I'm not normally one for days of sunshine and the warm-to-hot temperatures they bring, but after what feels like months of dreary rain, I'm glad Summer has finally arrived. Not least because the slugs and snails have been thriving and have decimated pretty much any plants that I really like which haven't already been smashed to smithereens by Bitey careening around the garden like a mad thing! So I'm hoping that a warm, dry summer will keep their numbers down as I don't want to become accustomed to what I'm having to do to get rid of them.
Up until recently, I've been flinging the slugs and snails that I find up on the embankment behind Hexenhäusli Device because I don't like to kill them. But the slimy little sods can move quite a distance in a night and almost certainly make their way back into the garden to devour more of my greenery.
Well, since discovering that they've eaten my Spider lily down the the ground, the kid gloves are off! So, I've been out slug and snail hunting to curtail their number. As flinging them away is no longer an option, sprinkling them with salt is too cruel, pesticides are out as are beer traps because of Bitey, I have resorted to a more gruesome but quick & effective method: Slug Snipping!
Yes, I have been skulking around the darker, damper areas of the garden armed with a pair of scissors, lifting pots and peering behind garden furniture then quick as a flash, snipping slugs and snails in twain as close to the head as I can get. It makes me feel sick, but they die very quickly and it's all for a good cause: The Infomaniac Garden Photos Event!
Witchface doesn't approve, but there are only so many spells that call for slugs and snails and puppy dogs tails (good job Bitey is out of his puppy stage!).
This Leopard slug (Limax maximus) was spared as it was too big - as big as my finger! - and I would have thrown up for sure. Plus, Leopard slugs eat other slugs, so I'm banking on it getting all the ones I miss.
. : : .
Now, to get over that horror, here are some plants that haven't (yet) succumbed to the slugs, and a couple of Solstice photos from yesterday:
Leopardplant (Ligularia przewalskii) - not affiliated with the leopard slug.
Mock orange (Philadelphus x purpureomaculatus "Belle Étoile")
One minute past Solstice
Cromer Pier
I want a pet slug. Do they make good pets? I assume they just suckle on whatever green life you throw at them... do they have a preference? I love thinking about things I've never considered before. Kizzes.
ReplyDeleteSome are picky eaters and won't utterly marmalise anything green - although there don't seem to be many of that sort around here. And you could be waiting an awfully long time for little Sluggy to fetch that stick you just threw for them!
DeleteI squish any I find underfoot - messy, but effective. They've been playing havoc this year with some of the Salvias (they get the new shoots of Amistad and similar larger-leafed varieties before they have a chance to get big enough to shake them off), the Tradescantia virginiana, and quite a few of the "baby" plants we've been nurturing. Bastards. If only we had a garden big enough to accommodate toads, hedgehogs or even ducks - all of which would polish 'em off. Jx
ReplyDeleteAh, yes, the squish-n-twist! A post-squish twist is necessary because some of them don't split apart and just bounce back from being stepped on.
DeleteWe have at least one toad in the garden, a few hedgehogs pass through, but no ducks (the "lake" is not quite big enough). Apparently East Anglian hedgehogs will take pretty much anything else before they eat slugs, so the toad is rather overwhelmed.
The MITM found a HUGE slug in the roses yesterday, but before he killed it he had to identify it (thank you google) so he could tell me what he had "totally eradicated" in the garden! I think he smashed it with a trowel. xoxo
ReplyDeleteAh, well done to your MITM! Did he expect/get a trophy or medal for such a feat of bravery?
DeleteIt certainly seemed that way! LOL
DeleteWe have toads and hedgehogs, phew! I don't fancy snipping them. Ick. They do get some things - Delphiniums, and Lupins. Messy critters.
ReplyDeleteSx
It sounds like the Devon hedgehogs are earning their keep!
DeleteIt's known here as Tigerschnegel. We have toads 'n frogs, they are fat and grin, and now&then I see one flattened on the neighbourhood street, too slow to escape. The people with gardens here do not complain about snails.
ReplyDeleteNice snippets from the beach.
I'm going to have to import some German frogs & toads it seems.
DeleteVery wise, you don't want your dog catching lungworm. I for one would have liked to have seen a photograph of the bisected slugs, just out of morbid curiosity. Have you seen how Leopard slugs do it? it's on Youtube, they wrap their appendages around each other and fan out and spin round and round on a thread of slime, put me right off jelly meerkats.
ReplyDeleteWhen I was a child my friend Cheryl and I used to paint snails, not on paper, on their actual shells, garish colours, then release them back into the wild.
I've gotten a first hand view of slug sex just as you mentioned. They were getting kinky on my front porch just after daybreak. They were huge! I closed the blinds after a minute of watching the unsolicited acrobatic sex show.
DeleteI considered a photo of a bisected slug, but it's not a pretty sight - I didn't want to put anyone off their tea.
DeleteSpeaking of, I vaguely recall David Attenborough perving over leopard slugs doing it in their sling. Disgusting!
I couldn't (or wouldn't) want to do the snip-snip kill. The thing about the beer bait parties is putting it out after just before dark, then dumping it before Bitey's morning outing. You could always put a note on your door to take care of it before letting him out. Rough landscaping chips around high value plants help deter them and the Corry's slug bait is supposed to be pet and kid safe, but maybe too expensive? Or you don't get it where you live? Idk.
ReplyDeleteOh, I can't be bothered with faffing around in the garden late of an evening - or very early in the morning before Bitey gets up. He might give beer a miss though as he turns his nose up at G&T!
DeleteGood heavens. I've never seen a Leopard slug, they being native to Europe and all. I do like a bit of leopard print though. Very Bet Lynch.
ReplyDeleteYou could have a mating pair dangling from each ear to complete the Bet Lynch look!
DeleteI think I would faint if we had slugs as big as that but good news it eats other slugs.
ReplyDeletePhiladelphus "Belle Étoile" is a joy as are your Mid-Summer photos.
My Philadelphus really needs to come out of it's pot and go into the ground, but I just don't know where yet. hopefully I'll have made a decision by autumn.
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