Published on 12, July, 2020
I’m at war.
I’ve been doing some gardening. My mental health team suggested it last year because, and I quote, “it’s a no stress hobby that will get you outside in the fresh air and it’ll be good for me”. They were right about the fresh air, that can’t be denied. And I was feeling better with no stress until-they came. I am of course referring to the biggest pest in anyone’s garden: snails and slugs!
Crime scene photo #6.
Seemingly overnight snails and slugs have ransacked my garden and are terrorising my flowers and strawberries. I attempted to garden last year, wanted to grow some strawberries as they’re my fav to eat and they’re also healthy. I follow this guide sheet on healthy eating as I’ve got IBS and certain foods, generally the unhealthy ones-set off digestive upset for me.
So I’m trying to do healthy eating to better manage and prevent these issues.
But even with the healthy fresh summer air the stress is mounting up! Despite my best efforts these slugs have launched a devastating attack. Strawberries are at risk, some have been eaten whole or mutilated in severe cowardly attacks. These cowardice slugs dare not strike during the day-they only come out at night when I’m asleep, too afraid to face me honourably during the day.
Don't let this cuteness fool you!
Lol! Ok it's not quite that bad but seriously is there any advice on how to best deal with these little slugs? I don’t want to get any poison pellets as I live on a mountain in a rural area and the birds might eat them, I also despite myself don’t like the idea of hurting the slugs. But I also do get extremely stressed when my strawberries are looking nearly ready for picking and then a day later they’ve been devoured. All my hard work wasted.
It’s annoying but I do like the challenge lol-although it’s embarrassing that I’m being outwitted by a slug! Any thoughts, ideas, suggestions on how to deal with these garden pests are more than welcome...
Hey there!Assuming you are comfortable handling the snails/slugs, as a short-term defensive strategy against the snail's offensive, have you considered relocation? This might sound silly, but I occasionally help my parents move snails and slugs out of the garden and elsewhere. We live in the countryside, so spending a few minutes every day collecting all visible slugs and snails before relocating them seems to help, at least according to my parents who are pretty avid gardeners. This almost certainly isn't a long-term solution as you aren't doing anything to reduce the population. I'm also sure that any enemy troops that are moved can, albeit slowly, make their way back to the frontlines. However, if performed daily maybe moving snails away from the combat area could maybe reduce the severity of the attacks (Emphasis on the maybe). The added benefit of this strategy is that it does not result in any causalities!
In the long term, it sounds like you may need some allies in your fight against the snails! I wonder if there is a way to make your garden attractive to the Song Thrush? I've witnessed those birds take down many a snail foe. I'll save the details as whilst the Thrush is effective at combating snails on the battlefield, its methods are particularly violent. Whilst this approach would result in snail casualties, it would hopefully control the local population!
Thank you so much for your reply-I do appreciate you taking out the time to respond to my thread. I'm happy too confirm though that the war is WON!!! A very kind member Uhane suggested I use Vaseline-so I got some yesterday and applied it around where it was needed and this morning....
2 strawberries, still alive, growing and thriving!!! Yippee!! If all continues to go well-I should hopefully get to eat these strawberries once they're ready for the picking. I do feel bad for the slugs-they can't help being hungry but my strawberries aren't free for the taking lol.
This is great news! U! S! A!!! U! S! A!!! (I'm not from the USA, but this seems to be type of thing people say when they've won a war! )
Lmao!!! U!S!A! I suppose in my country it should be U! K! U! K! But somehow that just doesn't sound as good.
*does little victory dance*.
Cake for all...