Monday, June 8, 2009

Goin' Huntin'

I am not a fan of hunting for sport. If you're going to kill something, you'd damn well better eat it. But I do have one exception.

Slugs.

Slugs started appearing in great numbers in the vegetable garden last year. We used to have a couple of ducks and a goose that were penned in the garden, and they certainly took care of the slugs, but they also had their drawbacks. In that they shit everywhere and the goose made this horribly loud rusty-hinge honking sound ALL THE TIME. Hated those things. But since they disappeared, and last summer was particularly wet, the slugs started oozing their way back into the garden, hanging out on the cabbages, eating lettuce, and generally being all slimy and disagreeable.

I had a particularly fun time with them when I was cutting off the potato foliage in the fall. They like to live under plants, and that foliage was so thick, the slugs were having a damned rave under there. I picked up the ones I saw and delivered them to the chickens for a snack. Which works, but also requires me to, well, touch them. Even with gloves on, it kind of squicks me out.

So this year, I have taken to stalking the garden with a jar of salt. All you have to do is sprinkle a little salt on slugs and they dissolve. For real. They literally dissolve into a little puddle of orange goo. It's vaguely disturbing, and yet strangely satisfying. I do this for a few minutes every day, checking around the barn and the blackberries where the weeds grow up and provide cover for the slugs. I haven't yet found any slugs on the vegetables, so I guess it's working.

I wouldn't say it's the thrill of the hunt that compels me to stalk slugs with salt, but the thrill of slug-free lettuce? Definitely compelling.

12 comments:

mdvelazquez said...

Definitely justifiable. You have a family to feed, so it is either you or them. :-)

Drew @ Cook Like Your Grandmother said...

It's fenced off to keep random critters out, right? Can you just let the chickens in to take care of it?

Kristin @ Going Country said...

No, chickens will eat plants. But I do want to let the chickens in in the fall to maybe get rid of some. Except I need to build some kind of shelter for them in there so they have somewhere safe to go at night. The garden is nowhere near their coop.

Susan said...

You can also leave a bowl of beer out for the slugs. They are drawn to it, kinda like me, then they drown in it, kinda like me. I hate slugs.

Kristin @ Going Country said...

I tried the beer last year. It didn't work. Apparently, even slugs hate Leinenkugel.

Daisy said...

It's protection, that's it. You're protecting your veggie "family."

Anonymous said...

I identify completely. My little trick is to track down the horn worms on the tomatoes and CUT THEM IN HALF with a pair of scissors. Immensely satisfying. They squirt green goo.
So the ducks don't eat your garden?
Good to know.
Jenny

Unknown said...

I found a new trick this year to deal with slugs and other such annoying critters like caterpillars, diatomaceous earth. You have probably heard of it, we use it for the chickens in their coop to keep out mites and such so I tried sprinkling it in the garden and it worked beautifully. You can buy food grade that is completely safe and harmless to put around veggies and edible plants.....just an idea...although watching them "melt" with salt is pretty fun! :)

rls said...

You are a mighty huntress! I will second the vote for diatomaceous earth - I use the food grade in my basement, and my daughter had to feed some to her horse last year for something (thrush? I can't remember).

sheila said...

I used to send my 2 yr old out to patrol the garden with a salt shaker. It was really cute. She would wander around and when guests would see her and ask her what she was doing she'd answer, "Salting the slugs." like that was of course what everyone does. She took her job very seriously. Two yr olds are the right height to see all the slugs.

Unknown said...

Any chance you can trust the chickens to roam the garden? That would be extra cool.

I set out "Beer Gardens" for our slugs. But when I refill them? GAK - it's all sluggy and gnarly. And, of course, the dog and cat want to *sample*.

Grossness abounds.

me again said...

Trolling the garden, salt shaker in hand? Are you sure you don't have a bottle of tequila stashed amid the corn rows?
==Lennie==