Ducks vs Snails

Robins, ravens, blue jays, flickers, juncos... they all seem to do one pest duty or another in my garden.

Robins take their slug patrol job very seriously if you have any kind of patch of strawberries. Of course, they also eat the strawberries. I let wild strawberries be the weed I don't pull, so there are always some berries for the birds.

Ducks and geese make a fine addition to farms and gardens.

I guess there are all types of little trips that are slowly being lost. My dad had told me that some people plant pumpkins between the corn rows to smother the weeds. Nowadays, that would be a lot of pumpkins.

The American Indians used to plant what they called the 3 sisters.

Between the corn rows they planted squash, which discourage weeds, and the prickly leaves repel rabbits.

They also planted peas which would climb the corn stalks and replenish nitrogen in the soil. Thus, they had a triple crop in the same amount of space and diminished the depletion of nitrogen in the soil.

This they learned without any scientific instruments or analysis, simply from experience, which would be considered empirical evidence, and not scientifically valid.

However, it works for me and that is all that counts in my opinion.

Check out the link below about Terra Preta, a man-made soil in the Amazon that perpetuates itself and actually grows deeper each year.

Ancient Amazon civilizations knew how to make and use this to their advantage.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Terra_preta

There are many other sources for research on this subject.

Enjoy.

They also planted peas which would climb the corn stalks and replenish nitrogen in the soil.

So much so, I contracted with the cannery's to plant peas, and they will not harvest them if you don't rotate them out every two years because of the nitrates that will be stored in the plants would make them toxic

When you plant corn, and its a drought, the corn will store the excise nitrates mostly in the lower 12"-16" or so of the corn stalk. Our neighbors were laughing at us, because we were leaving so much 'feed' out in the fields when we made silage. We looked it as just roughage, we can replace that with our plant matter.

Come January, the neighbor weren't laughing when the veterinarians were coming to their place every day to treat their cows for nitrate poisoning, only to be followed up by the truck to carry the caress back to the mink ranch.

A lot of neighbors lost 10-15% of their herd, not to mention the drop in milk production from the remaining stressed out cows. We didn't tell them our numbers held constant from the year before.

My dad told me how they used a pig to clear land. They would clearcut the area and fence it and keep pigs there the first year. There was a special breed that was especially good for that, called 'Bell Island Rooters' - which no longer exists afaik. By the end of the season the pigs would have rooted up all the stumps and manured the place. The following year they would plant turnips - it was the only crop they could grow in it at that stage.

The pigs may have worked on some land but not where I grew up.

The stumps were large enough that they had to be blasted out,or dug out and pulled out by mules,using a large sapling for leverage.

A 20 ft long sapling tied to the tree roots,and laid horizontal to the stump provided great leverage for a couple of mules,and most medium sized stumps came right out.

The larger ones had to be blasted out to loosen them.

Afterwards,the pigs were allowed to root out any missed roots.

The following spring,turnips would be planted,along with tobacco seed,and covered with a large sheet.The turnips grew faster than the tobacco,and kept the sheet above the tobacco plants.

When the tobacco plants were pulled out for seeding,the pigs were released into the area and feasted on the turnips.

The turnips were cycled into manure by the pigs,and fertilized the ground for the next season.

No chemical fertilizer needed.No weed killer.

Worms were removed from the tobacco plants by hand,and some were used for fish bait.Bass loved them! Some of the worms were as large as your finger,green,and had a scary looking horn on one end,but it was incapable of biting or stinging.

We had a dog that had a nicotine habit,and was hooked on the worms,and followed us in the field and ate every one we threw down.

He usually quit around dinner time;we guess he had enough,but sometime during the night,he must have had a nicotine fit.

The next morning we found him in the field,with several rows of torn up tobacco plants,and he was standing on his hind legs getting the worms off of the plants.We had to give him away,and that is another story altogether.

Have to say I am fascinated to hear another tale of "turnips after pigs" in a completely different environment. I would say that old method goes back a long way - probably to the old country. And was then adapted to new environments by the settlers.

Of course our folks ate the turnips while you fed em to the pigs and waited another year... They had it pretty hard to eke out a living here in the north.

We ate the turnips too,but there were too many to eat,so after eating and canning all they wanted,the rest was left to the pigs.

It was also hard down south,and we hunted for our meat in the winter,and sold hides from mink,muskrat,beaver,rabbit,and deer.We ate a lot of duck,dove, quail,turtle,catfish deer,rabbit,squirrel,possum,raccoon,beaver,bear...even bobcat once.

The best chef is a good appetite and an empty stomach.

You did not waste ammo,so every shot had to hit,and we all became excellent marksmen.Even with a slingshot,my uncle could hit a moving target,like a low flying bird.He was the best shot in the family.

Nothing went to waste.Not even blackbirds,they went into the pot with rice along with everything else in the days catch.

Times were hard,but much simpler in those days.No terrorists,no hijacking,no nuclear threats,no bio-weapons.

The only threats were from nature,and we slept soundly at night.And at night,it was really dark..no outside lights anywhere,and we still had the blackout shades from WWI,so no light got out or in of the windows.

Only had a 30 amp main,with Edison fuses,and1 light in the ceiling in each room.No receptacles.Had to use a plug adapter in the light socket if you wanted to plug something in.

The sound of rain on the tin roof is something I still miss.

And the frogs in the swamp with their low base moans.

The clicking of squirrel feet on tree bark,doves calling to each other,owls hooting out their territory,whippoorwills, and roosters crowing.

Enough reminiscing...getting way off topic..can never go back,except in my mind.

Bugs and such are fine for the back yard hobby gardens.

Factory farms, cotton growers and almost any commercial farming operation wants maximum $ yield out of every square foot of cultivated land.

My Texas cotton farming cousin moans about the cost of Roundup^® and gripes about the Monsanto⌈^® cotton seed that he has to return to the vendor every year, but he does it for one reason. More money.

He, like many others today, must figure that they'll be dead before the real consequences of these poisons and genetically modified crops start killing off beneficial insects (bees) and maybe even people.

maybe humans will adjust... the growth hormones on milk cows and beef cattle had the same effect on the people (children) that drink their milk.

There are difference studies on this, and the results vary on who financed the study.

Also as far as bugs,.. at first its fine, until those same bugs become pests.

The Asian Lady Beetle is an example.

But maybe humans will adjust in a bad way with drinking tainted milk...

Row cover is an incredible farming technology for pest prevention. It's really a big thing in organic ag now. I don't know how we ever managed without it. Helpful for climate issues too, in its various forms.

OTOH it is a petroleum product. I don't even mind that, but I wish it was longer lasting and or easy to recycle.

Not just 'no need for pesticides', but need to exclude pesticides.

Birds and frogs and toads will often avoid eating pest insects that have been exposed to certain pesticides if there are other areas wiyh insecta that have not been sprayed.

This is one of the reasons home pest control services have such good retention of customers. If the contracy lapses, without predators, insects swarm the house....and the phone rings to reeatablish the contract.

An Organic Farmer friend of mine uses ducks on his farm to keep the bugs from eating his crops.
Hes as Anti-Monsanto as they come. I imagine the Monsanto Office here in St. Louis even has his Picture posted at all the gates warning the guards to not let this protester on the property.

There must be something with that. May be some legend's of the geese/ducks told crops were 98% made of duck/geese poop. Oh, you know they can't eat that.

Pretty wide spread...

Rabbits produce more body heat than just about any other mammal.

A friend of mine put the heat to good use.In his green house.

He placed rabbit cages below his seed beds,which eliminated the need for heat in the winter,and used the rabbit droppings for fertilizer on his plants.

The CO2 produced by the rabbits increased plant growth rate.

In the spring,he sold the rabbits around Easter,and started with another brood just in time for winter.

He collected discarded produce from local supermarkets to feed the rabbits, which kept it out of the landfill,and cost him nothing.

He had black plastic barrels filled with water surrounding the inside of the walls to moderate the temperature swings at night,and hay bales supplemented the heat as well.

This was a win-win situation.

No chemicals required,everything recycled.

Now that you bring up the subject of rabbits, I wonder why rabbit is not common, or even available as a meat here in the US. Where I lived in Mexico, the Toluca area in Mexico State, rabbit was very popular, and available in most local markets. Many restaurants in the region specialized in it, especially along the highway between Mexico City and Toluca.

Rabbit meat is not as ubiquitous as beef, pork or chicken, but it is available in the US. It isn't that hard to find. Even some grociery chains carry it, albeit typically frozen.

Different cultures have different preferences and aversions. I don't think there is much widespread aversion to rabbit in the US.

There are other notable foods consumed in other countries which would not go over well here in the US. Horse and dog meat come to mind. As well, there might be some aversion to things like the so called 'pollo de arbol' to those less adventurous here in the US.

Down south in the 50's you ate whatever was available.

Cottontail rabbit is one of my favorite game animals,even better than venison to me.They are easy to catch,and easy to skin and clean, tender and delicious!

Squirrel is also good,and raccoon if stewed(Never fry it..it smells like a wet dog if you fry it) but stewed,with proper herbs and seasoning it is good,especially if you are hungry.

Catfish,frog legs,snapping turtle,crawdads,dove,quail,pigeon,blackbirds,Guinea,and free range chickens,wild boar,bear,possum,beaver,porcupine,and rattlesnake.

But I wont eat Armadillo. They carry the Leprosy virus.

Just about everything else is fair game.

Snails in our garden come as a challenge for the gardeners. They kill young plants and will eat irregular holes in leaves and this can lead to rapid browning. Therefore, it is very important to take immediate steps to get rid of them. Try a spray of equal parts of vinegar and water, to kill them. Many snail traps ideas are also available which can be used accordingly. Natural predators like ducks and chickens are some of the natural predators of slugs and snails. Let them roam in your garden or landscape once in a while to clean up for you. But if the problem worsens consult pest control North Jersey
for the long-lasting solutions.