“ You don't have a slug excess, you've got a duck deficit! ”  This quote by permaculturist Bill Mollison pretty much sums up our approach to ‘pests’ in the garden. Best way to manage them is to have a diverse garden that welcomes creatures who will eat the pests for you!

We had a timely reminder of this lesson this week. The ever expanding population of little vinegar flies hanging around in our compost bin was becoming a bit too much for my liking, especially after one flew up my nose! However I soon noticed this little grey fantail sitting on the fence, repeatedly darting out and doing a circle above the compost bin before returning to his spot. Then the light bulb switched on – he was having a feast on the vinegar flies! All afternoon he feasted, must have eaten a hundred or so of them. And today he’s back again. It’s natural pest management in motion!

The better we create a diverse ecosystem in our yard that welcomes local wildlife, the better we can keep ‘problem’ species under control – see ecological gardening for more thoughts on how we’re going about this.