Not long after the earwigs went to town in the greenhouse, they started causing havoc in the rows.    As I’ve been looking for ways to control the damage, I’ve often read cautions that the insects are most often beneficial, or at least, harmless.  This includes the book I most often consult for organic ways to deal with pest and disease problems.  (I would agree with this -  is so interesting that neither Matt nor I have had this type of problem with earwigs before.  But we clearly have a serious imbalance and need to deal with it.)

Young kale, some lettuce, about 90% of the just-sprouting radishes, and the strawberries were really hit hard over the course of a day or so, and I knew we had to do something before planting replacements, or anything new.  So, I decided to trial 3 methods of trapping earwigs at once, and see which worked the best.  The ideas came from various resources. 

What I learned:  There are WAY more earwigs here than I realized there were.  Loads.  Tons.

The three traps I am using are:  rolled up newspaper, damp newspaper stuffed into a container, and a pitfall trap with bait.

For all of the traps - place them in areas where you already have damaged plants.

Damp newspaper in container (3rd place)

How to:  dampen crumpled newspaper and stuff it into an old container of some sort (planter, etc.)  I used large yogurt containers.  Prop it up on a rock or stick so the pests can get into it.  I put a large rock on top to keep it in place.   When you check the trap, pull the newspaper out over a bucket with a couple inches of soapy water in the bottom (dish soap works fine).  I was surprised that these didn’t work for me; I only found one slug underneath, but no earwigs in the three traps that I set.

Rolled up newspaper (2nd place)

How to:  dampen a sheet of newspaper, roll it up, set it out on the ground.  I weighted it with a rock since it gets breezy here.  When you check the trap: shake the newspaper over your bucket of soapy water.  For me this worked best in the morning, before the paper dried up and the earwigs fled elsewhere. 

Far and away what has been working the best is…

Baited pitfall trap (Winner)

How to:  Use old containers that will hold liquid (butter tubs, yogurt cups, etc.)  The bait is a combination of water, some soy sauce, and a dab of molasses, with a thin layer of vegetable oil carefully floated over the top.  I mixed up a batch of bait, sunk the containers out in the garden with the lip at ground level, then went back out and poured an inch or so of the liquid into the bottom.  I used a small container to add a little bit of vegetable oil over the top, so that it formed a more-or-less continuous thin layer.  There have been loads of earwigs in every trap each day, although I haven’t had to empty them yet (today is the third day).  The only “con” is that a few spiders and other non-earwig-insects have also been trapped.

For those of you in the Humboldt Bay region… We’ve just added a new session of the course I teach through Humboldt State University’s Extended Ed - “Organic Gardening: From the Backyard to the Kitchen Table”! This course is an abbreviated offshoot of the semester long course I used to teach at HSU, now trimmed down to 5 evening sessions and a trip to my farm.  I go over all manner of organic gardening fundamentals, from bed preparation and fertility to pest management… Read the rest of this article »

At this point, nearly all of the seeds I ordered for 2010 have arrived, and I’ve sorted and grouped them all into big ziplock bags so they are easy to find during the season.  In this posting, I’m taking a look bag at the order and teasing out some info for you: 1) Cost - My seed costs are pretty high for a couple of reasons.  For one, I’m trialing a lot of new varieties.  This means that instead of getting a bulk price for a larger quantity of one type of, say, mainseason carrots,… Read the rest of this article »

We just finished the last major project of ‘09!  Though we’re still busy harvesting and we still have a myriad of small tasks to accomplish, it feels really good to have next year’s strawberries planted.  Strawberries are (of course) super popular.  Some of our CSA members and farmer’s market customers had never eaten berries picked at full ripeness, and they’ve been floored.  Multiple folks mentioned they could never go back to supermarket berries, even organic… Read the rest of this article »

This caught my attention in the Organic Consumer Association’s weekly newsletter… I’d be very curious to get your opinions on whether you believe a good living can be made on an organic farm?————————————————————————— Contrary to popular belief, a good living can be made on an organic farm. What’s required is farming smarter,… Read the rest of this article »

Hello Freshman Farmers (and aspiring farmers everywhere)! You may have already heard of this other initiative, and I must say that I personally haven’t looked into it much, but it seems like a funding opportunity for people just getting started with organic farming An Alert from the National Sustainable Agriculture Coalition Organic Initiative Funds Now Available! First Sign up Period: May 11 - May 29 The Natural Resources Conservation Services (NRCS) has created a special $50 million pool… Read the rest of this article »

Hello, My name is Andrew.  You may remember me from such rants as not agreeing, on principle, with organic certification and needing approval and validation by the government to sell “organic” food.  Is my produce any less “organic” because it doesn’t have the CCOF seal of approval.  What a bunch of balooney…at least that’s what I said. As of Ferbruary 17thish, 2009, Four Frog Farm became a real organic farm, according to CCOF and our beloved government.… Read the rest of this article »

[slideshow id=27] Drew, Jim and I spent Saturday at the farm practicing division of labor.  My morning was spent taping up some of the tube connection points in our Freshman test field irrigation system.  Occasionally one of the inner-hose-inside-outer-hose connections, currently held together by friction alone, will pop and we’ll arrive at the field to see the evidence of an uneven timed irrigation etched as water lines in the clayey soil.  We decided to try duct tape and see how it holds. … Read the rest of this article »

I have been asking this question of myself all throughout the season.  It’s not on my mind because I am unhappy with the farming; on the contrary…I am contented with how the season is going and am trying to affirm a deeper purpose with this work. I farm because I love it.  This activity makes me feel happy.  If I weren’t farming I would want a big garden, and I would probably make the garden bigger and bigger until I was farming. Ideally, I farm to be a greater, more valuable… Read the rest of this article »