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Mercy?

B3B3 Posts: 27,505
in The potting shed
You can decide whether it's stupidity or redemption.
Do you have any stories?
 Here are mine:
I put salt on a big slug and watched it writhe. I poured water on it to save it and I never used salt again. Scissors are kinder.
I poured water on an ants' nest and watched them trying to save the babies. I provided a lolly stick as a bridge over troubled waters.
I still kill stuff. But I try to be kinder. 
Hypocrite?
In London. Keen but lazy.
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Posts

  • TheGreenManTheGreenMan Posts: 1,957
    No. You're torn between wanting to save your plants (the investment of time, energy, money, anticipation, joy, pleasure) and not wanting to harm the things that are doing the damage. 

    I've been there. In fact I'm there most nights scissors poised. 

    I love creatures but I don't love them so much when they destroy the things I'm trying to nurture. 

    In my little patch, I will defend my plants. 

    I will feel always feel guilty but I know that's a good thing. That stops me from roaming the rest of the yards and snipping all of the slugs in half and squishing all of the weevils. 

    When I start to enjoy it and feel no guilt; that's when I need to worry. 

    I saw a man drive over a duck outside my house at the beginning of lockdown. He just stopped and looked at it and drove off. 

    I still have horrible flashbacks about it. 

    That's twisted. 

    Snipping slugs? 

    Not so much. 


  • DovefromaboveDovefromabove Posts: 88,147
    edited August 2020
    Really?!  personal attacks in the middle of the night ☹️  

    We appoint deputies to do our dirty work for us 😂 we seem to have managed to achieve a pretty good balance and leave the big slugs to eat the small slugs.  We find lots of empty snail shells so something must be eating them too.
     If I do snip or squelch it happens very rarely ... perhaps once or twice a year at the most. 
    Most of our hostas are in pots on the terrace near the hedgehog feeding station and they get very little if any mollusc damage ... the only hostas that get real damage are up in an area where I’m pretty sure the hedgehogs don’t go ... 
    so there’s no need for me to feel guilty ...  I’m providing snacks for hedgehogs m’lud 😇 

    Gardening in Central Norfolk on improved gritty moraine over chalk ... free-draining.





  • B3B3 Posts: 27,505
    I happily snip. I don't like to watch them squirming in salt.
    In London. Keen but lazy.
  • Butterfly66Butterfly66 Posts: 970
    The only insects I kill are lily beetles and this year felt guilty about that - mainly because they are to the only ones I do. So decided I would just squish the eggs instead luckily we don’t seem to get many, we used to get loads when we lived in the south-east
     If you have a garden and a library, you have everything you need.”—Marcus Tullius Cicero
    East facing, top of a hill clay-loam, cultivated for centuries (7 years by me). Birmingham
  • steveTusteveTu Posts: 3,219
    I had no idea about bugs and saw a stunning red lily beetle on some lilies my wife had as a memento of her mum, so I hoped I'd see more  - the plant was eaten to pieces by it's foul grubs. Lovely beetle, vile kids.....

    UK - South Coast Retirement Campus (East)
  • Butterfly66Butterfly66 Posts: 970
    @steveTu they really are the most gorgeous red aren’t they. Of course that makes them so easy to spot if you do want to hunt them. The kids look like bird droppings, quite revolting to look at and squish 😝
     If you have a garden and a library, you have everything you need.”—Marcus Tullius Cicero
    East facing, top of a hill clay-loam, cultivated for centuries (7 years by me). Birmingham
  • punkdocpunkdoc Posts: 15,039
    @Treeface, it seems you are the only one displaying passive/aggressive behaviour round here.
    What have you got against people on here?
    How can you lie there and think of England
    When you don't even know who's in the team

    S.Yorkshire/Derbyshire border
  • PhaidraPhaidra Posts: 582
    For similar reasons to yours, B, I don't spray anything in my garden, so I have plenty of organic maggots and lacy hostas.  There are plenty of birds and insects in the garden but the pests thrive regardless. 
    My neighbour tells me that they stomp on slugs and snails because they think death is then instantaneous.  It kind of makes sense but...
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