Fortunately, I haven't seen a slug in many, many years. There used to be some wetlands in our area. Before all the construction, it wasn't uncommon to see turtles or snakes crawling through the yard. That was long ago. There were also species of birds I no longer see. We are much dryer now and have become "The City of Brown Lawns."

As far as not having the other "plagues" you mentioned, I might have enough free time to actually have a nice, unmolested vegetable and flower garden. Seriously, there are times I just shake my head, throw my hands in the air and say, "Why bother!" Hopefully, seeing the dahlias starting to bloom will cheer me up a bit. lol

I hope so, Dan! As a fellow gardener with wildlife issues I feel your pain. After seeing the damage bugs did to some of my dahlia blooms though I think I'll remove the "turkey barrier" rings of fishing line I put around my garden at the beginning of spring. They'll have lunch for days in my largest bed with the majority of the dahlias.....

No slugs? You're so deprived!

I've had fewer of them this year than ever before. Maybe they headed out to Ohio...slowly.

I shouldn't have said that about the slugs. I remember 6 or 8 years ago telling a neighbor that I hadn't see a JB in ages. OOPS!!! Speak of the Devil and ........ !

LOL!

Slug damage is minimal here. Due to unnatural hot and sunny days. No complaints. The worm will turn no doubt.

I have slugs but they are busy feasting on my hostas to bother the dahlias. I think I have about 2 more weeks before the JBs are gone so hopefully I can see some nice blooms then. Right now the only flowers not affected by the JBs are daylilies, sunflowers, and Black Eyed Susans.

My insect damage is waning. Still a few JB's and still some earwigs, but not a whole lot. Seems like going out every morning with a pair of scissors and snipping every one I see in two is helping deplete the population.

I used to sneak out in the early A.M. and use that technique on the slugs before they went into hiding. Great satisfaction...

Hi Folks, I've been lurking here for months and found I had nothing to contribute until now.
Earlier this year I traded w/ Mandolls

EARWIG TRAPS - got this idea from a fellow grower in Eastern Canada - visit your $$$ store for the hair clips and 3/8 or 1/2 in diameter soaker hose - 25ft for $8. Put up 75 of them this evening and need many more. Have several buckets nearby with soapy water - remove the 6" hose length every day or two and dump into the soapy water for a few minutes the earwigs will drown and drop out. Replace the soapy water about once a week. Best earwig trap I have ever seen!

I found this about a week ago and tried it small scale. BOY did it work !!!! Scaled up and now I have one on each of my 300 plants.
I shake out 2 to 10 earwigs a day into a soapy bucket. The blooms are starting to look real nice now.

Thought I would share. This was from Connie Thompson @ FaceBook -- ‎Dahlia Information on Growing and Exhibiting

That looks really easy! You just put them at the top of each stake and they go to that instead of nesting inside the blooms?

Thanks for sharing.

What a neat idea. I love stuff like that. Forget all the sprays and such. So much easier and not at all unsightly (sort of

Welcome and thanks so much for sharing. We will look forward to seeing all that you grow. Your heading said "suburb of???" what was the rest. I love Michigan and always like to see postings from there.

So nothing at the end of the hose, just open on both ends?

I bet you if we could find white hose it would work even better - they sure like the white dahlias.

Now that I think about it, I have some flexible white tubing that I might try, its a lot slicker though, so I might need to coat the inside so the little buggers have something to grip.

I have two plants that have massive trunks and a lot of foliage but no sign of a bud yet. I will have to check but I believe both are the same kind. I had one last year that produced huge tubers but not a single bloom. Do you suppose they are later bloomers? If no blooms I will try them one more year.

Gary the largest flowers are always the last to bloom - if they have massive stems, then I bet they are AA sized and will bloom late. A few of the big ones are earlier, but not many. My Emory Paul is always one of the very last to bloom - no sign of buds so far, but its a massive plant.

What is funny is that Ice Berg which is by far my largest blooms is a dwarf @ about 12-15" for the plant height. Nuts. And produces tons of tubers.

Yikes - you have a 10" flower on a 12" tall plant - that sounds very odd

Mary - please post a photo. I'd love to see it.

Okay. Today for sure. My measurement estimating could be skewed but I did measure the bloom with a yardstick.