Slug Hunting

[rafferty]

I've just been out slug hunting. I use the saxo method.
Find them and pour salt on them unless it's a snail and the I just pick them up and throw them into the field.
I have to do this most nights as the buggers eat my lettuce.
I always feel guilty afterwards. I don't like using slug pellets.
It must be far worse killing something bigger how should I get over the guilt.

is there an analogy here.
:crazy:

 

[Hebegebe]

I think slugs are beautiful animals.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CKPBCXdR6yo

 

[rafferty]

You wouldn't say that if they were eating your lettuce.

 

[Festive_Felicitations]

Analogy -Book of Judges (9:45), Old Testament.

The salt will not do your vegtable patch any good, lettuce has a very low salt tolerance:
http://www.ussl.ars.usda.gov/pls/caliche/SALTT42C & read Hass (1990) if you can find it.

I dont think salt (desiccating) a slug is particularly kinder than slug pellets (poison).
And why should the death of something larger be worse? Surely a life is a life?

 

[Hebegebe]

Oh i duuno maybe we shoukd sacrifoce a bit of sald for an aimal that f ucks like that?

 

[rafferty]

Thanks for tip, I try to get to them before they get on my lettuce.

{Quote}I dont think salt (desiccating) a slug is particularly kinder than slug pellets (poison).
I worry about what might happen to whatever eats the slug.

{And why should the death of something larger be worse?Surely a life is a life?}
It just is, thats why we dont kill humans (or shouldnt)

 

[Hebegebe]

But we do. Our lifestyles depend on it although we separate ourselves from the actual act.

 

[samsonsoup]

I've just been out slug hunting.

You'd not get much of a run on one of those

I'm sure theres something you can put round your veg to stop them eating it, not sure why, but Vaseline springs to mind (must have seen it on a gardening programme).

I shouldn't worry to much about guilt, think of the enjoyment you'll get when your munching on your lettuce.

 

[CARREG]

I cant and wont kill a spider, no reason to, they dont kill anything that I or someone else may be eating or rearing.............Carreg

 

[Birker2020]

full marks for remembering the vaseline.

SLUG DETERRANTS IN ORDER OF EFFECTIVENESS
Natural predators and garden husbandry. Going out at night with a torch and picking them up and putting them in a bucket of salt water is more effective than any amount of slug bait. Birds are particularly good at giving a hand, especially thrushes and ducks. So discourage cats. Encourage hedgehogs and toads.
Physical deterrents – gravel mulches, sand, crushed egg shells, hair soot are all effective to a certain extent. Hostas in pots can have Vaseline or copper or aluminium tape around the rims. Sections of plastic pot or bottles around young plants helps.
Biological control – Nematodes in a spray applied to the ground around are extremely effective for about 6 weeks but are limited by the weather and need time to show results.
Chemicals – Last resort. Slug pellets based on metaldehyde are less toxic too wildlife than methiocarb. Aluminium sulphate based although claimed to be harmless to other species does not seem particularly effective against determined slugs.
Beer or milk in ‘Slug Pubs’ can play their part in diverting a few wayward types but often accidentally catch a lot of the very useful ground beetles.
A bund of Australian kaolinite and opal powder around precious individuals is only effective until it gets very wet.

 

[tinawales]

Kitchen knife and torch gets them everytime without salting the ground or spreading dangerous slug pellets.

 

[combat_claire]

I have to confess I'm a little baffled as to why your lettuce is more deserving of lethal pest control than a field of sheep or a pen of gamebirds. By admitting that you condemn a slug to a painful death in the name of pest control makes you far crueller than those evil foxhunters.

 

[suestowford]

I used to spend hours slugging in the garden but now my neighbours have chickens I just let them do all the hard work. Slugs, snails, they eat the lot.

 

[Springback]

Just imagine the grief if they happened to be cute and furry!

 

[kirstyhen]

Bury a pint of beer in the ground so the rim is level with the ground surface (and open) Slugs can't resist it and fall in - at least they die happy.

 

[rafferty]

Claire please refer to the hound pupies thread and leave foxhunting from this one, you sound like an anti bringing it up at every opportunity.

This is Slug hunting season and a slug hunting thread please keep it that way.

P.s it must make me as cruel not crueller and it's a very quick death.

 

[rafferty]

Bury a pint of beer now that would be cruel !

 

[rafferty]

That was my point in a weird way. I know its a whole new debate, but if foxes looked like giant slugs would there be such an uproar.

Its like finding your one of the last 2 candidates for a job you always wanted and the other is a 6 foot sweedish blonde with a short skirt and shorthand.

 

[alleycat]

Every Saturday night p*ssed yobs throw their beer cans over the fence onto my lawn. These are supposedly empty but always contain that last drop that won't come out of the hole. Later, when I go round snarling, picking up the yobbo crud, these tins are stuffed with drunk, drowned slugs (never found any ground beetles in them); the perfect slug trap. Does rather lower the tone, though; a dozen cans of Carlsberg in your herbacious border.

 

[Bowen4Horses]

I cant and wont kill a spider, no reason to, they dont kill anything that I or someone else may be eating or rearing.............Carreg

i'm rather fond of bluebottle pie... so stamp on every spider i see. :grin:

 

[samsonsoup]

I think Claire does have a point, but enough said on that subject for now!

Might I suggest you end your season early as it's about now that Hedghogs come out of hibernation and love nothing better than a nice juicy slug. Let them do the work for you taking away any feelings of guilt you might harbour. You'd also be helping them out as their in serious decline.

 

[mtj]

Thanks for the suggestion. My pots of hostas are now sporting discreetly hidden nearly empty cans of stella.

working a treat!