What is eating my onions?

[La Raya]

I have wonderful bed of almost mature onions. Probably the best I have ever grown. To my horror I noticed that two of the onions had had their bulbs eaten away and there was what looked like a mole hill next them. I have since found two more onions which looked fine on top, but when moved the bulbs had been almost completely hollowed out underneath. Again a small mole-like hill and a tiny burrow disappearing under the soil.

We are talking about semi-mature, bulb forming onions about 4 months old not tiny seedlings!!!

I know that moles are carnivorous and eat worms and insects etc so not the likely culprits. One possibility is the Mole Cricket, which I have to say I have never heard of before and have no experience of.

Does anyone have any ideas as to what it might be and if so, how to control or get rid of it before it/they work through the whole bed!!

[spanish_lad]

ants.

not sure what to spray them with, but if you go into the nearest agricultural supplier and get a liquid (mix with water at 1%-99%) and it´ll say "insectacida" on the front and "hormigas" on the list on the back

[wildside]

Awww, cmon guys before we reach for the six pack of insecticides..... Please?

Any chance of an image of said "mole hills"... If its an ant hill and you brush the top off then you will see lots of ants..... Have you looked at the leftovers of the onions... Any teeth marks?

[La Raya]

Thanks for the replies, but I'm certain that it is not ant damage. Since posting I have spoken to a neighbour about the problem, it looks very much like it is mole crickets (langostas). There are thumb sized runs under the damaged onions which go down into the ground. Also it is the same bed that I had some damage to potatoes last year.

Local growers use Dursban 48 which is an organophosphate, but like wildside I'm always reluctant to reach straight for the chemical bottle. I am going to continue to monitor the onions and start harvesting the part of the bed where the damage has been done. In the meantime I'll research some alternative controls and see what options I have.

The following are a couple of the many links I found:

http://entomology.ifas.ufl.edu/fasulo/m ... ri0208.htm
http://www.grounds-mag.com/mag/grounds_ ... t_control/

Any further ideas are always welcome and thanks again for the replies

[spanish_lad]

we use dursban at work

[NEWGARDENER]

hi,
I have planted brown onions 200 to be exact! I am a novice gardener! All my onions where thriving until I noticed something had been trying to eat them! The suspects are moles as we live in the countryside in the U.K!
A lady who had lived in this area for 16 years gave me some vital information to combat moles interfering with our precious vegetables!!
I do not know for sure if this is going to work, but it was worth a try! Male Urine around the area! Sounds crazy but it seems at the moment to have deterred the moles from attacking the onions in the last week! Obviously steer clear of your vegetables when pouring the fluid around the area! My onions will be ready to harvest in August! I will keep you posted on my findings after the harvest!!

[Mowser]

NEWGARDENER

How very strange your popping up at the right time. Male urine? Won't that make the onions taste a bit spicy?

[NEWGARDENER]

Hi again,
You would think so to your reply, but I have been very careful, I have taken the advice from this lady because she has lived on this farmland for 16 years as we rent the properties off farmers, farmers know best! so in sheer desperation to save my onions, this I have tried, to be honest it does seem to be working! lol! But the proof if correct will be in August when I harvest the onions! But they are looking good now!! I will keep you all informed about this!

[Martin Page]

Male urine is just what the doctor ordered for onions.. Its a very fast acting nitrogen boost with a pH just on the acid side its readily taken up by the onions shallow root systems.

The old boy show growers on the alottments always used to pee into a watering can and top up with water every time they watered ... and you know the size they can achieve !

[Martin Page]

.... Its also good for a fast green up of the lawn too ......

[Mowser]

Urine contains large quantities of nitrogen (mostly as urea), as well as significant quantities of dissolved phosphates and potassium, the main macronutrients required by plants. Diluted at least 8:1 with water it can be applied directly to soil as a fertilizer. Undiluted, it can chemically burn the roots of some plants, but it can be safely used as a source of complementary nitrogen in carbon rich compost.
(Wiki)

[lizzie.w.]

very interested in using urine for fertaliser but must it be males only males here are the dogs don,t fancy trying to catch theirs

[NEWGARDENER]

hi again,
the good new is my onions have not been attacked since I have been putting the male urine around the borders of the onions, so its looking good!

My first row of potato foilage where a lot smaller than the rest of the rows, so assumed they had been havng a go at them too! Since doing some research on the internet it is voles that attack bulbs etc not moles!

I put the urine around the borders of all the veg now, morning and night, I could not be more pleased, hope this helps some of your gardeners!! But when it comes to harvesting I can be more precise whether they done too much damage! Will keep in touch! bye!
NEWGARDENER

[NEWGARDENER]

Hi,

I have harvested my first few onions that where attacked by the voles, out of 50 of my first onion sets I planted I have actually harvested about 30, the rest have disappeared, this is why I definitely think now it was voles because they eat bulbs! My garlic bulbs disappeared too!

All the rest of my onions are thriving and growing well which will be harvested in August!

My conclusion to this problem is that the male urine has worked has a brilliant deterrent, I am still putting the urine around the perimeter of all my vegetables and since I have done that there has not been a problem!!

Hope this helps and will update after my harvest in August!

Bye!

[Anntonio]

We used to pee around partridge nests to deter the fox. Worked for a while, then the fox associated the smell with food! so we stopped. Think the fox is more sly than a vole though.

[Mowser]

We used to pee around partridge nests

Way too much information!

[Anntonio]

Sorry if I offended anyone I did not mean to. I just want to give information. Beside urine being a deterrent it is also a very good to prevent fungi growth. Any tree feller will tell you that it prevents the spread of honey fungus on cut conifers, and also good for athletes foot.

[Mowser]

No offence here Anntonio. I'm waiting for the video on Youtube.