Slimly slugs

[oldherbaceous]

Up the posher end of the village where i live, we are getting plagued by slugs.
They are not your common type slug, these are whopping great big things, they are about six to eight inches long, light brown in colour and have an orange skirt.
They first started appearing about four years ago, in small numbers, but now there are hundreds of the slimy things.
Some people over the allotments are putting large numbers of slug pellets down, which seem to be getting cleared with only a few fatalities.
I stamp on them, in the mornings i normally get about a dozen.
I was wondering if anyone knows the correct name for them, i know this won't help to get rid of them but i can impress my freinds over the allotments if i know there right name.
Has anyone else got these big ones this year by the way.

Kind regards Old Herbaceous.

Theres no fool like an old fool.

[Zena]

Yep, we've had them over here too, Herby, so they're obviously not too choosy!

Don't know what they're called though....

[Chantal]

Go and have a look on a website that Peter turned up some time back. I can't get past the first paragraph; I HATE slugs.

http://www.nomoreslugs.com/about/species.php

[Jenny Green]

I think these are nice ones that only eat already rotting vegetation. I sometimes get them in my compost but nowhere else.
Is is especially damp in the posh end of the village?

[oldherbaceous]

Dear Chantal you have come up with the goods again, it appears that they are black slugs Arion Ater.
Apparently they come in many colous.
Dear Zena maybe these slugs are more common than i thought.

Kind regards Old Herbaceous.

Theres no fool like an old fool.

[Weed]

I can let you have a few...no charge

[oldherbaceous]

Dear Jenny the ones i've got are not nice, they eat anything and everything, one i trod on this morning was full of tomato seeds.
I don't think it's any damper up our posh end, but it might be better quality rain.
Weed my dear fellow are yours posh ones or common ones.

Kind regards Old Herbaceous.

Theres no fool like an old fool.

[Weed]

Definately upper crust OH....you can tell ...when they eat they have their little fingers sticking up

I went to tread on a small one today and it demanded political asylum and asked the way to the nearest free communial compost heap

[jopsy]

ah weed you have a great imagination
oh we have those slugs too mind you its very upper class where we live-trust me to lower the tone!
i chuck them into next door! thats my answer to everything-they leave a horrid snot like presence on your fingers tho!

[Zena]

UUGGHHH!!

Snot from Jopsy and the image, from OH, of a squashed slug full of tomato seeds!
I'm going to have nightmares tonight....

[oldherbaceous]

Sorry Zena, the last thing i would want you to have are night mares, just sweet dreams.

Kind regards Old Herbaceous.

Theres no fool like an old fool.

[vivie veg]

I have vague memories that there are (were) two different types if chemicals used in Slug pellets, one the slug were becoming resistant to, and needed huge doses to kill them. so a small sprinkling may give them a bad tuimmy for a few days but they would recover. However I have not used slug pellets for about 20 years now, so the chemicals and slug resistant has probably changed.

My mother used to have the big posh type that OH is having problem with. She used to feed her cats outside (to stop them dropping bits on her carpets) but this used to attract one slug in particular that grew to about 9 inches long and impossible to squash, even my father with his pit boots on! It did eventually get it's comeupance, after managing to get between the sliding patio doors when they were open, as the door would not close, one panel had to be lifted out and the slug was dowst in salt (not a pretty sight)

My mum habit of feeding the cats outside also attracted an hedgehog, it did not eat the slug, just pushed it to the side. The hedgehog lived longer than the cats and so mum kept putting food out for the Hedgehog. Eventually the Hedgehog got so old it developed cateracts and stopped coming one winter...hankies out

Now my slugs get thrown over the back workshop into wilderness area if I'm at the house, or get thrown to the ducks if I find them at the field in an area where the ducks have not been yet!

[jopsy]

sorry zena
vivie thats a lovely hodgeheg story

[oldherbaceous]

Dear Vivie Veg, you have given me an idea, i wonder if i could sell these big slugs as posh door stops.

Kind regards Old Herbaceous.

Theres no fool like an old fool.

[jopsy]

ewwwwww yukkk
thats just soo gross