Symphylans

[Steve and Linnea Bensel]

Is anyone else experiencing unusually high symphylan pressure this year?  We’ve never had much of a problem with them in the past.  They have been here but in low numbers.  This year they are causing serious damage in places around the garden.  Admittedly, we have made a lot of management changes in the past two years—reduced tillage, tarps, and we have changed our cover crop strategy and plant mix.  

It doesn’t appear there is much we can do to rid ourselves of them, except maybe till, which we don’t want to do.  Just hope nature takes over as the soil adjusts to no-till.

Steve

[brook.brouwer]

Steve, 

Sorry to hear. I haven't gotten of any reports.

If you haven't seen it, I thought this was is a pretty good write up on symphylan lifecycle: https://pnwhandbooks.org/insect/ipm/garden-symphylan 

 

Curious if you have been able to catch any? If any way to collect a sample I would be interested in taking a look as I haven't seen them before and curious what to keep an eye out for.

Thanks!

Brook

[Steve and Linnea Bensel]

Thanks a lot for this, Brook.

I’ll try to catch some—the little devils are very fast moving.

Steve

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[Charles Beadnall]

I haven't seen them here, but they were the one scourge horticulturalist John Jeavons was not able to eliminate organically. HIs strategy for management was rotation: as much as they migrate up and down in the soil, his observation was that they don't tend to move far horizontally so he had multiple plots and rotated among them since the pressure builds after a couple years.

-Charles

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[Steve and Linnea Bensel]

Good to know.  Thanks

Steve