In our fields live a great many crabs. They dig holes and tunnels everywhere, excavating mud from the bottom. Hiding during the day, they come out at night to snip off the tender vegetable plants with their strong, sharp pincers. In olden times, they had natural enemies - foxes and owls that hunted them at night. With the advent of the green revolution and the rampant use of pesticides, the predators vanished, dead from eating poisoned crabs. But the crabs somehow outlived the poison. Now the crabs have multiplied to such an extent that they have become the nightmare of farmers. We and others who do only organic or natural farming never use pesticides to control them. Old farmers speak of the ancient way of saving the crops which we found to be highly effective.
Dry grass and weeds are sickled and arranged around the vegetable plants. The crabs are wary of approaching the plants because their many legs get entangled in the springy dry grasses and weeds. In this picture, you can see our cowpea seedlings shooting up through the grass which also acts as mulch and later crumbles unto compost. We always sow more seeds than needed, for a few cunning crabs simply tunnel under the grass and rise up right under the seedlings. The crabs get a share of the succulent young plants.
Soon, the plants grow and the stems become thicker and hard enough to survive the crab attacks. Nature always strives to maintain a balance!
