Sunday, May 17, 2009

Slugs, Copper, And A Lion Named Elsa!

My apologies for leaving you in the dark in yesterday's post regarding slugs. The two things we are planning to try this year in our attempts to keep the rather prolific beings at bay are egg shells, and hopefully copper wire.

We've used eggshells combined with slug bait with limited success in the past. This year I plan to grind them much finer before applying. For those who may not have heard of this option, the crushed eggshells act like glass for bugs and slugs. Since it is applied on the ground it doesn't affect the beneficial bees, but the slugs tend to turn the other direction when they encounter it. I've actually seen ants making a beeline for a plant and do an about face when running into the eggshell barrier!

The copper wire is an idea I came up with after Nathan informed me that slugs don't like copper. Evidently, according to a gardening book he read, it acts rather like an electrical current, giving them a shock and sending them on their way.

A while back the kids informed me they had found some copper wire, and I was thinking that would make for a fine gardening experiment, perhaps making a line around sections of garden plants, but when I inquired as to it's whereabouts yesterday, I was told they had decided it wasn't good for anything so they had tossed it. *sigh*. Now I'm daring to hope that if there was some in one place, perhaps I will find more elsewhere on the property. I'll keep you posted!

In the meantime, It is Sunday once again, which means Saturday has come and gone and it is time for my weekly....

Saturday Night At The Movies!

This week the kids were all excited to see Born Free as an option at Netflix. Last night we all sat down and enjoyed it together. What a fun blast to the past (all the way back to 1966!) for me, and I think the kids enjoyed it even more than I did! That in itself was thrilling for me, as the older films don't always appeal to them so much. This one, like the book it was based on definitely stood the test of time! Odds are you've already seen this film, and like me, more than a couple years have passed since you saw it or, unless you happened to hear the title song played on an oldies station, even thought about it. In my opinion, this is a film worthy of resurrecting for family viewing. After discussing it last night we all agreed it was a 4.5 star event (out of 5 possible). A pretty high rating for our family!

Happy Sunday! Hope the sun is shining in your neck of the woods!

3 comments:

My Little Room In The Corner said...

You want to know what slugs really hate? W.Y.O.M.I.N.G. Never saw one until I moved to NY! Now I am picking them off my tomatoes, my roses, my sidewalk!

Thanks for the reminder of a great movie!

HDMac said...

So... are you going to take any pictures of the lovely (***cough, cough) slugs so that your readers that have never seen one of these fine creatures LOOK like? lol... I keep finding them in my rhubarb!

Boondock Ma (Kim's Mom) said...

LOL Marcia! You KNOW I've been thinking about that! So far this year all we've had are the smaller ones. I'm waiting for the appearance of the huge things our region is known for though! ;-)