How to stop mice and blackfly stealing your legumes
I have NO IDEA where these tips came from, they're just scribbled (in my writing) on a piece of scrap paper which has come to light in the great January tidy-up. Useful though, especially if they turn out to work.
1. To stop blackfly eating your broad beans in April, spray them with nicotine water, which you make by boiling loose tobacco in water. I suppose you could steal a couple of cigarettes off a passing smoker.
2. Soak your peas in paraffin for half an hour before planting. Anathema to mice, apparently.
No idea if these tips actually work, but now I can throw away the piece of paper, knowing that the information is still to hand (should I remember come spring).
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4 comments:
Oh, so relieved to know that someone else writes themselves notes and later wonders...why? (and yet it does seem imperative to keep them!)
I've tried the paraffin trick before, I think I left my peas soaking for too long, not one of the sprouted!
To keep mice out of your food supplies, I recommend a bag called a GrubPack. This is a wire mesh bag with a Velcro closure. It is generally sold as food protection for backpacking and wilderness camping. It's light,rugged and quite inexpensive. I use one for backpacking in areas where mice and squirrels are present. The GrubPack is simple to use and works very well. They are sold on-line. I'm sure a google search for "Grubpack" will get you there.
Thanks for this tip .... this year, I didn't take any measures to protect my autumn sown peas, and they've all come up. It may be something to do with my cat, of course! I heard recently that the moment a pea has germinated, ie when it first cracks open, the mice are no longer interested, and that's the best argument I've heard for autumn sowing.
Joanna
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