Monday, August 5, 2013

Pests Are the Best ;)

No, they are NOT.

Garden stuff again, sorry folks.  And beware: icky pictures to follow.

The other night, I was outside puttering around the garden when I came across this fellow:


That is a leopard slug, one that is over three times longer that a twoonie.  Dear lord.  I let him be, but the next day I started noticing this sort of thing:


That's the celery I planted a while back.


Those are leaves from one of our giant hostas.

So my friend T suggested digging little holes in the ground and placing containers in them, and then filling them with beer.




BF didn't like the sounds of sharing his beer with the Slug Monsters, so we went out and got some cheap, icky stuff.

The results were rather terrifying.  The next day we went out and checked.  We had caught a few slugs, but we'd also caught earwigs, earthworms, flies, moths, ants, and other random creepy crawlers - it was bug soup!  I didn't take pictures of that, and even if I had, I likely wouldn't have posted them for fear of making everyone barf.

Who knew backyard bugs were such lushes!?

As for the plants, my poor celery is completely dead now.  And we had to do this to the hosta:


It was so holey it looked like a lace hosta.  It's ok though, because it seems to be rebounding well:


Luckily we have some help with the smaller creepies:


There are quite a few spiders back there, constantly and frantically weaving webs.  At first they grossed me out too, but then I saw how successful they are at keeping flies at bay, so I've left them to do their thing.

I will have to do some more research on bug control, preferably natural methods.  Any good tips out there for slugs and things?

Till next time!


2 comments:

  1. We too have the giant slugs! They are such a pain!
    I tried the beer, and slightly soapy water, etc etc. I have given up for the second year in a row. If you find anything that works, you'll have to let me know!

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  2. The only thing I've found so far is that the more bonfires you have in the backyard, the more they stay hidden, haha!

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