Quote:
Originally Posted by jillian
Fonseca, earwigs and pillbugs are plentiful here, especially earwigs. I hate them, but not as much as the evil fire ants
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I am thankful not to have fire ants. Earwigs do more damage than slugs in my garden, and sometimes they get indoors. Ugh. Never had them in Virginia.
I use coconut coir husk chips as mulch. I hate paying for it when I have bags of both partially-composted and dry leaves, but the coir chips with their "sharp" fibrous edges seem to deter slugs and host fewer earwigs. It sort of forms a mat in the container after a while.
I always have a few containers with pine straw, shredded oak leaves, and pine bark. I don't use plastic mulch sheets, even on my earthboxes. I don't like the idea of an impermeable layer of plastic. I want to conserve enough moisture that the top layer of soil doesn't dry out, but evaporation and oxygen is also good.