Crickets
- To: Multiple recipients of list <i*@rt66.com>
- Subject: Crickets
- From: H*@aol.com
- Date: Fri, 7 Mar 1997 07:41:03 -0700 (MST)
Greetings:
Griff Crump of Northern Virginia wrote:
<< The sign of cricket damage is a shallow, scooped-out depression, ranging
from little fingernail size to as big as your thumb, usually on top of the
rhizome,
but sometimes on the side. This can and does kill some plants. I find
that mothballs repel the critters, with just one or two placed by a
rhizome being enough... The only other (and ultimately more effective) way
that I know to combat them is to spray the entire premises, surrounding
lawns, bushes, etc. with Ortho's Outdoor Ant and Cricket Spray
repeatedly. >>
I have a small garden, but I, too, have an intermittant cricket situation.
Here they attack newly planted--succulent--rhizomes. I now just barely cover
the well-dried out rhizome with dirt when I reset, and, if the surface is
revealed by a subsequent rain, I dust it with Comet powdered bathroom
cleanser. My crickets will not munch through this. Any munched rhizome gets a
heavy shake, and I run Comet into the munch holes with a Qtip to disinfect. I
have not lost any plants to munching, nor to munch-induced rot. Eventually
the rhizomes loose their attraction. The crickets, interestingly, seem to
prefer blues and whites. Aesthetically, this Comet solution is the pits, and
may not be practical for a large planting, but it keeps the wretches at bay.
Anner Whitehead, Richmond, VA (speaking)
Hentry Hall henryanner@aol.com
