves I had to go take a look once night fell and the air grew cold outside lest the coffee grounds did not work like the bottle trap and cup barrier, I just had to know what it was my bush beans were up against.

I snuck outside with a light, lo and behold what did I see?  Slugs, SLugs and more SLUGS!  Indeed there were many hungry slugs.  Would the coffee ground method work?  I had yet to know, the bottle trap method which I thought would surely work did not.  There was not much I could do but I went happily to bed simply knowing what it was I was up against, the battle was half won now.

It seems the plastic cup barrier worked in a way, most of the slugs seem to be outsides of the cup. Whether they were smart enough to bypass the barrier by passing under it is another question entirely.

Awoke this morning, and went straight out into the yard to check out if those sluggish slugs had somehow hopped over the coffee ground and ate more bush bean leaves.  I looked at the leaves carefully and what did I find?  The coffee ground had indeed worked!  Like a charm too!  Not a new leaf touched or anymore eaten off the already harmed leaves, this gave great relief but now the question is... how long will the coffee ground last?  I do not plan to sprinkle any more any time soon for the extreme amounts of nitrogen in the coffee ground will do harm to the bush beans eventually.  Another method of trapping these slugs must be found out!  I must say that I am pretty pleased that I've planted most everything else in containers or pots placed half way into the ground, I am sure that it has saved those fortunate sprouts from sluggish tauntings *whew!

Read previous and later posts on saving the bush beans from slugs:

In An Effort To Save The Bush Bean

In An Effort To Save The Bush Bean, Part II: Coffee Grounds

A Beer Bottle Trap For AA Slugs Don't Work

In An Effort To Save The Bush Beans, Part II: Coffee Grounds

Am I sad that I found my glass bottle empty of slugs in hopes to catch the culprit who have been munching on my new baby bush bean leaves?  Yes, just a little bit.  Life could have been that much easier simply knowing what it was but fate has planned it otherwise *sigh.

Here you can see where my bush bean leaves have been eaten.  The fact that the leaves have been eaten closer to the ground tells me they are not birds but something from the ground, hence my suspicions of those sluggish slugs!

So now for another round of security measures.  I don't quite know for sure whether or not it is slugs since I failed to catch any in my bottle trap, I suppose the slugs could have crawled from under the earth right near the bush bean and thus missed the bottle entirely, so here is to one last try!  Coffee ground.  

Slugs hate Coffee ground and should keep them at bay if I sprinkle just a bit around the bush bean, this would only be a temporary solution as I can't sprinkle acidic coffee ground everyday on bush bean grounds since too much nitrogen may do these growing babies harm as well, but instead will use  this method to try and figure out what the heck is eating those dainty little leaves.  If the leaves are not further nibbled on after sprinkling coffee ground then I'll be able to say with confidence "those damn slugs!"  And I do look forward to it :)

Read the results In An Effort To Save The Bush Beans, Part III: Slugs

Read previous and later posts on saving the bush beans from slugs:

In An Effort To Save The Bush Beans

A Beer Bottle Trap For AA Slugs Don't Work

In An Effort To Save The Bush Beans

In an effort to save my newly growing bush beans from whatever may be eating the leaves (my guess are those awful slugs for I do not think the birds can get through the cage I've put around these new plants) I have doubled security.

Slugs can't climb can they?  I'm hoping they cannot for I have built somewhat of a wall between those beautiful leaves and the outside world by cutting a plastic cup in half and enclosing those new stalks and leaves.  I cross my fingers and hope this works!  But this is only the first security I've put up around them.

The second security I've put down is a glass bottle filled with a bit of water, as slugs are attracted to moist and wetness I'm hoping to trap the slugs in this bottle, if indeed it is slugs that are helping themselves to my bush bean leaves.  I've read this trick in a book but have never tried it, I sure do hope I trap some slugs!  At least then I will know what it is that are taunting my poor babies.

So hopefully I'll be posting some bottled slugs next!

Read the results:

In An Effort To Save The Bush Beans, Part II: Coffee Grounds

In An Effort To Save The Bush Beans, Part III: Slugs!

A Beer Bottle Trap For AA Slugs Don't Work