Death for a friend turned foe

I didn't want to have to do it, but it has come to this. When we started mulching with leaves, our soil bug count started to go up, and we have had an explosion of rollie pollies which up until now was a good thing. They would merrily munch on the leaves, roll about in the compost, converse with the worms passing by, ya know, having a good time. But since they have developed a taste for bean plants and sprouts, they need to die, or at least they need to move on back to eating the leaf mulch and enjoying life in harmony with the gardener, which at present they are not. Here is what the damage does to the foliage of the plants.


Solution? Death by shredded glass to the current traitors and a warning to all who might feast their eyes on my bean plants. One glance upon the diatom laden fields of waste laid before the feet of these pests will send them running.

A quick dustng of diatomaceous earth should do the trick and keep 'em gone for a while, I hope. Click for more.

Some quick biology. Diatoms are eukaryotic algae that form tiny silica cell walls called frustules that they leave behind when they die. These fall to the bottom of the ocean and collect to form sediment that can later be mined. The frustules can be quite ornate. Beyond their beauty they are also very sharp and pokey like. This is where my death by shredded glass statement came in.

This stuff will kill insects and small animals. It is essentially shards of glass, just very small. For insects walking along it, it will erode their legs, get inside the crevices of their shells, and generally tear them up. Small animals can have their lungs affected if they inhale the dust, so watch out. Humans are at risk from heavy or prolonged exposure, so wear a mask when you use this stuff.

Also, don't use the pool grade DE powder as it is chemically treated in some case and partially melted, which creates further respiratory hazards.


Once on the ground and on the plant, insects won't go near it, so the only insects I had to kill outright were the ones in the immediate vicinity of the plant, yeah, the ones all fat and happy looking, yeah those. The rest can go back to eating dead leaf mulch, having sex and being happy. They usually are not a problem; only becoming an issue when populations get out of whack.