Backyard Aquaponics
A place to discuss aquaponics

Hey all,
my problem is those pesky but cute little lime green tiny catapillars . They love the lettuce & bok chok seedlings I ve planted in my mini aquaponics unit and very soon my plants will be no more - I scrape off the few I can find every morning & feed them to my chooks but I cant keep up with their destruction - how can I manage these critters without pyrthrum? - my usual choice of death spray for the vegie garden.
Cheers.

Hi Aeon,

Firstly, sorry about the log in dramas I guess you are having, like everyone else.... I have found that sometimes that I have to log in twice before it finally works... This will be fixed up one day, when I can find someone that actually knows whats wrong with it...

But to the caterpillars, are they the cabbage moths? They do suck... I have a couple of cabbages in my bed at the moment that were stripped a few weeks back when it was still a bit warmer here, they also got into my brussel sprouts and bok choy and made a real mess of them..

I'm struggling to come up with a way to stop them and the only thing I can think of is if you can net the bed in some way. It wouldn't have to be a fine mesh as the butterflies are quite large, bird netting may even do.. Those lucky enough to have a green house won't have the same problems I guess because they won't be able to get in... One thing I do to try and keep them at least a little confused, is to mix my plants up, never planting all the same plants together, this makes it a little harder for them to find the plants they like amongst the ones they don't. What area are you in, are the caterpillars starting to decrease as the weather gets cooler..? Anyone else have a method of dealing with them..???

So you have a small set up going Aeon? I'm sure people would love to hear about your system if you have the time...

I assum BT would be harmful to the fish - I will have to check wht is written on the box. Why chuck the caterpillers to the chooks when you can chuck them to the fish - closed system : - )

Hi There V B,
Years ago I had a fairly large garden and tried garlic sprays, I took some grubs from the garden and sprayed them with a spray made from garlic and a little pure soap, it paralysed the grubs, they did not die straight away but could not move much and certainly could not eat, if garlic is not harmful to fish and if you can do your vegies every day it will work, I found that I could not keep enough of it on my vegies when I tried it as at that time I had a very large garden.
it will keep in the fridge in a spray bottle if you have not too many things to be sprayed it may be your answer. maybe someone knows if fish are sensitive to garlic?

Hi veggie boy - the caterpillars went to the chooks as the fish are two small to eat them (baby goldfish) and the chooks are underweight and really need the protein. Yum!

Hey Joel,
I will put a post in the systems sections on my mini set up.

Doh!

I lost a post with the new board

Anyway, i basically posted to see if any-one had a natural fix to an ant problem.

My worm farm with a handfull of worms has been infested with ants that have buit two nests, one in the current level i am using and one in a lower still empty layer.

I was thinking a solution of garden lime and water?

I basicaly want to remove as much of the nests as possible and then dose with something kill the remaining ants or at the least make them feel very uncomfortable to they leave. I'd like to do this before i buy another 1000 worms and give them my fish food to eat.

I've since learned that if the worm farm is too acidic then ants will like to call it home, hence my thought of the lime water solution. Also i should have stood the four legs in little tins of water or oil so the ants couldn't get in.

Any ideas?

Steve

Mmm, that was Murray that had the 'ant kill plan'.....

Murray?

Did that get lost ?

Anyway , Mix honey and fine powdered bakers yeast into a stiff paste and put dollops of it around where the ants are. The ants feast and when the mixture of honey and bakers yeast mix in their little tummies with moisture (water) ...karooooboooom!!!
Ants all gone in a week or two
They take it back and feed the queen etc ....all die..
Totally not harmful to dogs cats children etc
It really works well.

Murray
murray@boatshop.com.au
www.boatshop.com.au
I hope this helps

I heard of the honey and brewers yeast idea before. I had a ridiculous problem with ants a little while ago so much so I had to stop buying cordial for the kids to drink because the ants would snake their way all through the house to get to it. Any way the yeast and honey is awsome in a week the ants where gone. they stopped going into the house and feasted on the honey then they were gone. I haven't seen any ants now for around a month now.

Steve - the best and easiest way to keep ants out of worm farm - after you have killed the ones you have - is to put a line of grease around the circumference of the bottom level of the farm. This is much more practical than putting legs in water, oil etc IMHO. I have tried both methods.

Thanks murray and VB

Nice one VB, I hadn't heard that one before... I guess if you have a farm on legs then you could easily put a ring of grease around each leg...

I'll be interested to see how things go when I have half barrel worm farms under my growbeds, these will be very difficult to keep ants out of as they'll be sitting on the ground, might have to try and keep ants out of the whole area, or bait with the honey yeast.....

Joel - no reason why you couldn't put a line of grease around the perimeter of the barrel - close to the top. I put my grease on 2 years ago, and although it has deteriorated a bit in the sun, got dirty etc, it still works a treat (has not needed to be replaced).

This may have been covered elsewhere, but here goes... we generally subscribe to the 4 or 6 raised garden beds rotation system (aka peter cundall gardening australia) for our vegies in a mix of dirt and decomposed grass clippings. Do you need to do that with aquaponics to beat diseases or is the lack of soil enough?
Sorry, the question just popped into my head... only up to page 30 of the book!!!!!

Monya