How something quite as slow as a slug managed to get in to the house is a mystery. Did it climb up the wall, into the window, back down the tile to the floor, taking all night? Did it hop a ride in on the grocery box? We'll never know; that one's history. But there are plenty more outside, waiting, I imagine, to get in and experience wall-to-wall carpeting.
Slugs are called Nacktschnecke in German, which means 'naked snail', but that's the last cute thing about then. Peter says, his teacher says, they eat dandelions, but if that's the case they aren't doing their job in my yard.
To attend to the slugs I bought several slug traps. I've always read that they like beer; according to the locals they are especially fond of the Duesseldorf specialty Alt (old) beer. So these traps we bought are placed in an indentation, filled with beer, and then apparently lure the slugs to a beery end. And they work - when you pick the traps out of the earth to empty the frothy remains, you are sure the find 8-10 juicy specimens nestled beneath. Peter and Anke earn bounties disposing of them for me down the sewer.
Which maybe is how that one got into my bathroom, now that I think of it... Well, I won't be sleeping tonight.
3 comments:
So now, Becky, you know first-hand the meaning of SLUGFEST! (I thought it referred to a baseball game with many hit balls.)
Good luck with the slugs!
Claire
Just be careful with the bounties. When I was six, my dad offered me a nickel for every slug I could kill. Living in Seattle, slugs were plentiful, and I went on a bit of a murder spree. The bounty was quickly reduced to a penny. Still, best get-rich-quick scheme I ever had.
-Birdland
I'll have you know that the first year in Takoma Park, we had gazillions of slugs in the backyard. Which I naturally discovered one particular evening while walking around without shoes or socks.
Realizing my childhood sadistic habit of pouring salt on them wasn't going to effectively work this time, I found some granules to spread all over the lawn. For some reason, however, Angela didn't find my call of "Here, sluggy-wuggies!" to be very endearing.
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