Mice and voles will gladly eat sweet pea seeds before or after they germinate. Slugs and snails also enjoy tender sweet pea growth.
What is eating my sweet pea?
Pea moths, pea weevils, apids, snails, and small mammals are the most common culprits when it comes to feasting on pea plants.
Do mice eat sweet peas?
Mice love sweet pea seeds and your whole crop may disappear in one go so keep them somewhere mouse-free or try soaking the seeds in liquid seaweed fertiliser before sowing to make them unpalatable.
Do mice eat pea seedlings?
Mice and voles can eat the recently sown seeds of peas, beans and sweet corn and kill seedling plants by grazing on the foliage. In cold weather field mice often enter greenhouses and cold frames, where they can destroy many seedlings overnight.
Do slugs and snails eat sweet peas?
Answer: Young sweet peas are indeed a favourite of slugs and snails. The best approach to control them is to use a mixture of techniques. Among these are placing scooped out half orange, grapefruit or melon skins, cut side down onto the soil to attract slugs and snails; check each day and empty them.
What animals eat sweet pea flowers?
Pests and Diseases
Pests like aphids, leaf miner, spider mites, and thrips can attack sweet peas, along with slugs and snails.
How do you protect sweet peas from pests?
I like to use Maxicrop as a foliar feed. Mix in a watering can and spray on the Sweet Pea foliage just below the flowers. This is a good deterrent against aphids.
Do rats eat pea seeds?
Rats, grey squirrels, field mice and, if you are very lucky, shrews will all eat their fair share of seeds, bulbs, nuts, fruit and even snails.
How do I stop rats from eating my seedlings?
Rats will often mow down tender seedlings. To prevent this, you can construct simple coils out of chicken wire to go over the top & protect your seedlings until they get large enough to be unpalatable. Remember that rats dig, so the coils will need to be sunk into the earth as you put in the seedlings.
Do sweet peas come back every year?
Sweet peas (Lathyrus odoratus) only live for a year, dying after setting seed. But don’t let this put you off as they are super easy to grow from seed. Perennial species such as Lathyrus latifolius come back year after year, but mostly lack fragrance and there are fewer to choose from.
How do you protect pea seeds from mice?
1) Chilli Powder
Seriously though the first thing to do to deter the ravenous rodents is put a light sprinkling of chilli powder over the seeds and then the emerging seedlings. This will not harm the mice but should deter them.
How do you protect peas?
For an early sowing in February, peas can be protected using plastic cloches or inside a plastic greenhouse or polytunnel. It is also possible to sow peas in the autumn for overwintering to provide a spring harvest. If doing this, the peas will need the protection of a cloche or plastic grow tunnel.
How do I stop mice eating my plants?
Q What can I do to deter mice? A Seeds and bulbs can be started off indoors in pots, to avoid the attentions of mice. Fine mesh wire netting (6.5mm) and a sound concrete floor can exclude them from the greenhouse. Outside, wire netting placed over buried bulbs and seeds can protect them.
What pests eat sweet peas?
Probably the most common pests that will be eating your sweet peas are slugs and snails. They love sweet peas, particularly when they are young. Look for slime trails and unevenly eaten edges of leaves. These are textbook signs that your sweet pea plants are being eaten by slugs and or snails.
How do you protect Sweetpeas from slugs?
Natural ways to deter slugs
- Egg shells. Line your borders with upturned eggshells.
- Sand. Create a rough area around your plants with sand or gravel to make it harder for the slugs to reach the plants they have their hungry eyes on.
- Companion planting and repelling plants.
- By hand.
- Pond.
- Ducks.
- Newspaper.
- Seaweed.
Do birds eat sweet peas?
Peas, beans and sweetcorn are eaten by jays. Leafy vegetables are attractive to wood pigeons and collared doves, especially in winter when their favourite foods such as clover are unavailable. In fact, growing clover between your winter brassicas may entice birds to eat this, rather than your precious crop.
Do squirrels eat sweet peas?
We now have about 10 squirrels and they are eating many of the perennials (rudbeckia, coreopsis, cosmos, blanket flowers, etc.). They also eat my annuals such as poppies, sweet peas and nasturtium.
Do rabbits eat sweet peas?
Sweet peas are very pretty but they are also poisonous, so if you want pretty climbing flowers, that are completely rabbit safe, the edible kind is a better option.
Do birds eat pea seedlings?
Peas, lettuce, squash seedlings and cabbage family members seem to be the birds’ favorites. These are the ones you will most want to protect. Tomatoes, peppers, eggplant, potatoes, carrots and aromatic plants like mint and herbs are not often sought out by our feathered friends.
How do you protect pea seeds from birds?
You can protect an entire row of your seedlings by constructing a tunnel of bird netting. Try protecting individual seedlings by placing plastic berry baskets over them. In a similar technique, ome gardeners suggest taking a clean, clear soda bottle and cutting the bottom off of it.
What to spray on peas for bugs?
In the home garden, spray foliage with soapy water, then rinse with clear water. Alternatively, use an insecticidal soap spray. Planting in aluminum foil that has been laid on the planting bed, as well as filling yellow pans with water to trap the aphids are also effective control measures.