Lightning Bugs and Nasty Slugs, Oh My!

[so lucky]

I wonder if lightning bugs eat our garden plants? I see so many of them on the beans, kale and chard. Are they creating those holes?
And I am having issues this year with slugs eating the cabbage. I can dust with DE today, will be washed off tomorrow. Thanks to Bill.

 

[thistlebloom]

So Lucky have you ever put a band of crushed eggshells around the base of your cabbages? It seems to help mine, but I don't have a lot of slugs for whatever reason.

 

[seedcorn]

Don't think lightening bugs are any problem. Slugs? Good luck. Wet, cool weather, they go nuts-for a slug.

Contrary to the storybook image of cute bitsy baby fireflies nibbling on flowers, the underground-dwelling larvae of the lightning bug are carnivorous and feast on slimy slugs, worms and snails. Once they grow up, some move on to cannibalism and eat other fireflies, but most subsist on pollen and nectar (while some don’t eat anything at all during their short lifetimes).

Read more: http://www.mnn.com/earth-matters/an...didnt-know-about-lightning-bugs#ixzz3dKCNu5rV

 

[thistlebloom]

I have some slugs, but not lots. What I have noticed a lot of is those purply carnivorous ground beetles. They need to step up their game though because they aren't keeping up with the stinking grasshoppers.

 

[so lucky]

Purply carnivorous ground beetles? I'm not familiar with them. Got a pic?

 

[so lucky]

Oh, and I don't have enough egg shells right now, but I will start saving them again. They normally go in with the rest of the compostables. I have used them in the past.
Slugs get really bad in my tomatoes if they aren't staked well off the ground.

 

[digitS']

Slugs are also a problem in my tomatoes.

Worse if the plants sprawl, which they do. Worse if they are near the lawn. They are well away from the lawn this year.

These may be the beetles Thistle' refers to:
Species Pterostichus melanarius

Steve

 

[thistlebloom]

Yes, those are the ones Steve! They are slightly iridescent when you hold them in the light with a darker purple border around the edges of their wing case. Every time I pull weeds I find 3 or 4 scurrying away. They are said to eat slugs and grasshoppers (and other insects too).

 

[so lucky]

Oh, I think I see those frequently. Good to know they eat slugs and grasshoppers.