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May 28th, 2006

Further Bank Holiday gardening reflections

Here in the UK it is the Bank Holiday, which means all of a sudden all the Cartoon Blog readers who normally tune in for hastily drawn cartoons, weighty analysis on the latest Anglican goings-on and in-depth reflections on campervanning and bicycling suddenly have an urge to know what I have been doing in the garden. Which is lucky, because that is what I am going to blog about.

Since we last talked about the garden I have been trying out various anti-slug remedies and assessing their effectiveness. Here are the results of my findings:

Copper coins: Rubbish. The slugs just walk over them.
Eggshell: Useless. The slugs just stride straight past.
Small traps filled with cheap beer. Semi-effective. But although they catch a lot of slugs there are still more slugs that they didn’t catch. I also now have a lot of Tesco value 2% lager hanging around the place. It tastes like bad shandy. Any takers?
Slug pellets. These were the ones that are harmless to animals and pets. I think they may be harmless to slugs too. One snail did get caught.
Stamping on them. Effective if you can devote your life to watching your plants on a 24 hour-a-day basis.

The latest plan is to put the few surviving plants on a plastic table. The top of the legs of the table have been coated in WD40 household oil, thereby meaning that any slugs who climb up get to a certain level and then fall to their deaths from a great height. I shall report back. Any slugs who want these plants are going to have to resort to James Bond-like antics. Which they probably will.

In other gardening news: Do giant thistles have no predators?

Enjoy your Bank Holiday if you have one. Garden well my friends.

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6 Responses to “Further Bank Holiday gardening reflections”


  1. Chris says:

    I also now have a lot of Tesco value 2% lager hanging around the place. It tastes like bad shandy.

    There’s your problem. The slugs have decent taste in alcoholic beverages. Have you tried Duvel Belgian beer, or perhaps a glass of 1998 Chateau Bousignac Merlot?

    May 29th, 2006 at 12:20 am
  2. Ian Poulton says:

    Have you tried dialogue with them?

    Perhaps if they felt someone was listening to them they would cause less damage.

    If a talks process failed, you might resort to exorcism ;-)

    May 29th, 2006 at 1:45 pm
  3. Kathryn says:

    Don’t be persuaded to buy anti slug matting…it apparently DOES work if there is no rain,but in the current conditions they simply glide cheerfully over it, to devour whatever lies in their path. I bought some dill on Monday and by Tuesday bedtime only a bare stalk remained…grrrrrr.
    Raining again here, though, so I won’t let it worry me! Happy Bank Holiday ;-)

    May 29th, 2006 at 2:17 pm
  4. Nefertiki says:

    I used to assassinate slugs and snails by sprinkling ordinary table salt on them – just a bit does the trick. Then someone said to me, “Do you know how much pain that causes them?” Well, no. You’d never even pull a weed again if you worried about that.

    By the way, I’m enjoying a sort of bank holiday too here in the Hudson Valley — Memorial Day. The banks are having a holiday. There was even a parade, with vets, high school marching band etc, lasting about 5 minutes. Just the right length of time. I hope you are all enjoying your holiday.

    May 29th, 2006 at 6:14 pm
  5. Jen says:

    My Dad cuts them up with his pen knife. Cruel I know (and gruesome to watch!), but its a quick death and it means we get a good crop of plants. Although, like the stamping on them method, its effective but only if you keep watch on your garden 24 hours a day.

    May 29th, 2006 at 10:24 pm
  6. Rob says:

    Ah, Memorial Day! As a Brit re-acclimatising (or re-acclimating) to the UK after two years I was struck by Nefertiki’s description of the parade and the fact that there were vets taking part. Back in Blighty vets are not veterans but veterinarians, and they only take part in parades so they can treat (or humanely shoot) the horses that go lame. They might have one or two useful ideas about slug disposal, though.

    May 30th, 2006 at 1:36 pm