'Grazers' any good?

[Monika]

Clive, any idea if the 'Grazers' worked? We are really being plagued by house sparrows eating all the tips of the pea plants and by doing so, pulling the plants off their supporting sticks. All the salad plants and beetroots are covered by protective small netting to keep them safe, but because the peas are tall now, I just can't keep the sparrows off them. So 'Grazers' would be ideal - if it works!

[Clive.]

Hello Monika,
I've just had a walk down the garden to check again before replying. There does seem to be some odd bits of leaf remnant lying alongside the Early Onward Peas...so it would seem that there is still a regular visitor. It turned out to be the Wood Pigeons in our case here.

Still not sure if they have to visit for a nibble a few times to get the message that they don't taste nice anymore.??..if that is indeed how it works.?? The E Onward Peas though were really eaten down before the first Grazers application was made....so not much leaf to get the spray onto...hence I gave a second spray when I uncovered the next row

They are recovering slowly, hoping todays rain will help this...or does it wash off ?? and there'll be some nice new tasty leaves....

The Radeo Pea row, next to the E Onward, was wired over until I put the sticks at them..and anything that was out the wire was nibbled. They too are in the open now with only the one application of Grazers.

So I am still a bit undecided as to the real truth....they don't seem to be being hit so hard...but then there aren't the leaves at present.!!..

I think the next few days with the Onward putting out new leaf after the rain could be the test.?



Clive.

[Clive.]

Bit bigger attack this morning...in one location...they had accessed through the support wire that's on one side of the Onward row...if they hopped round the other side they could have eaten the lot much easily....I'm not going to tell them though.!

So I wonder, has the action of product been lessened by half inch of rain yesterday.??

The Radeo Peas weren't touched further...yet.... Perhaps they know better than to.? ..it might cause an increase in level of hostilities.....

Clive.

[Monika]

Isn't this constant battle horrid, Clive? I used to give lots of talks to gardening clubs, WIs etc and I deliberately called one of the talks "Gardening with Wildlife" not Gardening for Wildlife" because at that time we had rabbits eating the brassicas (and onions!), jackdaws ripping open the pea and bean pods, slugs devouring the seedlings, cabbage white butterfiy caterpillars on the brassicas and lambs coming over the dry stone walls and nibbling everything!

A gardener's lot is not an easy one.

As for 'Grazers', I can imagine that the rain will have washed off the taste the animals don't like because presumably it does not penetrate the leaves, otherwise it would taste horrid to humans, too?? Please keep us posted, Clive!

[Ricard with an H]

I feel for you on this one Monica, I have so few problems compared to some of you though don't yet know if some is down to good luck.

I have yet to have a problem with birds though I have yet grow peas, I have grown and am growing broad beans. Birds haven't bothered them or anything else.

I don't seem to have problems with mice, goals or moles even though one of my beds does have mole activity.

I do have problems with slugs and insects that live in the ground though they are few compared to what is written about from my forum pals.

I feed birds, probably to the tune of £50 each month, is this a reason I don't have problems with birds ? I have always worried about feeding birds so much, the cost is down to her and she works so that leaves the question of inviting rats, mice and birds to my plot. I control the rats and mice after they choose to chew wiring in our cars but the biggest problem I get from birds is them pooing on the cars and from a great height somit gets splattered all,over our white painted home.

The early-learning period of dealing with wind has largely been dealt with so I feel very fortunate and wonder what I did too deserve such an easy gardening life when mostly it's about slug damage that can be dealt with if we're always on the ball.

Have a respectfull-bloke type huggy.

[Primrose]

We love feeding our varied bird population but it can be a two edged sword. I work on the premise that if you enckurage them into to your garden you inevitabky enciurage more damGe to tiur crops. But especially at this time of year when they have babies to feed they will go for the quickest easy option and if you hang up bird feeders or have a well stocked bird table they will feed from these rathwr than waste time foraging around your veg plot for slugs and insects

We too are spending a fortune on bird food at the moment but do notice later in the summer, even if we out out bird food they sometimes desert us for more natural sources of food elsewhere and we can hours in the day where we bareky see a bird in the garden

The ferral pigeons and wood ligeons are the birds I hate most. They have recently consumed 80% of a recently sown row of peas which I,ve had to resow. I know of no way of frightening them off without scaring all the other birds off too. Annoyingly we have a lot of those awful big brown/orange Spanish type slugs. I do put them on the bird table sometimes but the birds don't seem to be able to cope with all the slime on them! Drowning them seems to be the best way of killing them.

[Ricard with an H]

Lucks for us then that for some reason we don't get pigeons in our garden, just the collared doves and they are always bust picking up the droppings from the seed feeders. Maybe the pigeons are more aware of the buzzard and kite threat, we also have sparrow hawks and kestrels though they don't hit our feeding birds very often because the feeders are alongside an oil tank that is covered in growth the birds can hide in all year round. The doves are much more vulnerable.

Anyway, nice to know the expense of feeding birds might be a further benefit than the obvious.

We also get lots of sheep escaping though I fenced all around to keep my dog in and this keeps the sheep out if I always remember to close the gate, sheep would clear everything I'm growing in ten minutes including the potato greens.

My main other pest is an insect that lives in the soil, prefers rocket and leaves little brown holes in leaves.

Does the Grazers stuff affect the taste of your produce ?

[Clive.]

http://www.grazers.co.uk/index.asp?m=3&t=GARDEN

Reading again I reckon I will have to step up the application...as I see it says every 3 days at first.... I also see it says it is absorbed into the plant rather than sitting on the leaf which answers my pondering with ref' the rain I may add a smidge of washing up liquid too as it tended to bead on application to the pea leaf (remnants of)

I note the hint that it may well prevent an attack but that it is more difficult to stop an established persistent attack..

Clive.

[Monika]

Since writing yesterday, I had a look at the comments on Grazers on the Amazon website and they seem to be divided between "useless" and "brilliant"! As you say, I suppose the rate of application is important. I shall hang on a bit longer and watch our rogue sparrows before I fork out for Grazers.
By the way, the jackdaws which ravaged our peas and broad beans are still about, but the damage only went on for about four years and since then, they have shown no interest whatsoever. I think they must have had a baddie amongst them who showed the others how to get free food. As our allotment site is rather remote, not overlooked by any houses and most of the time there is not a soul around, the wildlife obviously takes advantage!

[Clive.]

Application no.3 just applied with added smidge of mild Fairy lemon...

Clive.

[Ricard with an H]

Monica, your comment about, "The baddie" rings a bell.

We have a small group of jackdaws that mostly feed on dropped seed and old bread I put out, one of these had learnt from a very smart jay, who comes occasionally, that if they launch a flying peck at the peanut feeder it releases a few nuts.

Obviously I can't be certain because I didn't mark the bird but I think only one bird had mastered the art of the flying peck that it had learnt from the jay. The others hang out to pick up the nuts.

I don't suppose garlic spray is worth a try, others seem to use it successfully for all sorts of pest.

[PLUMPUDDING]

The local wood pigeons have found a new game today - shredding the new leaves on my two cherry trees and picking and throwing all the small green cherries on the floor. B******s

[Clive.]

They like greengage too.....

Clive.

[Clive.]

To update, Pigeon attack on E Onward Peas has continued but is slightly diminished. Hoping the rain of today will help further recovery...it had got quite dry on the top. In the back field the farm has deployed the irrigation on the Potatoes..although they moved it away yesterday. Rain localised overnight 5 mm here and I'm told 18mm 3 miles away.


The pigeons have had a go at the Radeo row as well. Radeo has the vigour to overcome if they lay off them for a spell...

They did start on the radish one night but left this alone after application of product and have not touched lettuce seedlings alongside pea rows that had been treated at emergence.

Clive.

[Monika]

Thanks for the update, Clive. Grazers seems worth buying then. Our peas at home are still being nibbled by the house sparrows but at least it's now the lower leaves and not the new shoots at the top. We had hoped for rain today, thinking perhaps it's the moisture in the leaves the birds are after, alas, it never came.

At home, the beetroot and all salad plants are still under fine netting and I don't intend to remove it - so the birds can't get at them, and on the allotment we, luckily, rarely see any birds, other than pheasants and partridges in winter and the occasional pigeon and jackdaw.

I will put Grazers on my shopping list for next spring.