A slug theme has been slithering through my last two posts, leaving the question hanging whether my blocking of cracks in the floor would disturb the migration habits of this humble gastropod. Since I had additionally panelled that corner of the kitchen, fitting the pieces closely, except for one part of the plinth which will be completed after tiling the floor, I trusted that my twice-repatriated visitor would not return for a third attempt to break in and taste the kitchen scraps kept in that area for recycling.
It was therefore with some astonishment that I found a slug cosily curled up in a corner on my precious new panels. It was smaller than the last one, and if I correctly read its body language, its attitude was complacent, if not smug. From its colour and modus operandi, I guess it may be an offspring of its twice-flung parent. Whatever its genealogy, “humble gastropod” doesn’t seem apposite any more. “Defiant”, “determined” or “arrogant” are the terms which spring to mind.
Yesterday I chatted with a neighbour who was putting in some young plants into a bed in her front yard. I got the impression she wasn’t experienced in gardening. When I passed her house later I glanced to see how her little plot of soil looked. The plants were widely spaced and in between she had sprinkled blue pellets at a density of three per square inch. There was enough to finish off every slug and snail in the street, should they be attracted from afar by the alluring scent of slug bait. If they are as clever as I think they are, she may find that after the first couple of casualties, they will slalom gently through the bright blue hazards and reward themselves on her precious plants.
PS more about the Great Architect of the Universe (that grand Ackerschnecke-Meister) in my next.
a wayfarer’s notes 
. . ironic how wanting to rid ourselves of something seems to attract more, until we relax (something.)
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Indeed – they likely will. “It was smaller than the last one, and if I correctly read its body language, its attitude was complacent, if not smug.” A smug slug? Such a lovely sentence!
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Somehow, I just knew you would have found another slug in your abode. Why? I don't know. I think it had to do with your dismissive demeanor toward it. I can imagine that juvenile slug, looking up impertinently at you and thinking to itself in its little slug language: “Ah-hah. You've been one-upped by a slug.”
🙂
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We have lots of slugs here but I never pay any attention to them. I've never had one in the buildings.
Some folks put out little saucers of beer for them, I guess it kills them.
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You have interesting guests!
We used to put beer in little dishes in the garden to attract them from the lettuce. They usually were found dead in the liquid of either drowning or alcohol poisoning, not sure which.
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yes, i also don't understand how a slug enters the room. even when everything is tightly shut!
maybe they come as eggs and over the night they grow big enough to get noticed????
scientist anyone here?
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Something tells me slugs will benefit from global warming…
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“wanting to rid ourselves of something seems to attract more …” Yes, I've known examples of that, too embarrassing to recount here …
I don't mind the slugs actually. Next door in a hole in the floor where the gas pipe comes up to the cooker, a rat came up too, I forgot to ask them how they got rid of this unwanted guest. That would be an issue for me as I want to take a non-violent attitude, as BBC knows from certain comments on his blog. I wouldn't want to entice them into the house with a fatal saucer of beer.
It is natural that having declared myself non-violent, the Universe should challenge me with non-violent and harmless intruders, who happen to be interesting creatures and possibly, if Paul is right, on the ascendant: though I think they will benefit from wetter rather than warmer weather.
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In relation to non-violence and uninvited guests, I recall a neighbour in the Seventies who was prison chaplain at the notorious Wormwood Scrubs in West London. He was a very gentle person and a little clownish but had enough presence and authority to hold down his job. He had a burglar once – who entered through a skylight – and dealt with him so kindly that the burglar came back a second time a few weeks later. “Thus proving the futility of non-violence,” you may say.
Well, no. The chaplain's dedication to rehabilitation was such that he invited the guest to a cup of tea in the kitchen, to discuss his problems and ways to solve them.
And perhaps there is (in this sense) a law of attraction. Perhaps.
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No . . . the beer goes on the outside!
“it's elephants all the way down.”
( I like just the Joke-punchlines)
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I used to be an advocate of the little blue pellets but not used them for some time. unfortunately the slugs don't seem to be interested in eating the weeds in my garden just the new shoots on my plants!! I have not noticed so many snails in my garden this year. I did indulge in a spot of sharing a few years ago (throwing the snails over the fence into my neighbour's garden) she only does her garden once a year this is no excuse neither is the fact that for about 8 years we were not on speaking terms but that situation has changed since my husband moved out.
I do feel that my sharing my snails with her was although not very neighbourly, not as bad as her family sharing their refuse with me!!
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Dare I say it, that slug is you, or, you are that slug, and I mean this, '“Defiant”, “determined” or “arrogant” are the terms which spring to mind.'…SCRATCH the arrogant, that is NOT you, might be really the slug, lol, please don't be offended Vincent, none meant.
And yes, I am sure the slugs will out.
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I noticed some weeks ago, a sign 'yard of the month', no, two such signs in my neigbors yard…I saw the couple outside and hobbled over to congratulate them, they beamed, but then they said, 'others around here don't care about the looks of their yards'….I slunk back to my dwelling and quickly disappeared inside, then I remembered more of the sign, it was awarded by the commercial nursery where they had bought all their plants and yard dressings.
Just an aside, lol.
Very funny post Vincent.
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Jim, I think you have a point about projecting myself into the slug. Oh yes, and there is an arrogance too …
No slugs seen here lately, only the woodlice and they can get through tiny cracks.
My non-violence towards small creatures is becoming an obsession. I removed a huge spider from bath. An hour later it was back in the bath. Removed it again. It seemed to suss out its mistake the second time for it didn't return. Then a queen wasp came in through an open window and I know exactly what it was looking for: a place to make its nest. In the roof space there are the remains of several wasps' nests from previous years, and in the past I have taken the view that squashing one pregnant queen rids the district of hundreds of ordinary wasps. But I can't do that any more. Just shooed it gently back out the window.
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I've been putting out “Worry Free” slug bait in the garden for a few months. Then I noticed every bit of bait was gone every morning. That many slugs?!? Until one early evening my wife noticed rats eating up the bait.
Now I have to set up rat traps to stop them rodents from eating up all the bait! How ironic.
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Thanks for this observation, Alexander. That gives me another reason not to put down slug bait. We do have rats round here. Occasionally the local cat (semi-wild, no one claims to own it) deposits a young rat as an offering in our backyard. If no one notices it yowls till someone comes. A bit like the Israelites making burnt offerings to the Lord.
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