Grow Your Own Magazine

Hello

Am I finally a real gardener??? I have just been out rummaging around my vegetable beds with a torch looking for the little sods who have been eating all of my lettuce, beetroot leaves, courgette leaves etc... anyway, I was picking up any slugs and putting them into a pot to relocate them over to the big field of weeds we have. I sort of squashed one and I think it split in too, so I scooped both ends up and put them in the pot.... and they BOTH put out their little feeler things and started crawling up the pot!!! Is that possible?

I wasn't so surprised that both ends moved as I know worms can do that, but I was surprised that both ends had those little feeler things.

Are they the same as worms, can each big carry on???

You definitely have a mutant because they normally have two eye stalks. As I remember from my invertebrate biology lectures, they do not regenerate... More evidence for a mutant

I wonder if 'it' was a breeding pair and you split them up in the throws of ecstasy- no wonder they were in a hurry to clamber back out of the pot!!

I've never known them to regenerate, but these days I guess you never know. But I think maybe Nicos is right, poor little things didn't get the night of passion they thought they were going to have.

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Piper

Your future lays before you,
Like a sheet of driven snow.
Be careful how you tread it,
As every step will show

oh no!!!! I feel bad enough when I move them, i worry about how they feel being separated from their family and whether they will be OK in their new location... so to think that I stopped them doing what comes naturally makes me feel even worse!!! mind you, I did relocate them together so hopefully they were able to carry on where they left off. I think I had better toughen up a bit though, I have to keep reminding myself it is them of my veggies that I have lovingly grown.

thanks for your thoughts.

Um, I collected all the slugs off my plot and fed them to the chickens... no guilt here (well, not much!)

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"Its not who you are underneath, it's what you do that defines you" - Bruce Wayne

Mine go for a little flight! They get thrown over the back wall into the field behind ~ that's assuming the pellets haven't killed them first!

No guilt here, especially everytime I gaze sadly at my 'lacy' leaves

They definitely don't regenerate if you put salt on them, they turn into slug crisps! Sorry, I hate slugs and snails and woodlice, they've had more of my crops than I have this year, and the snails are even climbing the beanpoles.

I don't think they can regenerate like worms can so Nicos is probably right lol, yucky eh.
we often get slugs and snails crawling up the walls indoors because they can come in under the door, I usually put them back out when I find them, the dogs have eaten a fair few of them though, eww. they are kinda cute in their own way with their little eyes on top of their stalks lol.
does anyone know why the shrivel up if they get salt on them? *shrug*

They don't regenerate when I have finished with them. Their guts being all over the floor sees to that.

Slugs dehydrate through osmosis when applied with salt. not a pleasant way to go. I learn't about it at school.

"The slug turns into "ooze" because a "diffusional gradient" (concentration
difference) exsists between the liquid inside the slug and the salt
outside of the slug. In most natural processes when a diffusional
gradient is present, the solution seeks a state of equilibrium, meaning
that the concentrations on the inside and the outside should be the same.
The concentration of salt inside the slug is much less than the
concentration of the pure salt on the outside of the slug. The cell
membranes of the slug are designed to keep the nutrients and minerals
inside but can pass water through the membranes. So the water inside of
the slug passes through the cell membranes of the slug and tries to dilute
the salt concentration on the outside of the slug. The movement of the
water from the inside of the slug to the outside dehydrates the slug and
the dehydration turns the slug into ooze".

An article on slugs.......

http://www.bbc.co.uk/dna/h2g2/A2876862

Beautifully put, Poozie.

Slugs and bugs can be removed with a clay called diatomeceous earth. The clay is natural and has small silica glass fragments from fossil diatoms. The slugs and bugs crawl over it and the silica glass cuts them and drys them out. Harmless to humans and natural. Soldierfire

Wow scientific, organic and satisfyingly gruesome! -but I suppose I'd need a truckload for 500 sq yds of allotments?

Get a grip Willowstar! FAMILY!! And all chowing down on your veggies at the wedding breakfast!!

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Paul

I know Paul, pathetic isn't it, but they are sort of cute with their little eyes on stalks. I am a vegetarian and hate to kill anything living, simple as that, hence my quandry.

They don't care too much for a size 9 Doc Martin either.

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I cook with wine, sometimes I even add it to the food.
W. C. Fields

same here lol, I too think their little stalks are cute I can't even bring myself to kill the massive beetles that run across my bedroom floor sometimes (they come in under the door) I put one outside the other night lol.

When the slug pellets don't kill em', I crush them with a stone to make sure they're well and truly dead.

I don't mind so much when slugs are nibbling away well established vegetables that you're already harvesting in plentiful amount, it's when they attack young seedlings that you desperately need for them to grow bigger and stronger that is stressful and very annoying. So sorry no guilt here.

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Food for Free

The diatomeceous earth can be dusted near your vegetables and walk ways and need not be applied any where you do not want to affect the insects. It is not expensive. I dont like to kill anything without a reason. Salad to me is reason enough.

I don't know if the ones from my yard regenerate or not as I have perfected the art of throwing them so far they hit the wall of the disused auction rooms next door but one. I suppose there could be a little colony there......

I don't think there is any point in relocating them - by lobbing them over the back wall or otherwise. I heard of someone doing an experiment a few years back. They marked each snail shell with a dab of tippex before lobbing them over a wall. Some snails had numerous spots of tippex on them before more drastic action was taken!

Unless of course, you intend to take them for a several mile drive in the car.....

I understand your reluctance as I used to be like that but once my garden had been laid waste a few times, a state of war was declared.
Jools

even as a beginner i am proud to say i have no problems at all with slugs in the garden [except in compost bin which i have learned is ok]-- oh no, i have them in the front room and dining room! we have virtually ripped the place apart trying to find where they come in- normally all you see is trails but there are occasions when up and about at night that you see them, or worse still plant a bare tootsie on one. i have researched the problem and nobody can give me a permanent answer- tapes and pellets etc have not touched them. any more indoor slug treatments would be most welcome!!

Being vegetarian has no relevance to killing slugs...unless you eat them of course.
I'm a vegetarian, and the way I see it, they're eating my dinner. So off they go - snipped in half, salted or thrown to the chooks.

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