Having made the perilous journey it almost came to a bad end on arrival. We have a gastropod problem in our mailbox* and it's worst when it rains, and rain is all it's done for about a fortnight now. We got home just in time, and still I found this little fellow clinging on after we got inside.
Do not fear for him, I may have a heart of stone but I couldn't squish him. Bebe slug went outside, to help himself to the last of the basil.
But wait, there's more! My mum arranged for a parcel to be delivered to my office. It said not to be opened before June 8, but it also said "unless you can't resist".I could not resist, but I'm providing only a sneak preview, more to come!
* Yes, I could put down poison but there's a danger the local blue-tongues would eat a poisoned snail, I won't have that on my conscience.
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10 comments:
We had a wicked slug problem in our garden last year. I was told on good authority that if I put out dishes of beer, the slugs would be attracted to the lovely yeasty barley smell and hop right in and drown.
There were several problems with this plan. First I had to convince my dear hubs that this wasn't a terribly bad use of good beer. Second, once I got the beer out into the garden, my Jack Russell terrier snuck into the beer bowls, drank all the contents, and proceed to dash madly around the orchard for 22 minutes before collapsing in a completely inebriated pile, letting out an astonishing belch, and falling promptly asleep for 3 straight hours!!!
Once I got those two issues worked out, the beer traps did work quite well and as long as you don't mind cleaning up bowls of flat beer with drowned slugs every morning out of your garden, I highly recommend this method!
(Are those little pink knitted mouse feet I see????? - can't wait to find out!)
Your mother is a treasure!
Thank you for the sneak peak of her work.
And thank you for the gastropod reportage!
;o)
- Lee
Ro, the beer works until it rains of course :)
Lee, she's a keeper, my mum, thanks (again) for the card :)
The beer does work; if you put it in a bowl with little skewer sticks up the side they crawl up (snails too) the stick tips, they fall in and drown (happy dead).
They are dancing toes! but what is she holding?
S I've done the beer thing, but I sank the bowl into the ground. Many drowned snails, followed by drunk ducks!
It's a blue banded BEE silly!
OH, love love the blue banded bee.
Ro - love the story, sounds like what my JRT would do.
Ms Mouse - an ecofriendly slug and snail decimater is iron phosphate. One of the brand names is Sluggo, cute huh?
It is non-toxic to other wildlife and is a fertilizer for your plants. Win-win.
M, the bee's were supposed to be traditional yellow & black, but my mum knows all about me & my blue banded bees :)
Susan, sluggo, I'll see if there's anything like it round these parts, thanks.
but it has no wings!
S, yes it does, it's just that the wings are the same colour as the mouse!
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