Loxton Garden Club in Loxton, South Australia, Australia | Community group

Loxton Garden Club

Locality: Loxton, South Australia, Australia

Address: post office 5333 Loxton, SA, Australia

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23.01.2022 Put the date in your calendar and come along to the South Australian Plant Clubs Open Day. Information about each club will be available along with sale of pla...nts. Please support the home growers knowing you will be buying good quality plants and often some of the older varieties not found in the nurseries. See more

10.01.2022 What a fantastic and simple idea! Would be a perfect activity to do with children while they’re home on school holidays

09.01.2022 Earwigs: Earwigs as the myth goes it apparently crawls into our ears to feast upon our brains while we sleep! Well, I can assure you that this could not be furt...her from the truth. Earwigs are omnivores they will eat both plant and animal material however, humans are not on the menu. Many species of earwig are particularly partial to pollen, and can be commonly seen at night moving from flower to flower to feed. As such, they play important roles as pollinators alongside bees, albeit doing the night shift! Earwigs are also scavengers and feed on all sorts of bits and pieces, including cleaning up the mini-carcasses of dead insects. Some earwigs are predators and use the pincers at the end of their bodies to capture small insects. Australia has almost one hundred species of earwigs, including several introduced species. Two common species which are often encountered are the native Brown Earwig (Labidura truncata), and the European Earwig (Forficula auricularia ). Like many introduced species, the European Earwig does occur in large numbers at times, and can be seen on flowers at night and under objects in the garden during the day in plentiful supply. In these situations it can be a pest and damage young plants, whereas the native Brown Earwig is regarded as beneficial in the garden and is known to attack pests such as the Codling Moth. Like many insects, earwigs are most active during the warmer months, and it is during this period that breeding takes place. Both sexes look similar, but males can be distinguished by their enlarged pincers. Once mated, female earwigs lay eggs in a confined space or chamber either underground or within hollows in wood. The mother will remain with the young for quite some time after they hatch; the tiny babies being miniatures of their parents. Despite their fearsome appearance, earwigs are completely harmless. Since they are not venomous in any way, the worst they can do is give you a weak pinch and even doing that is quite difficult for many species. Here are some things you can try to grid rid of them. Set up an earwig trap grab a few clear plastic takeaway food containers (with lids), tip about 3 4mm of pure linseed oil into the bottom of each, punch several 5mm holes in the side of containers (above the level of the oil, but below the lid) and position these traps in the mulch, around the plants being attacked by earwigs. Go to bed, and check the traps the next morning you will be amazed how many earwigs you will capture during the night! Empty the traps, refill, and re-position for an earwig-free existence. Set up a trap, using an upside down pot stuffed with newspaper or straw, they can’t resist these. Earwigs also like nesting in cardboard in the holes that form it so lay small amount where you are getting them and intermittently collect and bin them and replace the cardboard. Small lengths of old garden hose cut up makes a great nesting place for them also, collect the hose and take it to the bin and tap them out. Place a dish of vegetable oil, buried up to the rim, near your seedlings. They love it and it kills them. Let your chooks scratch about in the garden for a while (just make sure the chooks have had a nice big feed of greens first!). Create a diverse garden. This encourages predators, many other animals enjoy earwigs as part of their diet. Frogs, lizards, spiders, praying mantids, ants, and some birds feed on earwigs regularly, and hence earwigs play an important role in food chains. Much of this information is from https://www.minibeastwildlife.com.au/resources/earwigs/ for more information I would encourage you to visit their website. If all else fails you may need to seek an appropriate bee friendly spray to use from your local Nursery. Thanks to SGA for the some of this info and the pics. https://www.sgaonline.org.au For more information on edible gardening you can obtain a copy of my book Edible Gardens a practical guide or my NEW eBook of over a 100+ Plant profiles that will take your edible garden to the next level, (Please note the two books are very different one compliments the other) at www.craigcastree.com.au

03.01.2022 Sunday 18th some of the Loxton Garden Club members did a tour of the Renmark Rose Festival. (Pictured below at the Renmark Institute flora display)