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\nChives 1, Snails nil<\/strong> One application of Metaldehyde takes out the entire local population<\/em><\/p>\n
\nBut I’ve had miserable failures over the past few years with nearly everything else. Possibly the biggest bloodbath was the time I planted out twenty runner bean plants, each reared indoors to the height of about three feet, and in the morning found the razed stubs of their bare stalks plastered against the ground in quivering pools of ectoplasm. But there have also been decimated swathes of lettuce and rocket, chives, peppers, Lobelia, marigolds, and a devastatingly beautiful orange dahlia (I actually cried when that one went). I haven’t even been able to grow one of the most robust, fast-growing weeds in creation: the common mint.<\/p>\n
\nWhen we bought our house we found a green bottle of slug pellets under the kitchen sink, but I had always been reluctant to use pesticides because we have a cat. And I thought things were looking up: this spring, the gastropod population seemed have been culled by the colder-than-usual winter. One afternoon, I threw caution to the wind and planted a lovely chive, but as night fell, I came out to find the thing half-digested by snails.<\/p>\n
\nThat was it. I found the bottle of Metaldehyde pellets and showered the remains with bright blue confetti. And in the morning, it was like the Somme. I left the corpses where they were as a warning to their fellows; I’m happy to report that the chive fully recovered, and our cat is alive and well. I’ve used the pellets sparing elsewhere with similar success and it’s given me the courage to try runner beans and strawberries again this year. <\/p>\n
\nAlthough there are websites<\/a> suggesting that slug pellets aren’t as environmentally unfriendly as the organic crusaders would want us to believe, I still feel vaguely guilty using the stuff. So I thought I’d give equal time to a contraption that Nev came up with, which we reserved for that enticing of all snail delicacies, the bean. And all you need are two saucers, a brick and salt pellets:<\/p>\n \n \nThe only potential problem I can see with this design is that if any of the grass gets too long, or they work out how to abseil down from the nearby lilac bush, the game will be up. But I’ll keep you posted when the seedlings sprout.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" It’s a sunny holiday weekend, and a young woman’s thoughts turn to murder. Gastropod murder, in particular. I’ve been doing a lot of gardening over the past few weeks, and it’s all-out war. In addition to the usual complement of … Continue reading ![\"\"](\"http:\/\/www.lablit.com\/images\/Contraption.jpg\")
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