I don't have a problem with other people doing what they will with their slugs and snail, and to be fair if people didn't "kill" any pest then we would be in a very sorry state. It is just me personally I find it very hard, if I step on snail by accident and hear the dreaded crunch they I feel bad and do say sorry lol but I don't run home crying.
I don't think you can compare slugs and snails to locusts and mossie`s as although annoying they are not a threat to our lives.
I had my son out with me last nut hunting and I can promise you mike there was no discarded weed, fence panel or pot left unchecked, I do feel mother nature is not helping it is so wet and cold and dull here we need the sun please!
sarah i feel bad when i hear a crunch too... but not so bad i don't try to drown them all in beer!! at least when i hear the crunch i just think a bird will get a tasty snack
I tipped salt onto a slug last night Now I feel awful,he was only doing what slugs do but he curled up and died...I'm too soft I know and am the sort of person to catch a spider or moth and put it outside.And to think I used to be a keen angler,never giving a moment's thought to impaling a worm on a sharp hook and then driving said hook into a fish's mouth.
Each to their own......personally I do not feel that slugs have a "right" to live in my garden and munch the plants I have paid for/sown from seed and nurtured for my pleasure. I don't enjoy killing any creature but I do find it satisfying to stop the molluscs in their tracks. The same with ants and aphids. There's plenty of forest and other places where I live where they could go and munch happily. If they choose to venture into my garden then they risk the beer trap or my salt-water jar. It's up to them.
er.... they couldn't actually go there, and they certainy can't choose to venture anywhere as we understand choice. They are indeed doing what comes naturally and behaving according to fixed action patterns and possibly instinct. I agree that they don't have rights: if we start according 'animal rights' to slugs we're on a slimy slope. Mammals, possibly.
The thing is, a garden's not a natural place - we plant plants that don't belong there, we remove those that do and we try and control animals that interfere. Natural is great. Gardens are great too, but they ain't the same thing!
Apart from eating our plants some slugs and snails carry lungworm which can infect dogs if they eat them. A dog near me died a few years ago before he was diagnosed.
I don't think slugs have the "right" to be in our gardens, any more than house mice or rats had a right to live in our houses, just because they can. Pests are pests and need to be dealt with as such.
I have been thinking all morning about my slug/snail problem. The thought off having to go out every night hunting these blighters down does not fill me with joy. I think steve 309 you have hit on something there with your comment about gardens not being natural. So, seeing as my garden is "new" as such I am going to re-think my whole planting scheme and plant cottage plants that the little darlings don't eat. If you cant beat em join em!
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I don't have a problem with other people doing what they will with their slugs and snail, and to be fair if people didn't "kill" any pest then we would be in a very sorry state. It is just me personally I find it very hard, if I step on snail by accident and hear the dreaded crunch they I feel bad and do say sorry lol but I don't run home crying.
I don't think you can compare slugs and snails to locusts and mossie`s as although annoying they are not a threat to our lives.
I had my son out with me last nut hunting and I can promise you mike there was no discarded weed, fence panel or pot left unchecked, I do feel mother nature is not helping it is so wet and cold and dull here we need the sun please!
I agree Sunnysarah we need some sun.
sarah i feel bad when i hear a crunch too... but not so bad i don't try to drown them all in beer!! at least when i hear the crunch i just think a bird will get a tasty snack
I tipped salt onto a slug last night
Now I feel awful,he was only doing what slugs do but he curled up and died...I'm too soft I know and am the sort of person to catch a spider or moth and put it outside.And to think I used to be a keen angler,never giving a moment's thought to impaling a worm on a sharp hook and then driving said hook into a fish's mouth.
Each to their own......personally I do not feel that slugs have a "right" to live in my garden and munch the plants I have paid for/sown from seed and nurtured for my pleasure. I don't enjoy killing any creature but I do find it satisfying to stop the molluscs in their tracks. The same with ants and aphids. There's plenty of forest and other places where I live where they could go and munch happily. If they choose to venture into my garden then they risk the beer trap or my salt-water jar. It's up to them.
er.... they couldn't actually go there, and they certainy can't choose to venture anywhere as we understand choice. They are indeed doing what comes naturally and behaving according to fixed action patterns and possibly instinct. I agree that they don't have rights: if we start according 'animal rights' to slugs we're on a slimy slope. Mammals, possibly.
The thing is, a garden's not a natural place - we plant plants that don't belong there, we remove those that do and we try and control animals that interfere. Natural is great. Gardens are great too, but they ain't the same thing!
To everything there is a purpose, what is the purpose of slugs and snails.
I go around with a stanley knife and cut then up, at least that way they get dug back into the soil and enrich the ground. They then have a purpose.
Apart from eating our plants some slugs and snails carry lungworm which can infect dogs if they eat them. A dog near me died a few years ago before he was diagnosed.
I don't think slugs have the "right" to be in our gardens, any more than house mice or rats had a right to live in our houses, just because they can. Pests are pests and need to be dealt with as such.
I have been thinking all morning about my slug/snail problem. The thought off having to go out every night hunting these blighters down does not fill me with joy. I think steve 309 you have hit on something there with your comment about gardens not being natural. So, seeing as my garden is "new" as such I am going to re-think my whole planting scheme and plant cottage plants that the little darlings don't eat. If you cant beat em join em!