Kitchen Garden Forum

https://www.theguardian.com/environment ... s-as-pests

I'll post this and leave you all to comment while I am away for a few days. (OK, the hotel will have WiFi but my roaming will be switched off).

I hope the weather is nice.

A weed is a plant out of place.

A wolf that kills sheep is a fine wild animal out of place.

A slug that eats my seedlings and lettuce is it would seem a planet friendly mollusc out of place.

I think I'll continue to save my produce before I save the planet.

So there are 44 species of slug things, but only 9 are the naughty ones. Personally I think the 35 species remaining should protest loudly & think about moving to my plot to overwhelm the bad guys. Actually I don't have too many problems as I find Grazers does help a lot with deterring them & just crop protection when plants are diddy.

I can cope with the odd nibbled leaf as wash everything well as who knows what the neighbours use & I don't actually squish them either as too gross, so they go on a long & high holiday over the hedge row.

Maybe we should post all the naughty ones to the RHS and let them look after them.

I'll forgive the odd one but personally I can't see the point of their existence. Can anybody actually point to any benefit they bring to the planet, apart from being a tasty morsel for ducks?

As Shallot Man suggested I have this morning posted my first batch of molluscs to the RHS. I’m not an expert on separating them so I have probably sent them friendly and naughty ones. Because I am not familiar with the various species I used one of those divided storage boxes to separate the different types. I’m aware that some of them are carnivores and eat the other types so I was afraid they might receive just one large slug, like the Benny Hill vulture if you remember that sketch. With their notorious reputation for finding their way home I painted bar codes on the snail shells to see if it is true. I also enclosed a few lettuce seeds and a small donation towards their upkeep. I trust they will have a long, comfortable and happy retirement.

Geoff - have we just been April Fooled? My brain is not yet on full alert this time of the morning ??