Even though I was writing earlier this week about how nature is at its finest, currently there are also some natural elements in play about nature that are not the nicest ones around there. Just this morning I saw some mouse sneak away again and also the slugs in the allotment are really getting out of hand.
It was good to see that the slug situation was not only here in my allotment but is a general issue at the moment in the country because it was so moisty. Fair enough, that situation is not good for any farmer, I don't mean it in that way. But it was a nice confirmation that I am not doing anything crazy, this is just how it is at the moment.
Fresh oregano (with sand on it)
I went for the natural stink initially
There is a lot to find on the internet at the moment on what to do against the slugs since this is such a situation at the moment. My experiment with using old coffee around the plants didn't do anything and currently the rain was so hard that the coffee even washed away. i think the slugs don't like the texture of old coffeegrind as it is so dry, but nothing is dry here at the moment.
Time for a new tactic: going for the natural stink. Slugs don't like the smell of some kinds of herbs and those are exactly the herbs that I would always want to have as a standard into the garden. Instead of growing them from scratch, I decided to toss in a dollar at the local grower. They are located here in the fields somewhere and have awesome stash of everything you can think grown by themselves.
I wasn't even aware that they were there, but this surely a place where I will head back to as this is just the big local farmer. It was also the perfect moment to take in the most perfect strawberries ever (it's the season!!) and even some milk straight from the cow. Cool stuff!
Back to the natural stink! I took some fresh oregano plants, but also a thyme and rosemary plant to put in the allotment. Just the smell of these guys will draw away the slugs they say. And...and endless stash of fresh herbs who don't need a lot of attention. I call this a win win!
But later on the evening...
I was happy with my natural way of anti-slugging. In the evening when it was already dark I went to check in the allotment if the stinkyness was helping on keeping the slugs out. I was shocked to see what was happening over there.
It looked like a proper slugfest over there in the dark! Holy crap they were literally everywhere! And all sort of kinds, the naked ones big and small, the ones with little houses, the tigerslugs who eat the little slugs. It was a slugfest feasting on all of the left over plants that weren't eaten as yet, and now I totally understand why nothing is surviving over there.
And yeah, they were walking in a small distance around the stinkerds, but there was still enough for them to all feast on. As you see on the snap above here these guys are super close to the thyme and they even seem to be mating. Not a sweet situation as they lay like 400 eggs at a time. Hmmmm..
I took them all out and threw them in the woods like 40 of them, only to find an hour later 20 new ones there again. This isn't working
On to the heavier arms!
Now in general I like ecosystems for a reason that they are there. Slugs eat plant leftovers and are useful in nature. That is also the reason why I tossed over the slugs in the woods. But on the other hand they are almost labeled as pest at the moment and seem to be everywhere so I guess maybe it is time to change the ecosystem a tiny bit. And beer still is a lot more natural that some kind of poison. I don't want that in there.
It is time for the beer-trap!
Yes you heard it well. So apparently slugs love beer (don't we all?) and are really keen to start drinking it. But they are also not good swimmers so ones this are in the beer and get drunk they drown in it. Not so friendly, but it seems to be very effective. It seems that they like the yeast a lot from the beers that is why they are attracted to it. I tossed in a good ol high percentage IPA.
So I took an old take-away box and cut some holes in there for them to slither through it. I am just super curious to see what will happen in the next night and it the combination will help on the growing
I took some tomatoes plants from inside and planted them outside because the slugs also don't like tomatoes. Maybe it is a bit too early because of the rain, but at the moment, it feels like one bit experiment.
Let's see what happens!