Nibbled then nobbled

7 September 2009

I’ve seen a few bites takes out of beetroots here and there and one of them has some pretty stripped leaves, but there was nothing catastrophic. To be on the safe side though, I went out late on Saturday night to see if there were any slugs about. There were a bunch of little black ones all over the place – and two big fat brown ones. Ick and yuk. I disposed of them all and realised I’d have to put some slug pellets down again.

Then while surveying my patch yesterday I found another cucumber I didn’t know was there. Apparently I’m growing a stealth variety. While down in among the greenery I noticed a tomato on the ground that had had a chunk bitten out of it. Damn it. The tomato vines are now so laden with fruit that they’ve all fallen over under their own weight, laughing in the face of the cane supports I had offered them. Clearly this tomato had come right down to the ground and had been within fanged reach of a slug.

Lifting the plant up a little I discovered a second bitten tomato – why can slugs never just finish one thing at a time? – as well as the greedy culprit, who within in a few seconds had no reason to laugh in the face of the cane I wielded. He won’t be eating any more of my tomatoes and the rest of his little buddies should feel free to chow down on those little blue pellets out there.