Comments on: Taking Slugs Seriously (or not)

By: Ian

Ian — Sun, 08 Jun 2008 18:05:23 +0000

Hi
Let create some GM slugs that are really tasty. this way we can all harvest our protein from our local surroundings. This protein would have a really small carbon foot print (grown and consumed locally) and would be a boon to all local garlic growers!

By: Jonathan Pollard

Jonathan Pollard — Sat, 07 Jun 2008 13:07:23 +0000

Oh no! I ‘swallowed’ the same story and even told it to a few friends. I really thought it was true! You got me hook, line and sinker, Rob! I’m glad I never really fancied trying it now…

By: Leanne Veitch

Leanne Veitch — Fri, 06 Jun 2008 03:19:10 +0000

ROTFL

[still laughing]

Hmmm...maybe an eco-friendly alternative to Barbie clothes, and all the plastic packaging that go with them?

heee heee!

(My mother is such a sucker. I wonder if she'll fall for that one?)

By: Greenpa

Greenpa — Mon, 02 Jun 2008 13:26:48 +0000

Wow! You’ve got a fantastic story there, simultaneously roll-on-the-floor funny and genuinely terrifying.

What the heck happened to education?? There seem to be a startlingly large number of people out there these days who truly can’t tell the difference between a truth and a blatant fallacy.

And the clueless ones have also frequently been imbued with diamond-hard “self-esteem”.

Another major problem for you to tackle, Rob.

By: Jennifer Lauruol

Jennifer Lauruol — Mon, 02 Jun 2008 12:57:38 +0000

Thank you, Rob. You had me rolling around my office, clutching my sides laughing.

As an ex-pat Yank, I regret that some of my fellow Americans just don't get English irony....

My own mollusc tale happened in a small village in the Pyrenees. I stopped to chat to a local guy as he walked through the cobbled street with a saucepan full of snails, many climbing over the sides. He regailed me with all seriousness about the herbs he was feeding them (thyme and rosemary) to make them sweat out their goo ('bave') prior to cooking them with butter and garlic...I haven't tried the recipe yet, but surely here's a new Permaculture output we can sell from our gardens? Do you think the media chefs would buy it?

By: Robert

Robert — Mon, 02 Jun 2008 09:55:06 +0000

Well, here in Spain they sell snail slime in pots as a beauty treatment (no kidding!) - surely slug slime must be more or less the same stuff? Although slug slime perhaps wouldn't be quite such a big seller...

Also they eat snails here big time - I saw some people out collecting snails after heavy rain yesterday. I've heard that in Portugal they eat slugs. But who knows, maybe this is just another ironic hoax...

As for slug treatment, at the moment I am hurling them over into the neighbours' heavily bramble-infested garden. Since the brambles are threatening to overwhelm our land, I think this qualifies as a an application of "the problem is the solution".

But if the small snotty ones are the real problem, maybe I'm wasting my effort. Rob, how did you come to the conclusion that the small ones are causing most of the damage? Do you have a time-lapse camera set up, or what?

By: Graham Burnett

Graham Burnett — Mon, 02 Jun 2008 08:47:17 +0000

Yes, I’ve also had students on courses I’ve run saying that the’ve read all about making slug skin trousers in the Permaculture magazine… Usually overheard conversations during break times…

By: Robert

Robert — Mon, 02 Jun 2008 08:15:36 +0000

Well, they're marketing snail slime in pots as a beauty treatment (in Spain, at least). And they eat snails here, too. Maybe slugs are next? I've heard that they actually do eat slugs in Portugal, but that could be another ironic hoax...

My slug strategy at the moment is to use them as weed control: I toss them over the fence into the neighbour's bramble-infested garden that's constantly threatening to engulf ours. Don't know if this is doing much good... especially if as you say the tiny snot blobs are the ones doing most of the damage.

How did you come to this conclusion, anyway? Time-lapse photography?

By: Finn Jackson

Finn Jackson — Mon, 02 Jun 2008 07:51:47 +0000

Surely slugs are the cure for Peak Oil?
Melt them in a small saucepan and then use as a replacement for 3 in 1 on squeaky hinges, bicycle chains, …?? (The enzymes in the sticky trails ensure good adhesion to the surface being lubricated.)

By: Steve Atkins

Steve Atkins — Mon, 02 Jun 2008 07:35:51 +0000

ha ha!
Slug trousers – brilliant idea Rob.
I’m collecting 5 litres of slug slime for the next car service.

x steve