SLUG PELLETS

I’ve had a few customers running out of the polythene tunnel screaming this week. This wasn’t because I was boring them senseless with my sales patter; it was more of an amphibian nature. Even though my lad’s frogs are only the size of a fingernail they can instill fear on those that they jump out at. I might loose out on a few plant sales but the frogs are certainly doing a magnificent job at keeping the slug population down, so much so that I don’t have to go searching around the pots at midnight with a torch and a pointy stick anymore. Since they have come out of the pond the damage to the plants has been minimal, with only the great big king slugs that are too big for the frogs to handle making the odd appearance.

The one big disadvantage of the frogs occupying the tunnel is that I can’t spray anything to get rid of greenfly. They are a real problem this year, I have to take out any affected plant, spray it, leave it to dry and then put it back, which is proving to be very time consuming. The greenfly killer I’m using this year has an extract of chrysanthemum in it called pyrethrin, so it is classed as being organic, but it is still deadly to pond life. I wouldn’t even use the washing up liquid spray around the frogs for fear of messing up the happy balance of nature.

While I’m on the subject of pests, this reminds me I heard a report a couple of weeks ago about slug pellets. The claim was that they are not harmful to the bird population in any way. Now I don’t know who actually sponsored the research, it may well have been a multinational company who produce the pellets in the first place, but it was just the information I needed as an excuse to buy my first container of pellets. These were then thrown around the young vegetable plants that I have planted. What a difference they have made, usually at this time of year most of my vegetable plants are ravaged and all but disappear, but this year all the plants I put out are thriving. I do try my best to have an organic approach in the garden when tackling slugs, beer traps, sharp sand; eggshells,garlic spray and salt have all been tried, with little success. So it’s slug pellets for me from now on (although they will be placed under protection away from wildlife)

I can see some weeds, forget hand weeding and mulching, where’s the D.D.T.!

Horticultural.