Garden pests

[izentrop]

Good information for gardening on this site indeed http://www.gerbeaud.com/jardin/fiches/taupin.php

Gardeners' opinions, not always good advice, too http://www.gerbeaud.com/jardin/faq/qr-2 ... upins.html

[Did67]

Indeed, the idea of ​​totally eradicating a bug or a weed that bothers is very counterproductive: the principle of diminishing returns means that the efforts to eliminate the last few pests are much more considerable than to reduce the major part of the initial population. considered, although total success is far from guaranteed (we quickly find ourselves facing an exponential). Therefore, the "reasonable" loss of vegetables represents a cost lower than a stubborn struggle.

To which I add: you should never eradicate a parasite, without which its enemies will disappear, because having nothing to eat ... Sooner or later, a parasite will get lost again there (they only do that: explore a new territory to eat). No enemies: it explodes!

So it's also a losing strategy!

For avoid a parasite, you must raise or maintain this parasite, in or around the garden. This is the role of martyr plants!

Only (temporary) excesses should be avoided: it is "normal" for a parasite to proliferate BEFORE its enemy (our auxiliary); the cycles are always out of phase.

Right now, I'm picking the slugs in the areas where I have young plants, which may be completely ravaged, or sensitive seedlings (carrots, fennel, parsley) ... By the time these vegetables develop enough.

Yesterday evening, I cut two crates of salads: I found 4 large slugs under these salads, with no visible damage other than the outer leaves with holes and the bases of "gnawed" petioles. Why "eradicate" there? I was not hunting there ...

Ex: there cannot be ladybirds if there are no aphids; you eradicate aphids; ladybugs die or go away ... Sooner or later, an aphid will be lost in your home. Will multiply. Will not meet any resistance. Will proliferate. It will take time for a ladybug to pass by. She will lay eggs, the larvae will go through 4 stages ... Well fed, because now, the aphids will have invaded everything without enemies, they multiply ... Finally, they will be too numerous, will fight to eat, the aphids disappear, ladybugs are starving ... Except a few, if you "breed" aphids, on a rosebush, on a nasturtium, on a rumex, on an Eryngium, on a bean ... There, you will have a state " fairly stable "(it never is: they are" oscillating "balances, perpetually around a point of equilibrium)

[the reality is much more complex; I just state the principle]

[olivier75]

Hi,
There are also pests that have more predators than others, the principle is less valid for leek flies and moths, carpocapses, balanin ...
Finally, for the slugs, I'm doing pretty well, I have no more feramol and hope not to buy it again.
For the cardboard on a personal basis if I would no longer use it for the vegetable patch, I still use it for convenience for the trees.
I know however that it will have been more useful recycled, I know that 2 thicknesses brings nothing other than concealment. I will stop as soon as I have a real shredder.

I think you have to avoid the biggest bullshit and improve with your knowledge and your means.
Olivier.

[Ahmed]

Yes, Didier, when I wrote "totally eradicate", I hesitated a little, as this formula is presumptuous and I rather wanted to say something like "to persist in believing that one can completely eradicate" ... because it is a pure fantasy.

[Did67]

... I wanted to say something like "to persist in believing that we can totally eradicate" ... because it is a pure fantasy.

For my part, I wanted to insist that in addition to being a pure fantasy, if it could be realized, it would be a very serious error: it would sooner or later sign an even more violent attack ...

[Did67]

Hi,
There are also pests that have more predators than others, the principle is less valid for leek flies and moths, carpocapses, balanin ...

Yes quite. As always, it is much more complex.

As you say, some "parasites" have committed the misdeeds that annoy us, before a regulatory mechanism comes into play ...

There are also non-specific parasites, where there is no simple link between a parasite and its enemy. The cycles then become much more complex, with lots of dynamics that intersect ...

It is all the same important, for some patent annoyers (slugs, aphids) to have sufficient distance.

You should know that contrary to what many websites imply, when we explain that if you have such a parasite, it is that your vegetable garden is not in balance, that it can be the opposite!

Balance is necessarily that there is something in the two scales of the balance: on the one hand a certain population of your "pain in the ass" and on the other, a certain population of its main enemies. A vegetable garden in "balance" is therefore necessarily a vegetable garden where there is a pain in the ass !!! And not the other way around. In population, fortunately, "limited" ...

So wanting to eradicate a parasite is not only a fantasy, but a mistake (we can obviously envision it in an enclosed, limited, fully controlled space, such as a greenhouse with air control (seen recently). is a space "emptied" of its wild boars by the fence.

So yes, beyond the principles, it is a little more complex on a case-by-case basis.

[Did67]

I think you have to avoid the biggest bullshit and improve with your knowledge and your means.
Olivier.

Yes!

I react a little "violently", because, on the internet, "lasagna" are generally presented as a brilliant "invention" ... A kind of "refinement" ... It makes me go off the hinges! Sorry.

[olivier75]

I could have added priorities and conviction!
Olivier

[olivier75]

Today for hazelnuts and onions, it's 99% for predators, I'm far from the tolerable balance of the average gardener ...
Olivier

[Did67]

There are situations where the balance will never be satisfactory. If I let my voles do it, it's 100% damage to what they like.

Doc, as a super-predator, I regulate and I trap.

do not forget that our systems are severely anthropized. They are therefore "unbalanced" by nature!

The system in equilibrium with us is a climax forest. With, maybe some hazelnut trees in a few clearings. There, the dispersion would mean that the damage would remain limited ... Ditto for the winged plants. There would be no "concentration" on a "flower bed">.

So you have to qualify, of course.

For others we can "tend" towards a certain form of equilibrium (aphids) ...