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July 12, 2006
Slug alarm
Have you ever encountered slugs in your garden? We get them in all sizes around here and at the moment you can watch them grow at least an inch every day. Oh yes, I know they munch up all the nice flowers in the garden SHE is so proud of but that's no reason to expect me to chase them away! Have you ever trodden - accidentally of course - on one of them and felt it squishing through your toes? Yuks! I am not a hedgehog, am I? There's a couple of those spiky ones living in the next garden but the neighbours are feeding them on cat food and some special hedgie food they import from England supposed to be very nutritious (and you should see the bellies those hedgehogs drag through the garden!). Small wonder they turn their noses at the common garden slug.
You should think that my people have acquired some skills in slug warfare by now. They were really quite green when they moved into this house. During the first summer they detected some slugs and tried to catch them in a beer trap. A beer trap of all things! Hrrmmmppfffffffff! It just resulted in the slugs telling their mates where the pub was and the garden was positively invaded by armies of slugs!
Next spring they decided to sow some kohlrabis because HE likes them so very much. When the first tender green came out the slugs came as well and did quite an effective mowing job. Still the kohlrabis struggled on, never giving up, but remained rather small in size. No wonder! As they were growing one after another was invaded by a hungry slug until only the biggest was left. That one showed no outward sign of slug attack and was tenderly looked after by them. Then came the day to harvest: on lifting the kohlrabi out of the soil and turning it around it was discovered that it had cunningly been hollowed out by a fat slug that was still sitting inside, munching and grinning at them! All further attempts at growing kohlrabis in this garden were speedily abandoned.
But gradually THEY learnt from experience. Now only plants are allowed in the garden which are not considered food by slugs. That worked quite well for a couple of years but suddenly the little buggers are back. How much generations of slugs would it take to adapt to a different diet? Not many is my educated guess.
Well, if THEY want to get rid of them THEY'll have to think up something between themselves. I flatly refuse to have a paw in this. There's only one place for a cat to be in a garden like this ...
Posted by Mausi at July 12, 2006 09:06 PM
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