CoFarb (cofarb@aiusa.com) wrote: : : In my vegetable garden, I sprinkle diatomaceous earth around the : seedlings at planting time. I have been using a big tub of the stuff : that came from the pool supplies section of the hardware store. (I know : it's not supposed to work, but as long as the slugs don't know...) : : Good luck! : donna
I have always been reluctant to use diatomaceous earth because I was
afraid it might hurt the toads we have. Does anyone know? I am
interested because we have a swimming pool in addition to a garden,
and when we backwash the filter, I go through an effort to keep the DE
from contaminating the soil, by using a pillow case on the end of the
hose. I also heard that the reason the pool supply DE doesn't work as
well on slugs is because it is heated up first and that makes the
sharp edges of the tiny shells more rounded (like heating glass).
That made me feel better about my toads, whom I dearly love, because
some DE does escape every time I backwash. Any thoughts or ideas on
this subject would be appreciated.
Carrie