How to deal with field crickets?

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Dachnik, 19.11.2009 16:19

Good day, dear forumchane. I apologize for the possibly uncorrected question, since I am not interested in harmful insects from a scientific point of view, as you are, but only how to deal with them in private plots. I work as a deputy editor of the newspaper "Odessa summer resident" and one of the letters just put me in a dead end. Here is its content, almost without editing:
"We are city residents, so since we got the land plot in 1999, we are studying and working on your newspaper. Sometimes questions arise, and after looking through the files, we find answers to them. But we still want to ask a few questions.
For various reasons, we abandoned manure and switched to vermicompost, which is convenient and relatively inexpensive. The instructions for vermicompost are described in detail, but something is wrong with it. The last 3 years we are almost without a crop, and on the site there were just hordes of black grasshoppers-jumpers, unfortunately, we do not know what they are called. We think that it is they who gnaw through the seedlings of tomatoes, peppers, cabbage, eat seeds, since the bear does not eat seeds.
In 2009, tomato seedlings were planted 4 times, cucumber seeds descend 1 out of 20, carrots were sown twice, and not a single seed sprang up. Specially opened furrows and did not find seeds. Pickled cucumber seeds were sown, but even from them only red husks were found.
Who eats the seeds, how to deal with these predators? What is the best way to fertilize the land-with vermicompost, cow or bird's egg, peat? How to get rid of black "jumpers"?
Sincerely, LUBAR family.
g. Odessa."

Apparently, we are talking about field crickets, but I do not know of any cases where they feed on seeds, much less live in "hordes". Most likely, they are helped by bears.
What can you slander your readers?

Comments

Likes: 1

19.11.2009 17:55, Dachnik

I think you can read the article at this link
http://zoobusiness.kiev.ua/forinquisitive/10/
it will be useful for both you and your readers.

I saw this article, thank you. It seems that my reader has a problem with low-quality humus, which is obviously full of peat and small sawdust to create more "biomass". After reading the letter carefully again, I realized that she was a fan of organic farming with elements of "fanaticism". And crickets, in addition to plant food, need protein for the normal development of eggs, which they obviously more than get from vermicompost. Thanks to such a fear of mineral fertilizers, the gardener became too fond of organic fertilizers, and it seems that she overdid it, creating an ideal soil for breeding bears and crickets. I don't say anything about the lack of soil analysis at all. The goal is the same-more organic matter, and sometimes incompatible organic matter.