To feel sorry for the slugs?

[GreenSlide]

I'm a member of a few gardening pages, one of which makes a point of not allowing comments about killing insects or other creatures, but people still do it. There are awful comments from people who drown slugs in beer, use slug pellets, I've even seen people saying they go out at night to hunt them and cut them in half with scissors

It's not that I'm a fan of slugs, I get how annoying it is to lose plants to them (they ate my dahlias last year and a whole crop of kohl rabi) but there are other ways to deter them that aren't cruel. The main one being just don't grow things that slugs like to eat.

I know there are bigger issues in the world right now, and I do have plenty of other things to worry about! But AIBU to also care about the slugs?

The utter irony of suggesting it is wrong to kill slugs and in the same post recommending buying car food. Which is made of... dead animals?!? Have you ever seen inside a factory farm or a badly run slaughterhouse (of which there are many)?

Read my post again.

I didn’t say it was wrong to kill slugs (although I don’t like the manner in which some on this thread choose to do it).

I said don’t bother doing it under some misguided effort to help hedgehogs who can and do come to active harm when eating slugs.

I then recommended what to do if you actually wanted to help hedgehogs. Which is to feed a high protein, low cereal food that’s readily available.

🙄🙄🙄

@SchrodingersImmigrant thank you.

@Wickstead apologies - you are right and I misread your post.

YANBU- i feel the same and found that decoy food (old cabbage c”leaves etc) helps deter slugs.

I feel like this about all critters, ever since I was a child, lifetime veggie, and have never eaten meat or fish and am a vegan of 10years now.

I just feel like most people disregard the value of non-human lives far too much. It makes me feel very alienated from my own species at how cruel, callous and selfish humans are to non-humans (and each other). No answer to that one, sorry.

@Kgrzghtechh

Everything you eat was a living thing that has been killed for your nourishment.

@Swistle

How may I ask do those of you who think slugs deserve to live, deal with headlice? Fleas and ticks on your pets? When does a creature become so disgusting it deserves to die just because you deem it irritating /disgusting enough?

I'm a happy slug slayer BTW.

Good point. It's called selective outrage. I am guilty of it sometimes too. I hate harming slugs (like the OP and some others,) but think nothing of putting flea drops on my cats, and used to put poison on headlice (when my DD had them a couple of times at school.)

I also sprayed some spectacularly annoying flies that I couldn't catch with my newspaper last summer. I killed about 10.

But I hate to harm the slugs, bees, spiders, ladybirds, caterpillars, moths, butterflies....

Daft double-standards, and we are all guilty of it.

One could even ask how come it's unacceptable/unlawful to kill a human, but it's OK to slaughter a goat/lamb/cow/pig, or kill 1000s of insects with pesticides? They have as much right to live as we do right?

@Iknowtheanswer

I feel like that with slugs and snails. Last year I used to go out after dark with a torch, pick them up and take them to a nearby wood in a bucket.

That's very noble of you, but all that achieves is the slugs being eaten by creatures in the woods.

@Kgrzghtechh

Everything you eat was a living thing that has been killed for your nourishment.

That includes animals too then.

Everything THEY eat is killed for their nourishment.

See, there's so many different sides to this argument........

If anyone is selfish it's the slugs who eat all my strawberries🙈 Greedy bastards. I had like 2 before I decided enough is enough

[quote BewareTheBeardedDragon]@Wickstead apologies - you are right and I misread your post. [/quote]
Thank you.... and that’s quite alright.

If everything else was in more balance it would not be a problem but because we don’t have the environment for the birds the slugs and snails thrive. Personally I just don’t grow things that they absolutely love because I will not put down pesticide

[quote BewareTheBeardedDragon]@GreenSlide which herbs have you found effective please?[/quote]
Mint and rosemary here, I also tried a garlic wash to deter black fly on my sunflowers - that didn't work but slugs are supposed to hate the smell of garlic too.

Personally I just don’t grow things that they absolutely love because I will not put down pesticide

I don't use pesticides normally either. Thinking of bees! 😁 I had to handful of times though because nothing worked on the infestation of aphids. The garden was overrun😱 But I transfered the pesticide into tiny spray and spent days carefully spraying under leaves only on aphids😂 From some plants you can put some bag ur wol under and showr them into it and then dispose of them. Sometimes you just have to use higher grade weapons, unfortunately. Same with herbicide. I only target one thing in my garden, the crouch grass or whatever it is called so I go around with herbicide and brush so nothing else gets it. This grass chokes everything including clover I planted for bees. Bastard.

I have lots of bees, bumblebees, butteflies etc here. Specifically planted lots of plants for them. Birds leave them alone usually. Once I watched a magpie absolutely fascinated by cabbage white, flying around it and just watching it. That was adorable (I have a deep distrust in the mischievous magpies normally so not many "awww" moments😂)

Garden is beautiful yet bfutal place

I kill slugs and snails in whatever is the most efficient way possible. In my garden, they're pests.

I'm happy to kill them directly if I spot one (usually with a swift blow from a fork or trowel), and I use a conservative dose of pellets around my more vulnerable crops from time to time.

When I first got the place my garden was an absolute haven for slugs and snails. I doused the area in pellets and massacred them. Not sorry about it either, they are pests. I live in a town so there's not much in the way of hedgehogs, frogs or birds to act as natural predators.

I eat meat, kill headline and see no reason why slugs and snails should be given a bye.

slugs are supposed to hate the smell of garlic too.

I grow garlic and I tried garlic for numerous pests which are supposed to hate it. I garlicked fence behind a bush being attacked by aphids. I garlicked planters against slugs. Nothing.. They don't mind it at all😔

@GreenSlide ah yes - last year I had some success with a vile homemade chilli and garlic spray, but then found that coffee is much easier to make and spray on, doesn't smell like hell, and is quite effective. Caffeine is poisonous to them so they stay away. I haven't found that rosemary deters them from anything except itself though. Nor mint:

[quote BewareTheBeardedDragon]@GreenSlide ah yes - last year I had some success with a vile homemade chilli and garlic spray, but then found that coffee is much easier to make and spray on, doesn't smell like hell, and is quite effective. Caffeine is poisonous to them so they stay away. I haven't found that rosemary deters them from anything except itself though. Nor mint: [/quote]
Must try the coffee this year. I think it's just a case of trying different things for what you're growing, and your gardens variety of slugs 🐌

I’ve found slugs and snails munching on rosemary and mint. Also going over egg shells, gravel and everything else that’s supposed to ‘deter’ them. ‘Deter’ does not mean ‘stop’! If there’s a population explosion in a small space they will eat anything. If you’ve found otherwise chances are you’re in an ecologically rich and undisturbed area. So, not the U.K. then, or anywhere I can afford to live. I chop ‘em in half with whatever I’ve got to hand and use the more-friendly pellets at crucial times of the year.

Have you seen the video of how they can go over a razor blade? Impressive actually

Ive never actually seen a slug here. What did my veggies in last year was a fckin groundhog. The decimation those fuckers can cause in an hour is unbelievable. Ate all my butternut squash and zucchini and quite a few of my cucumbers. I dont have a gun so couldnt shoot it. They are too big for the catapult to work even with steel balls. I bought coyote pee and sprayed it everywhere. He left

SchrodingersImmigrant

Thanks for the caterpillar tip, will try that.

Yanbu. They are a real pain in my vegetable patch and have cost me a lot of £ in destroyed plants, but I do find them rather beautiful and the world has far worse creatures in it than something that wants to nibble flowers. Saw some mating by the veggies once, very slow and tender.

I don’t believe they feel no pain. People used to say that about all animals, and babies, too. Anyone who’s seen an injured slug/snail should be able to see they’re in some kind of pain. We know very little about them really.

I have no idea what to do about them in the garden, copper does not work at all I see them glide along it. Netting is best. Anyone who uses scissors is a little bit messed up imo.

@mrsrobinsonshandprints

Snipping them and leaving for birds/hedgehog is infinitely better than poison and drowning. And those that don't like animals suffering...are you vegan?

Im a vegan and fully agree with you that whilst snipping is rather unpleasant, it's a poison free way that leaves the bodies free for other animals to eat them. After all, if another animal eats them it will get "snipped" in it's mouth!
I dont have a garden myself so dont need to worry about these things!

I put up small signs that say 'keep out', seems to work for me