This weekend I’ve had a disaster in the veg patch. I’m gutted. I went out to dig up all my beautiful potatoes only to find that there were small black holes in nearly all of them, and out of many of these holes crawled a slug or two.
Earlier on in the season the warning signs were there – the leaves were riddled with slug-eaten holes – and I am irritated with myself that I didn’t put down beer traps at that point. It just didn’t occur to me that the little blighters would bury into the potatoes themselves. I thought they just ate the leaves! Who knew?!
Well, I know now, and I’m glad that I do because I was planning to plant some seed potatoes (in their place) this week so that I can harvest my own potatoes at Christmas. Instead, I’ve been putting down beer traps to try and kill as many slugs as possible before I plant the new seed potatoes this coming weekend. And I’ll be sure to fill the traps with a fresh dose of beer before going away for three weeks at the end of the month.
Moral of the story? If you see a lot of slug damage in the leaves of your potatoes, assume that they are doing plenty of damage below ground as well and get those beer traps laid down or dig them up before it’s too late!