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Harringay, Haringey - So Good they Spelt it Twice!

On my nightly slug patrol this evening I just couldn't do my usual trick of cutting the little B******s in half to feed the blackbirds.  Why?......

I came across this beauty which measures in at least 5 inches.  Its markings really caught my eye and I actually felt guilty for even thinking about ending its life.  So apologies to all you fellow gardeners for letting the side down, as tonight, I saved a life but destroyed a few more plants.

Tags for Forum Posts: hedgehogs, slug

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I've identified my slug and made the right decision not to cut him up. He's low risk apparently.

Leopard Slug (Limax maximus)
This is a large slug - up to 16cm in length - which has distinctive black leopard like marking on its upper body. Its underside is white. It has a pronounced keel along the rear of its body. Mucus is sticky and colourless. Widespread and common in the UK favouring woodland and gardens. Low risk to agricultural crops.
And another very interesting fact about my slug is.......

'There is even a carnivorous slug, the leopard slug Limax maximus, that includes other slugs in its diet'. Result!

I'm hugely impressed but still find the top pic mildly disgustsing.. That said, I too have left slugs this year. Everything so abundant I figure there's enough to go round. Dont grow veg though and it seems the odd flower can be sacrificed without too much grief. If your slugs have made it on to twitter, wont they be got by birds..? Especially if Rufus the Wimbledon hawk is back in business..

Your slugs have made it on to Twitter, Sam.

Here's a slug from me from a few years back.

You're forgiven. I'm told that the big slugs are carrion and waste eaters, it's the tiny ones that come up from under that eat your treasures.

For me it's snails, they outnumber their defenceless brethren/sistren (what do you call hermaphrodite groupings? Ah, sibren...), anyway I have taken to going out whenever it rains - their favourite time out =-and doing the Snail Stomp. 

But they all have such pretty faces. I do experience guilt.

I have some mini yellow slug type things covered in wet soil/mucous eating my lilies - the are hundreds of them : ( They look like aliens and will not survive.

Have just researched and found out that they are Lily beetle grubs that cover themselves in their own excreta... disgusting little things. I shall try my normal method of washing up liquid and water spray on them! 

Lily Beetle adults are easy to spot as they are intensely red, a bit bigger than a ladybird. If they see you watching they will hurl themselves to the ground upside-down so you can't spot the redness, they then thumb their nose at you but are too small for you to see this. Between the adults and the babes they will shred your lilies overnight. Do away with the adults by a version of the Snail Stomp, turn over leaves etc. to find them. But I've given up growing lilies, they are  too successful; they can sniff out a lily from the moon.

Good luck with the soap, if it doesnt work you may have to use a nasty spray eg Provado - if you must do this, at least wait till dark when the bees have gone to bed. 

Thanks! 

Thank you Pamish for your forgiveness.  Thats all I needed to suppress my convent school catholic guilt.

(I chopped up at least 12 of his B*****D kin last night.  ha aha aha aahaa hahhahhaaa)  

Cover the lot in salt! 

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