Erm... bit of a strange one...
Planted up the allotment yesterday. First year of giving it a go seriously... call it male nesting... lots of broad beans and lettuces (from large plugs), onions from sets, tatties from chitted ones we couldn't get through in time.
My experienced friends (who helped) advised I should come and regularly kill the slugs so the lettuces stand a chance. Thing is, I just can't kill stuff... Might consider beer-trap drowning, I dunno... and I don't really want to use the slug bait as it's an extra chemical I guess we can do without in our soil / bodies...
What's your take on this ? Has anyone faced similar (moral ?) dilemas ? Or is it a 'them or me' survival thing ?
I'm also posting because I've discovered more newts in my little pond (including Greast Crested which are reasonably rare) and I thought it would be good for them to get some extra food - like a nice juicy worm, so I dug one up and tossed it in... but I just couldn't watch it swim / drown and had to take it out after 30 seconds and put it back in the soil...
Can anyone relate or am I just being soft ?
It's not my life to take away, IYSWIM...
(Interesting discussion on termination could be relevant in a way I suppose too)...
I've done some boiled lettuce ice cubes for the tadpoles / newts and I guess they can just eat that, or crawl onto land and hunt for their own stuff... and am considering taking slugs from the lettuce patch and ploking them in the pond for the newts, but it's just all a bit nasty...
This 'problem' extends to other areas... I'll be putting up a bird table soon, and during nesting time it's useful for the birdies to have some fresh maggots etc. and you can buy them by the tin... but again, I just don't think I could do it...
BTW - I have no issue with the birds eating the worms they find themselves... it's not the predatory cycle of nature that bothers me, just the death-by-human-intervention bit.
Perhaps I'm just too soppy, but would be interested in a general discussion around these issues. FWIW, yes, I'm veggie. Yes I eat eggs, yes I wear leather shoes. Maybe this thread belongs in 'Religion / Spirituality' ?
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Killing animals in the garden
69 replies
hub2dee · 13/04/2005 18:05
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