On Fri, 08 Aug 2008 11:40:41 -0500, Omelet
wrote:
In article ,
se (JustTom) wrote:
On Sun, 03 Aug 2008 02:22:57 GMT, "JCripe" wrote:
Losing my crop of beans due to flies eating them . Any ideas other than
Sevin? Tried this then it rained and next day they were back. Will moving
margiolds into the beans help?
Get a muscovy duck. They're reknowned fly catchers.
No kidding!!! I used to entertain myself watching the 'sovies catch
flies! And once we had a MAJOR hatch of scarabs in the entire Austin/San
Antonio area. It was a blast watching the muscovies go after the flying
newborn beetles. g
Fly parasites do work very, very well tho' in combination with drowning
fly traps.
I've not tried the parasites, seemed awfully expensive and others
locally reported poor results, and the traps I've tried didn't really
seem to work. So been on the lookout for the ducks to keep the
population down and amuse me. Once I see how they do, I may even let
them roam the garden and see if their rep for taking down bug while
leaving plant alone is warrented.
I just scored a new flock: A drake + 2 girlfriends and 15 babies.
I bought some new cattle this week and the seller happened to also
have Muscovys (Muscovie/muscovites,muscovay?). I've been looking for
them for a while, so it was a happy accident.
I admit though that I'm a bit nervous to see how they treat my
beehives. I pondered guineas for tick control but had to pass
because of their rep of snacking on bees as they left the hive.
I'm told they taste like veal. I've never eaten veal, so for me, I
guess they're right. We may find out immediately if they display a
sweet tooth for honeybee ; )