On October 17, 1983, after a long and exhausting day of lifting and unpacking, I finally went to bed. Near sunrise, I was awakened by what I thought were the upstairs condo neighbors. However, I soon realized that it was my first night in my new house in Encinitas and there was no upstairs. As I lay awake, listening to the scraping, scratching and sliding noises in the bedroom ceiling, I came to the realization that I was listening to roof rats. And so began my multi-year struggle with Southern California pests. The rats returned every fall until 1990 when I was adopted by a cat.
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| Phillip Marlowe (A.K.A Kitty), always in the garden, was an excellent mouser |
Southern California seemed so dry, open, clean and neat that it was difficult to believe there was any wildlife at all. Over the next 15 years, in the middle of suburbia, I encountered: tree rats, roof rats, field mice, alligator lizards, swallows, a road runner, a large pack of coyotes, opossums, a tarantula, a gopher (luckily only one), a family of 7 raccoons, feral cats, domesticated cats, brown snails, Argentine ants, termites, and countless other garden insects and pests.
In the garden, some of the pest problems were of my making. Worst were the whiteflies. All of the yellow flowers and bright green foliage in the garden was a magnet for whiteflies. At first I started spraying weekly with Malathion. However, when I learned that the whitefly lifecycle had 4 main stages (egg, instar, pupa, adult) and that Malathion worked only on one of the stages, I increased the frequency of spraying and tried different pesticides. This had no impact on the growing clouds of whiteflies. After some research, I learned that the use of pesticides had likely killed the natural predators allowing the whitefly populations to increase exponentially with each new generation. I needed a new approach. Much to my surprise, I learned in one of the many garden catalogues I received that predators could be purchased via mail order. So I ordered lacewings, ladybugs, and Encarsia formosa (a small parasitic wasp). The Escarsia, came on small cardboard tags with a dark circle of parasitized whitefly pupa on one side. All I had to do was hang the tags throughout the garden. It took a few orders to fully control the whiteflies, but nothing could be easier and in no time, I had gone organic! In our current garden, last year a large, old Melianthus major had a serious case of whitefly and I've recently released Escarsia formosa to try and control it.
My battle with snails didn't go as well. The iceplant on the slopes was home to an infinite population of brown garden snails, Helix aspersa. It was introduced to California as a food animal (escargot) in the 1850s and had quickly naturalized throughout most of the state. The only snail predators were possums and rats and in spite of large populations of both, there were still plenty of snails. As the garden matured, the increasing population of snails had affected what I grew and how I planted. I had to give up on starting plants from directly sowing seed in the garden or even as small transplants. Snail baits, copper strips, diatomaceous earth, coarse sand, coffee grounds and even a pet turtle did nothing to reduce their numbers. So during damp evenings, I made nightly rounds with a flashlight and collected the snails in a 5 gallon bucket. I used a plant stake to periodically knock them back to the bottom of the bucket to prevent them from escaping while I collected more. When there became too many to contain, I'd throw them into the garbage can. However, this created a new problem with an unpleasant odor and millions of ants that feed on the dead snails. So, I began flushing them down the kitchen sink with the garbage disposal on. In the spring, I could get 3 to 4 buckets a night, night after night. Eventually, I purchased decollate snails which were still getting established in the garden when I moved away.
In the garden, some of the pest problems were of my making. Worst were the whiteflies. All of the yellow flowers and bright green foliage in the garden was a magnet for whiteflies. At first I started spraying weekly with Malathion. However, when I learned that the whitefly lifecycle had 4 main stages (egg, instar, pupa, adult) and that Malathion worked only on one of the stages, I increased the frequency of spraying and tried different pesticides. This had no impact on the growing clouds of whiteflies. After some research, I learned that the use of pesticides had likely killed the natural predators allowing the whitefly populations to increase exponentially with each new generation. I needed a new approach. Much to my surprise, I learned in one of the many garden catalogues I received that predators could be purchased via mail order. So I ordered lacewings, ladybugs, and Encarsia formosa (a small parasitic wasp). The Escarsia, came on small cardboard tags with a dark circle of parasitized whitefly pupa on one side. All I had to do was hang the tags throughout the garden. It took a few orders to fully control the whiteflies, but nothing could be easier and in no time, I had gone organic! In our current garden, last year a large, old Melianthus major had a serious case of whitefly and I've recently released Escarsia formosa to try and control it.
My battle with snails didn't go as well. The iceplant on the slopes was home to an infinite population of brown garden snails, Helix aspersa. It was introduced to California as a food animal (escargot) in the 1850s and had quickly naturalized throughout most of the state. The only snail predators were possums and rats and in spite of large populations of both, there were still plenty of snails. As the garden matured, the increasing population of snails had affected what I grew and how I planted. I had to give up on starting plants from directly sowing seed in the garden or even as small transplants. Snail baits, copper strips, diatomaceous earth, coarse sand, coffee grounds and even a pet turtle did nothing to reduce their numbers. So during damp evenings, I made nightly rounds with a flashlight and collected the snails in a 5 gallon bucket. I used a plant stake to periodically knock them back to the bottom of the bucket to prevent them from escaping while I collected more. When there became too many to contain, I'd throw them into the garbage can. However, this created a new problem with an unpleasant odor and millions of ants that feed on the dead snails. So, I began flushing them down the kitchen sink with the garbage disposal on. In the spring, I could get 3 to 4 buckets a night, night after night. Eventually, I purchased decollate snails which were still getting established in the garden when I moved away.
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| Jim and Kitty in the Garden |
Such was the fun in the wild kingdom of Encinitas.
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| Kitty keeping cool |
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