So I’ve had isopods in my living soil for a few years now, but it seems the population has exploded and what I believe are earwigs also. They haven’t really been much of a problem but now they seem to be at soil level and are munching on the stems and roots. The baby earwigs climb up the plants and eat holes into the stem or at new shoots at the node and bore into where it meets the main stem. They are causing actual problems now. I need to knock back their numbers in an organic way. I have been putting Diatomaceous earth at the base of the plants and anywhere they were chewing. But they don’t seem to be bothered by it and are just cruising around in the powder. Can anyone suggest a way to deal with this? I have some ideas but was hoping a few folks would chime in. Pictures for reference you can see spots they are chewing the isopods and the small earwigs and maybe some big one too. One plant is even leaning over from the damage they are doing at the root zone. Look at them in the DE powder and laughing at me
If they’re climbing bugs, a few wide strips of double sided tape on the stem will catch most that try to make it up. One of my favorite aphid control methods.
I would do cucumber or potato’s traps( make some slices of cucumber or other veggies when they swarm it take some of the population out you could also do a light spread of some diatomaceous earth to kill off some of them and add some silica to your soil would probably have to be a liberal amount to knock them back a good portion vs a deterrent
Ok are there any predators that could come in a wreak havoc on them? Or like those microscopic round worms that bore into the bugs body. I don’t know why they are attacking the plants all of a sudden. Their appetites seem to have increased. Maybe less leaf litter than they are used to having or something.
You could order some rove beetles that should help combat the numbers they are a wonderful predator
Found some interesting information while reading about isopod predators.
Quoted from the second comment:
“For the isopods to be interested in the leaf litter, it has to have begun to decay… until that happens they are going to go after other food sources. As one example see
Rushton, Stephen P., and Mark Hassall. “Food and feeding rates of the terrestrial isopod Armadillidium vulgare (Latreille).” Oecologia 57.3 (1983): 415-419.
You need to feed them something else or resign yourself to their predation on your plants until the leaf litter becomes more acceptable to them”
(not qualified to know how accurate this is but they did include sources)
Thanks @stu420 that was interesting. That whole site has a lot of information on the isopods.
Spray those stalk bases with a pyrethrin mixture and nothing will touch them .Its an organic poison made from chrysanthemums.
I’ll try the pyrethrin also, are these rove beetles or earwigs? I have plenty of these in the soil also, the baby ones seem to be found climbing plants and boring into the stem. Although I have seen the larger one up the stems before also.
Earwigs. Foul little things.
