European Gardening: Pests, 0 by Wintermoor

Wintermoor wrote:
SLUGS !!!!

The slug population seemed to explode around the beginning of September, but it wasn't our normal black slugs, it was the Spanish Brown Slugs which have no natural enemies here in Northern Europe. Neither hedgehogs, toads, magpies,nor chickens will eat them.

I cut one in two or three pieces, and leave them near the beds, and since their buddies are all cannibals, they come out to eat the cadaver. Then I cut a few of them up and sit them in "tactical" positions.

I caught 85 within one rainy evening by this method, and these wee b***ers are faster than you think, when they smell their dinner..... they gallop. Slugs can "smell" food from up to 10 metres away, so I had a good clean out. I have used this method rather than the blue pellets, which I used to use, since they make the birds which eat the slugs sterile, thus eventually killing off our friends as well as our enemies.Below is a picture of a Spanish Brown (sadly blurred because of torrential rain), above there is a picture of a normal black slug, so you can see the difference in size of these beasts. This one was about 5 inches long, and I'm sure it growled at me.

*wwwwahaaahhh* *shivers on the spine*

Wintermoor



This message was edited Saturday, Oct 26th 5:47 AM