Killing animals in the garden

[hub2dee]

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' ?

I think the course grit / sand / copper trace wire solutions sound the most eco / Jain-like to me

Slops bucket....

Eek - think I'd rather drown in beer slops than have my belly ripped open by sharp sand!

Why am I suddenly feeling sorry for slugs when in reality I hate the little (or sometimes very large) critters?

i can't kill things either, last year i put pond netting round our sunflowers(with a hole cut in for them to grow through), that seemed to keep the slugs off.

OMG - you said self-actualisation...aaaarrrrrgggggghhhhh

I agree with Alux - you have to encourage frogs, toads and hedgehogs, which all eat slugs. I do OK with frogs and toads, cos my neighbour has a well-established pond, but I never see a hedgehog. You can buy nifty hedgehog houses tho from Wiggly Wigglers.

At one point I trained ds to kill slugs then rapidly backtracked when it occurred to me that I might be coaching him to become a serial killer. He is now more of a big girl's blouse about such things thank god.

St. George - the sand doesn't kill them. It makes them go 'who the f**k put sand in me bleedin belly button...ooooh..... ooooh' ... the copper makes them come over all funny, and do a 180 degree about turn... like when you chew cooking foil on a tooth with a filling. Agggh.

maisystar: let's open a commune.

marthamoo: may you climb steadily up the pyramid.

tiddlypom, glad I'm not the only BGB.

Get some ducks, they love slugs!

We had a couple of pet ducks when I was a kid and we never had slugs or snails in our garden. The neighbours used to borrow them to have a quick rummage around in their veg patches!

Must admit I had to avert my eyes when they were actually swallowing the slugs in one go. Just thinking about it makes me feel sick.

Do you think the local children's zoo would notice if I, ahem, borrowed one for a few hours ?

For such a big softy h2d, you are coming over quite cruel on the slugs you know.

extract from National Gardening Association:

Barriers.Being soft-bodied creatures, slugs don't like anything sharp. If cut, they often will dry up and die. Sprinkle sharp sand, diatomaceous earth, or dried, crushed egg- or oyster shells around favored plants. Refresh the materials after heavy rains. If you have a raised bed, permanent border, or container, fasten strips of copper flashing around the bed. When slugs come in contact with the copper, they get an electric shock. (Think of it as an electric fence for slugs.)

I'm sorry but slugs and snails have to go, cos they eat all my plants!!!!! and i don't like accidently sticking my fingers on them when i'm weeding.

But i do give a fake sympathetic noise for insects when dd kills them. Which she seems very keen on doing ever since she accidently killed a ladybird, and i explained that lady bird was now dead which meant, was gone forever.
I thought this was a good lesson about life and death, until DD decided its good fun to hunt down insects, kill them, and then proudly show mummy saying look dead worm mummy!!!

I do discourage this sort of behaviour, and only ever commit my murders when dd is out of sight.

I wonder if the worm I put in my pond (to feed the newts) and subsequently rescued and returned to the soil from whence he came is having sweet dreams tonight...

Do earthworms dream ?

I chuck slugs & snails in the pond for the tadpoles to eat.However,I was very shocked to see my friend who is a confirmed veggie,stamp on a snail & squashed it flat.I couldn't do that!

That reminds me,my dad lives in a terraced house,with a right of way along the back of the garden.He spent a happy afternoon removing snails from his veg patch & squashing them on the path.Whilst he was still out there his neighbour came running down the path-with no shoes on.Urghhhhh!!!!!!!!!I

LOL at this thread! We don't seem to have too many slugs (eeuuurrggghhhh)or snails but salt is my weapon, if required. But all spders must* be killed. I don't believe this nonsense about them eating flies - I've never seen one eating a fly. They exist for the sole purpose of terrifying me, with their wavering legs and eight eyes and gross bodies.

I did see a sort of plastic collar thing for putting around lettuce plants, to keep slugs off but I chucked the catalogue out. Will try to find it online somewhere.

hub2dee - we don't do killing either! Dh sometimes rescues slugs (very funny incident when at his mums, and he picked up all the slugs in her garden on a knife, put them in margarine tub, wandered with slugs and knife over to local park, passing teenage girl on the way who ran in terror at this nutcase with a knife...) - we encourage hedgehogs to come and live in our garden, and toads - we've got a 'toad house' and a wild area for hedgehogs to live in (it's really our compost area, but we call it 'wild'). And it does seem to work. Another thing you can do is put a metal ring round vulnerable plants - garden centres have them, and it gives the slug a small electric shock, and deters them. Or you could plant some special 'slug plants' and hope they eat those instead of the rest of the time.

We once couldn't use our sink because there was a spider under the plug hole clinging on with one leg - we had to wait for it to climb out, and use the bath for washing our hands!

I don't have a garden, but I used to, and my dad has a marvellous, rose-laden, entirely kill-free one at home. He uses alternative methods to balance his garden.

I don't think you need to kill animals to have a nice garden. All 'pests' are there for a reason and have a role to play in nature and the ecosystem.

Wondered if anyone had any success with bioterrorism against slugs...nematode worms? We have major mollusc problems too and although I don't like killing insects I also don't like seeing my delphiniums reduced to spindly stumps overnight

marina, we plant delphiniums near the lettuces and let the slugs eat them instead (of the lettuces), they are their FAVOURITE food it seems.

So nice to be joined by the pro-life brigade.

I can kill mosquitoes when they are in the room at night, it must be admitted.

sudeonim - couldn't you trap the spideys ? Plastic beaker onto piece of paper, and chuck 'em out the window ?

tortoiseshell - sounds like you have a fab set-up and are very hospitable to all the creatures of the earth. May you be blessed with whatever you desire to be blessed with.

LOL at the delphiniums Marina / Enid...

Nooooooo!!!! Couldn't do that, Hub2dee - they'd just get all their mates and come back inside!

I couldn't find those collars but found this page with lots of ideas for getting rid of slugs.

PS had no problems with killing mozzies and cockroaches when we lived in Asia. Nasty disease-spreading creatures.

I thought I'd pick up some tips here on how to do away with the cats that come into my garden and crap in the flower beds and on the lawn

Lakeland do a sort of mini-hoover for spiders which the kids like using and even I can wield it in an emergency. It's humane, and the released spiders tell their friends not to bother with our house.

I've ordered some nematodes this year from Wiggley wigglers. All I have to do is help nature do its thing. So I don;t feel responsible

Are you kind to nits, Hub2Dee?

I am childless till August (dw is due end July / beg. August with our first), and nits will receive a very stern talking to if/when. I guess I'd have no hesitation treating / killing them... ya know, me being so mean 'n all....

At least let them die in organic hair product, that's what I say. Apparently Waitrose is now selling Duchy of Cornwall organic lavender shampoo and conditioner which should give them a glorious and swift send-off.