Here's a pic of the first pumpkin to dry off. As you can see it's been lying on the ground rather than on the trellis and the damage you can see is down to slaters. A lot of stuff you read will tell you they're harmless and they only eat decaying vegetable matter. This just isn't true once the population gets out of control. And if you're an organic gardener who uses plenty of mulch it doesn't take long for this to happen. I haven't found an organic way to keep their numbers down but when I do I'll let you know. Any advice out there would be appreciated too. I've tried using orange halves as traps but all these seemed to do was attract ants. Those blue snail pellets work but I don't really like using them.
As this is the first pumpkin to be picked and I'm not going to store it it's no big deal. Roast pumpkin for dinner tomorrow!
As you can see they have also chewed the stems of my zucchini. The zucchinis are still going but their growth isn't what it should be.
