Marigolds: Earwigs and Slugs

[danwigz]

Okay,

My mother always planted marigolds near her tomato plants; and so I have continued the tradition. I had thought this was to keep away certain pests... however, if you note the time stamp on this post (Its 1:00am my time) I've just returned from work, and had to inspect my garden before I could go to bed...

Earlier today I noticed that earwigs had taken residence in my dead marigold flowers, of which I had been planning on saving seed from. I tried to remove all the 'dead heads' I could while crushing the earwigs. My evening jaunt however has revealed a new world of earwig existence, one in which they cavort all over my marigolds, and surprise, surprise, slugs are joining them in a rather large way. One plant alone had at least 4 slugs and who knows how many earwigs. Almost every single marigold has a slug or two, or more, and every one had visible earwigs.

I'm obviously going to be pulling my marigolds (and possibly replant them far from my garden), unfortunately some are close to my tomato plants, so some I might just cut at the base so not to disturb my roots.

So here comes the question bit... when should I pull the marigolds? Should I do it at night, when the things are visible on the plants killing as I go along? Or should I do it during the day, and hope the pests are resting in the plant somewhere? I'm concerned if I move them during the day and the slugs aren't there, they might return to find their marigolds gone and attack my tomato plants instead. I'm probably going to need something to fight of slugs before I start this just in case.

Anyway, other suggestions, comments, etc welcome. Maybe my marigolds are keeping my plants slug free lol; but I'd rather not have any slugs around my plants.

Danwigz