Slugs

Don't talk to me about slugs, they're a blummin' nightmare. tried the beer/cider trap thing but then it becomes a bit of a stomach churner when you come to empty them out. Dozens of little, bloated, white, drowned, pissed, smelly slug bodies. Tried the orange peel halves as well. Doesn't kill them but it means you have to remember to go out every bloody morning to collect up you oranges and dump them in the bin. Pellets, while very effective worry me. Just in case a slug eating predator comes along and finds a load of pllet filled slugs and noshes them all down. That amount of slug poison in a little toad or slow worm belly cant be good. Porridge oats apparently do the job, by swelling up in the slug and rupturing its internal organs. Nice way to go!
Late January early February is the time to wage war on our slimy pests as this is when they become active on mild nights and look for a mate. Get them before they breed, is my philosophy. I feel the same about paedophiles, rapists and drug dealers but thats a topic for my other blog. ( www.myspace.com/bwananyoka )
Natural predators such as the afore mentioned slow worm and toad are probably the most efficient along with the black ground beetles that you find scurrying around under stones.



Two male slow worms found under a rock near the mouth of the Rio Nervion in the Basque country. Thats my wife holding them.












Slow worms are my favourite as they feed almost exclusively on slugs. These harmless legless lizards will spend hours on mild spring and summer nights devouring slimeys. By legless I mean without limb not pissed. These shy reptiles are very widespread and probably occur near you without you even knowing about it. They share a talent, for not being seen, with their fellow reptiles. Piles of logs, stones, wood shavings or chipped bark can provide hiding places for slow worms and toads as well as other beneficial garden predators. Sheets of corrugated metal or fibre board left somewhere quiet in a garden or allotment can give shelter to slow worms. They produce live young in late summer which are almost like gold threads with a thin black vertebral stripe.