SLUG ATTACK!

First things first, a video:

This slug thought he could make improvements to our garden with his voracious appetite.  I found him while I was moving the smallest maple pot, and boy was he a surprise!  Most have been 1-1.5 inches long, and I have never seen a slug so big unless it was a banana slug in Santa Cruz... jeez, I couldn't help but think it was sentient.  This slug was possibly the original inspiration for this YouTube video.  I couldn't handle the thought of squishing the 4-inch beast, so I tossed him over the fence into more fertile grounds.  So long, Monster Slug, I hope you find whatever you're looking for in someone else's garden. 

I was trying to take a photo of him next to the measurements on the trowel for proof, but he was moving so fast that all the pictures were blurry... a video is more interesting anyway.

 Monster Slug is too cool for photography crispness!

It's a shame that I had to get rid of it... it's just the kind of crazy animal I would have kept as a pet if we weren't mortal enemies.  Spots like that are too beautiful to ignore.

Happy Mother's Day!

After reading of my slug issues, my mother sent me this video she found on youtube.  It's hilarious, and is exactly what happens in my backyard when the sun goes down!  Thanks Mom, you always manage to bring joy to my day!

(I did not make this video, they are the slugs of Flushed Away)

Wordless Wednesday: Living in a Sluggish Paradise

"Wordless Wednesday" is a popular internet blogging meme where you just post a photo you've taken... I'm going to give it a try.  If it doesn't work out, maybe I'll have Mumbled Monday or Photo Phriday or Sentenceless Saturday instead. Hmmmm.

(click photo to enlarge)

The Pests Come Out At Night

By night, my backyard is the epitome of a gardener's nightmare... earwigs covering all available surfaces of the withering and helpless zucchini seedlings... silvery slug trails as thick as chainmail are draped over the earth's chest.  It may be a pest's paradise out there for now, but plants are one of my greatest loves, and stubbornness is perhaps my greatest fault... I WILL be victorious.

 Taking a good picture of the mesh-like network of slug trails is difficult... but here you can still see lots of slime sparkles!

And so, I need a new plan for the bugs.  After that midnight foray into the garden with a flashlight, I am shocked to see exactly what my seedlings are up against, and not so surprised that any new nasturtium/pea seedlings in the ground disappear in a day or two (seedlings in pots seem to do fine). As an emergency action tonight I'm setting up barriers by cutting the bottoms out of plastic cups and then pressing them into the soil around each seedling.

I'll also try my grandpa's newspaper method... you lightly roll up newspaper into a long log and then put a rubber band around the middle, wet it and set it outside at dark... by morning earwigs will have crawled inside to hide for the day, and you can just throw the newspaper in the trash.

The beer trap is doing fantastic, there is about a centimeter's thickness of insect bodies at the bottom, primarily pincher bugs.  It seems that the longer I leave it there, the more enticing it becomes to the bugs, so I'll leave it a bit longer.  It is, um, a little too gross to photograph.

Chewing Holes

Yes, I keep changing the title picture (which is a photo of last year's Empress of India nasturtiums after a rain, by the way)... I figured it is best if the text reflects the state of my garden, and the state of my garden is currently bug-munched.  Something small is chewing tiny holes in the pea seedlings and in just 2 nights something larger is impressively crippling the zucchini sprouts.

Ack!!  The horror!

Om nom nom!

And so, I pour a libation to the garden gods, right into a homemade slug trap.  The bugs get to drink Sam Adams, 'cause I wasn't about to sacrifice the Guinness!  I'm interested to see if this actually works. 

Drink up!