The biggest problem I have with them at the moment is them sliming all over the hedgehog food. In summer it was Spanish slugs who, not being native, have no natural predators here. Well, I have seem them eating a fallen compatriot which was both gross and fascinating. One of the hedgehogs would take one look at them in the bowl and walk straight by 🤬 Right now it's the leopard slugs all over it but no one's come out of hibernation yet and the mice aren't fussy.
Before we had chooks I would scatter the non-metaldehyde slug pellets around all susceptible plants on Valentine's Day - easy date to remember and gets the b*stards as they emerge from hibernation and before they have time to munch enough to breed so helps keep the numbers down.
Might have to review that process if I can do it bed by bed with the chooks netted off so they can't get unwanted chemicals.
Vendée - 20kms from Atlantic coast.
"The price good men (and women) pay for indifference to public affairs is to be ruled by evil men (and women)."
How horrible for you @Obelixx. Is there nothing available that can help you at all with the chickens, or is it solely for large enterprises? In a weird coincidence, yesterday, my daughter was telling me that she'd read about someone dying 8 years after swallowing a slug, because of the parasites. Stupid prank of course, so my sympathy is very limited.
Yeh - but slugs are fine. Nothing to see here eh? What exactly does the RHS think will be the perception of this kind of statement, I wonder.
It's a place where beautiful isn't enough of a word....
I live in west central Scotland - not where that photo is...
The New Scientist recognises the slimesters as gardeners' enemies and suggests that fermenting bread dough balls are the best method of attracting them away from treasures. You still have to collect and dispose of the critters but they're easy to entice into one spot.
Nor did I till the vet told me. There are vaccines available but only in quantities for huge commercial flocks so it's going to be constant vigilance from now on.
Can I ask what the disease is called? I never had chickens that ate slugs but that doesn't mean the next lot won't.
I can buy chicks that are vaccinated against many things so maybe whatever your ones got is on that list.
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Might have to review that process if I can do it bed by bed with the chooks netted off so they can't get unwanted chemicals.
In a weird coincidence, yesterday, my daughter was telling me that she'd read about someone dying 8 years after swallowing a slug, because of the parasites. Stupid prank of course, so my sympathy is very limited.
Yeh - but slugs are fine. Nothing to see here eh?
What exactly does the RHS think will be the perception of this kind of statement, I wonder.
I live in west central Scotland - not where that photo is...
@Fire
What about Humans... The biggest pest nature has to contend with.
'The power of accurate observation .... is commonly called cynicism by those that have not got it.
George Bernard Shaw'
https://www.newscientist.com/article/mg25333760-900-rory-mc-donnell-interview-the-slug-hunter-with-a-strange-new-weapon/