2024 Little Easy Bean Network - Growing Heirloom Beans Of Today And Tomorrow

[Neen5MI]

Yes, very, and slugs abound. So much got demolished by them overnight and any replacements were a struggle to keep alive. Overall a major failure. I've never seen so many slugs in my life... dozens per sq metre.

Sounds like ducks would be happy in your location!

 

[ducks4you]

@Triffid
Know anybody who owns a duck?

 

[heirloomgal]

Yes, very, and slugs abound. So much got demolished by them overnight and any replacements were a struggle to keep alive. Overall a major failure. I've never seen so many slugs in my life... dozens per sq metre.

I'm sorry to hear that @Trifiid, how dreadful. I've had slug problems in certain garden areas, notably against forest where they hide during daytime and emerge at night to slink up the sides of pots and containers. Around my water barrel too they can be numerous at night. They seem to become very active in wet cool conditions, and even where atmospheric moisture is higher.

Using copper coil antennae has helped me a lot with slugs and I see far fewer now in the problem areas and none in the garden, or the lettuce anymore. I read that slugs & snails are quite a different garden pest than most because they use hemocyanin (a copper protein) instead of haemoglobin (an iron protein) for cellular oxygen transport. This seems to be the single powerful exploit humans have against these tenacious critters - a natural proclivity to avoid copper due to their natural chemical abundance of it. There is the reverse too, the proclivity towards iron, but that avenue seems to me more riddled with problems. The copper tape is not nearly as effective as the antenna's, and I'm not sure why, but it might be something to consider to prevent a future mollusc takeover.

For Christmas this year I will be putting in a request to retire my iron tools. A shiny new copper trowel to imbue all that soil with even more critter kryptonite, wrapped in a little red bow, would be great.