Do snails have feelings?

It has to be beyond 10metres!

haha.. if you cant face springy's methodology, backagain - why not go for a walk with them a few minutes from your home, find some generic greenery to dump them in. commune their punishment from death to transportation, as it were

Drive over them with the car? Barbecue them? They just get the scissor treatment in our garden - they never show my plants any mercy, I don't show them any mercy.

I can't bring myself to squash or drown or spray anything. It's a good job I'm not a gardener.

In torrential rain last night, I watched DD squatting in a pub doorway moving a snail and a slug carefully away from the doorway so they wouldn't get squished when the door closed. We are a strange pair

The actual beetles are really beautiful. I don't squish but drop them in the jam jar with water and washing up liquid. The washing up liquid seems to finish them off quicker. I suspect it affect any inherent water proofing they have. It works on vine weevils as well.

My lilies Regale and African Queen are perfuming the patio in great style right now.

I had read about lily beetle larvae and found some this week. The adults are rather debonair - orange, streamlined creatures and I have a tiny pang when squashing. OMG the babies cover themselves in black excrement so that they look like a little bird droppings. Inside this blob is a little greyish grub. The clue is that they are underneath the leaf (show me the bird with the gravity defying droppings) and behind the blob there is a trail of chewed leaf. Certainly get the prize for repulsive offspring of the year.
But isn't evolution an amazing thing.

Chucking snails against a wall is essentially what thrushes do before eating them. Except they use a stone or hard ground. It's to break the shell. So your hubby is doing thrushes a favour, henetha.

I don't blame hubby for chucking em against a wall! I'm tempted!
But it's just that I would feel guilty afterwards.... because I am a wimp!
Meanwhile their compost bin holiday seems to be the answer for me, and them.

thankyou nelliemoser, i had no idea they were specific to lillies or that it was the youngun's doing the damage, quelle surprise? no sign of snails, plenty of dead bees on the floor out and about though

Henetha
This is what we do ( in theory) but must admit hubby has a penchant for chucking them against the wall. Sorry, no way I could do that!!
Compost bin it is for me too
Do seem to have lots this year though

The larvae of Lilly beetles. does the damage. The very attractive red beetles need to be picked off the plants early in the season. You can either squish them in your fingers or drop them into a jam jar with some water and a squirt of washing up liquid.

When the eggs hatch the larvae eat the leaves and stick themselves to the plants with their own poo. I have been waging war on them for some years now.

They are doubtless deserving of a place in the grand scheme of things, but still very difficult to love, nasty slimy creatures.

apologies for the double post. i shall blame my phone

without particularly wanting to get involved in the associated man-made global warming hysteria, the progression to a drier climate probably sounds the death knell for our slime covered friends anyhow. one however, must always be aware of the grass greener factor - a bizarre, bright red weevil that appeared out of nowhere to attack my moms' lillies i originally was content to treat fairly amicably, but the damage just a few of these things caused was quite incredible. stripped the leaves and retarded the flowering fairly significantly, instigating a change of policy on my behalf and the regrettable resort to pesticide. theyve disappeared subsequently, as mysteriously as they arrived. but if these are a sign of things to come - we should enjoy snails and yes even slugs, whilst we still can

the molusc mutilation via scissors is brutal by the way.. i admire your constitution. stuff of sluggy nightmares i would imagine

without particularly wanting to get involved in the associated man-made global warming hysteria, the progression to a drier climate probably sounds the death knell for our slime covered friends anyhow. one however, must always be aware of the grass greener factor - a bizarre, bright red weevil that appeared out of nowhere to attack my moms' lillies i originally was content to treat fairly amicably, but the damage just a few of these things caused was quite incredible. stripped the leaves and retarded the flowering fairly significantly, instigating a change of policy on my behalf and the regrettable resort to pesticide. theyve disappeared subsequently, as mysteriously as they arrived. but if these are a sign of things to come - we should enjoy snails and yes even slugs, whilst we still can

the molusc mutilation via scissors is brutal by the way.. i admire your constitution. stuff of sluggy nightmares i would imagine

I am lucky I don't have a lot of problems with snails & slugs, I have some call ducks they wander through the garden & eat them, they don't make a mess of the borders & beds either which the chickens used to, call ducks are half the size of a normal domestic duck

Was just reading acopy of Gardners World , and a suggestion for snail/slug problems .

Surround the plants with hair , which stick to the underside of said pests making it difficult to crawl over .

Collect hair from dog groomers .barbers, or from your hairbrush .

Worth a try eh !!

thanks for what you have all been saying lately...given me confidence to put lots salt out in my wee hall tonight and especially around my bed...slug trail every morning in the hall but no sign of it by day!! just gives me the creeps......

back

It was pretty brownish JessM so you are probably right - I am a mile or two along the coast from Conwy castle. Just wondering where the rest of the bird is. Not in the hollow in my roof I hope.
Still, rather that than slugs practicing the Kama Sutra among the brillo pads. If I were you when I'd get bags down with her best pair of scissors.

Jess the salt is already running in a line around my kitchen back door and wall since my suspicions were aroused. It will have gained entry under the back door, or nipped in sneakily as I went in the garden at night. If it brought any of its mates in, they will be cowering in fear now!

Nope........that doesn't minimise my disgust, vegas. They're still gonna die! There's a Wanted photo on my kitchen window now - those critters have pushed me too far!

Suggest when that you work out where getting in (away from heat?). Under door, gap around pipes? Then either block it up or put a sneaky line of salt down. That would make them back off.
Seagull wing... interesting. I suppose a peregrine could take out a black backed gull but it would take something much bigger to take out a herring gull. An eagle of some sort?
Lots of newly fledged herring gulls (brownish) in N wales last week, staggering around town looking amazed at life beyond the top of the chimney or the castle walls. Not found the beach yet, let alone the sea. Presumably they have a strong instinct as babes not to fling themselves over edges and suddenly that instinct disappears and whoops, here I am in the town centre trying to work out what everything is.
So if it was one of these clueless creatures I would say cat or fox. Is the wing white or browny?

They are very tidy though when. Great greys can hang in the air for up to 2 hours, gyrating around each other as they exchange sperm. Nuptials completed they either drop to the ground or climb back up the string and eat it as they go.

I'm will not tolerate slugs having sex in my kitchen! (full of murderous intent now)