Absolutely @GardenerSuze...reading others thoughts can sometimes lead to a rethink by others. As long as we are all prepared to accept our different points of view, no problem
Opinions are certainly worthy of respect but it isn't acceptable to state an opinion as a fact unless it IS a fact, especially if you then throw in some very offensive accusations, also unsupported by evidence.
I have never killed any creature 'without a thought' but I have removed thousands of slugs. Protecting crops or ornamental plants does not have to mean harming wildlife or the environment and it is my opinion that careless generalisations like that do one little credit.
@GardenerSuze So what would you suggest with Spanish slugs? I get a stupid amount of them, far more than native ones. Not being native they have no natural predators here. The only thing I've ever seen eat a Spanish slug, is another Spanish slug. What makes me angry is less the plants (although I'm not wild about that) and more the fact that they slime all over the hedgehog food I put out and then two of my three hedgehogs won't touch it. It's heartbreaking to watch the video footage the next day to see them take one look at the writhing mass of slugs and walk off. The only way I got round it was to go out once it got dark to find the slimy b******s before they got to the hedgehog bowl.
There's no way I'm ever going to chose an invasive species that can lay 500 eggs over one that's vulnerable to extinction.
@Plantminded my slugs demolish foxgloves. I grew some in tall pots last year as I love the plants and wanted to keep them off the ground. This year I am trying some penstemon in the ground to see if they last. The slug experience in every garden will be different. What is not touched on one might well be munched in another.
Over my ten years of trying, the slug hard core untouched plants I see are geraniums, linaria, woodruff, bushy salvia and roses. There are plants I have so much of that I can lose half and still have enough - like forgetmenots, common valerian, hawkbit, borage and ox eyes. I seem to notice that the wilder the flower the less interested the slug (I could be wrong). Possibly wild non-cultivars have tougher cells. Or maybe there is just a profusion so I don't notice the losses as much.
I tried a lot of bare root sweet williams and wall flowers last autumn and am sad to have lost most to munching. A real waste of money and time. Most of my bulb flowers get eaten - daffs, crocus and snowdrops - so not much point to those here.
To be strictly fair, they got out of hand in my garden before I understood what was going on. There were so many that I think they had to eat everything they could find. I think they'd have had the dog if she hadn't kept moving.
But that's how they operate. They breed until there's not enough food and some die off - or move into the neighbours' gardens. They really are a menace.
I think also that those of us who are lucky enough ( at the moment anyway ) not to be faced with the likes of the Spanish slug cannot conceive the problems they cause others. As various non natives ( plant or animal ) start to appear and take advantage, we have to adopt ever more innovative solutions. A long hard slog in many cases. Glad your dog kept on the move @Posy
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I have never killed any creature 'without a thought' but I have removed thousands of slugs. Protecting crops or ornamental plants does not have to mean harming wildlife or the environment and it is my opinion that careless generalisations like that do one little credit.
There's no way I'm ever going to chose an invasive species that can lay 500 eggs over one that's vulnerable to extinction.
But that's how they operate. They breed until there's not enough food and some die off - or move into the neighbours' gardens. They really are a menace.
Glad your dog kept on the move @Posy