Sunday, July 29

Rainy Days and Mondays…

It would be churlish to complain about the rain. Here in London we have escaped the worst of the flooding that has caused so much damage further north.

By and large, the flooding that has occurred here has been in low-lying sites such as tube stations. An inconvenience at worst, but nothing disastrous. Two Fridays ago central London had more rain in two hours than it normally gets in the entire month of July. But things carried on pretty much as normal. We had our college end of year party that day, complete with (indoor) barbecue. It was a wonder that we weren’t prosecuted under the new Anti-smoking legislation.

In our little part of the world the only real problem caused by the rain is that the slugs and snails have been busier than normal, shredding everything within reach and even climbing up walls the better to feast on our window boxes.

My good lady wife is back to her nocturnal slug hunting, torch in one hand, slug squishing trowel in the other. Some of the neighbours think we are a little strange.

It entertains the cats too.

Now if only snails moved fast enough to tempt the cats, our problems would be solved….

5 comments:

Amalee Issa said...

er, do you want me to tell you a foolproof method (wholly legal and very cost-effective too), that will permanently keep cats off your border?

amalee

Steve said...

We actually find that our two visiting cats, Bernard and Tigger, do a pretty good job of keeping any other cats off our beds. We never get any cat poo, though I suppose they must go somewhere!

Do tell anyway, though a foolproof method of deterring slugs would be more useful:-)

Welsh Dog said...

Sadly, afaik, nothing is 'foolproof' other than squishing them. :)

However, the first step is always mulch... and then try spraying your plants with strong coffee!! It really works :)

Of course the old 'beer in a saucer' still works as well... and what you don't use on the slugs you can drink!! :)

Coffee is easiest tho and works a treat!!

(geez... now I'm back to 'Sky' again... I wish Blogger would make up its mind who I am!!)

Steve said...

I really would have hoped that a hot climate like Oz would have meant fewer slugs - Surely you don't get them in Sydney as well? They're molluscs, they need moisture..

P.S. At least blogger is letting you in. Talk Nicely or it may change

Welsh Dog said...

Actually we *do* get more snails than slugs but there are slugs here just the same. I suppose it is relatively drier here than the UK, but it's not totally arid.

Either way, slugs or snails, the principle is the same... the coffee kills them both! :)

On a theme, here's a happy little article:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Great_grey_slug