• starman2112
    link
    fedilink
    arrow-up
    41
    arrow-down
    4
    ·
    9 months ago

    I’ll add mine to the pile. When I was a lad, probably 10 or so, my family’s back porch would frequently get overrun by slugs. I eventually got sick of accidentally stepping on them, so I got the salt shaker and a bunch of paper towels. To my memory I poured salt on a good 30 of them, though it was probably only 10 or so. Salted them, put the paper over them, then the next day came out to collect the bodies and throw them away.

    28 year old me would beat 10 year old me’s ass for that. Gotta hand it to him, though—those slugs never did come back to the porch.

    • UnRelatedBurner
      link
      fedilink
      arrow-up
      58
      ·
      9 months ago

      I get the poor animals part, but this just seems like avarage shit you have to do in the countryside. Any good country folk know that (some) animals are your enemy, if there are wasps near your house? You kill them, their nest, wait for the extended family to search for their homes and kill them too. Now it’s a much safer enviroment. Same with all rodents, same with all insects, same with slugs… I guess, I never heard of a slug problem.

      • Baines@lemmy.world
        link
        fedilink
        arrow-up
        18
        arrow-down
        1
        ·
        9 months ago

        if there’s kittens in your barn and one gets in front of your tractor that’s just life

        farmer relative

        country folks can be just cold blooded

      • derpgon@programming.dev
        link
        fedilink
        arrow-up
        9
        ·
        9 months ago

        I used to have a can full of salty water and a little piece of wood with a big nail extending out one end (looked like a prison shiv). I’d impale the slugs and put them in the can. Leave the can overnight, dump em by the field in the morning, rinse and repeat whenever needed.

        • UnRelatedBurner
          link
          fedilink
          arrow-up
          5
          arrow-down
          1
          ·
          9 months ago

          I’d just spray the field with slug poison at this point. But I guess it’s more natural.

              • imPastaSyndrome@lemm.ee
                link
                fedilink
                arrow-up
                6
                ·
                9 months ago

                No offense, but you’re definitely the type that would’ve in the middle ages salted his own crops and then cursed the “witch” next door

                  • prayer@lemmy.world
                    link
                    fedilink
                    arrow-up
                    9
                    arrow-down
                    1
                    ·
                    9 months ago

                    Very bad. In antiquity, if an army felt personally slighted by a populace, instead of just burning their crops, they would burn and salt the fields. That would prevent the earth from being arable for generations. The salt prevents plant roots from drawing up water, so until the salt is washed away with enough rain (talking tens to hundreds of years depending on how much salt), nothing will grow.

          • derpgon@programming.dev
            link
            fedilink
            arrow-up
            4
            ·
            9 months ago

            Gotta get used to it. It’s free and more ecological - no chemicals at all. Also great grandpa-grandson bonding time. Slugs first, homegrown cucumber with salt later 👌