Dahlias: Dahlia eating bugs , how get rid of , 2 by BeaHive

BeaHive wrote:
mary..look who is here and no bug damage!! Do you have a name for her? I love her she is very beautiful. Her traveling buddies are budding and will be here soon as we are having warmer weather now. Exciting !

Well I have been on the slugs tails so to speak since 7/3 with the application of the copper foil, DE,beer traps,and good old squishing of the beast when I see them. Happy to report, that no slugs found in the beer traps 7/7. I used beer that my daughter left at my house when she moved to GA in Feb. I don't like this beer (merlot kinda gal) and perhaps the slugs did not like it either so I swapped out the beer for yeast water last night and the traps were empty except for two beetles & a small earth worm who must have taken a wrong turn Felt sad for the worm..not so much for the beetle. No slugs in the traps made me happy. Sadly I found 3 youngsters traveling up my fence early this morning racing for my first bloom on my clematis. They went bye-bye. On the 4th I found a slug on a cucumber seedling munching away at that. I was mad..and took care of him. Hey buddy I want to make some pickles!! I have a plan for the cucumber hills to protect them. I hope to get it constructed in the next few days and will post a pic if all works out. I think my idea can work for the dahlias also...next season. My final attack on the beasts was talking to my back neighbor about raking up his fall leaves which are still on the ground.Also his darn Ivy that has taken over some of the fence line and into my flower beds and up most of his trees at fence line. That did not go well, so I used my leaf blower and blew them about 3 feet away from the fence line for now. As they dry out I will keep blowing them as far as they will travel (slug heaven over on his property!) I also asked him again to get some work done on his 100+feet Oaks who have never seen a chain saw. Most are drying or dead from a freeze in 2008. Dangerous. I did not like his answers to my request and the fact he said that he had been living there 36 years,before I came along and no one complained. Well if you had seen the condition of this yard last summer when I moved in, and the condition of my other two neighbors yards & Oak trees now....Yikes. I am surrounded This one will need to be taken to the cities code officer. Not looking forward to that battle....so for now the slugs. :)