ROTFL! This is definately the funniest post of the new year! I rate
it two thumbs up! Can I forward this to Gardens-L?
Laughing in Washington!
Debbie TT. "Ever stop to think, and forget to start again?"
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Debra Teachout-Teashon
Art and Gardening
http://www.premier1.net/~teachout/debra.html
teachout@premier1.net
Washington state
USDA Zone 8, Sunset Zone 5
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(to reduce deer predations)
Oh, really? Do tell...
Diane Ridout, Instructor, ACP.............................................
Kwantlen University College, "Talk
PO Box 9030 doesn't
Surrey, BC, Canada cook rice," they say.
Tel: (604) 599-2964 Voice mail 9837.......................................
-Dana Lanier wrote
When I lived in Zayante, in the SC mountains the things got into my shack
and ate my books! and anything else organic. What they didn't eat the
rats ate including my shoes. I moved to England about 13 years ago and
that solved the problem. Kinda drastic though. There is an age old custom
in Central California culture that young boys send banana slugs to heaven
in the following manner:
1. find banana slug
2. put firecracker in its path
3. wait
4. when the slug has slithered over the firecracker but not beyond
5. light it
6. wait
7. say a prayer for the slug
I must admit that it is time consuming to do it this way, but it definitely
works! And it is painless to the slug.
The other solutions are:
1. Aluminum sulfate, not recommended as it gives you Alzheimer's disease.
2. Slug pellets, not recommended as they dont work very well, kill the
birds that eat the dead slugs, and are not organic.
3. Ducks and Geese. Just love to eat them.
4. Go into the jumping frog business. Some large bull frogs will eat them
(they do in England).
5. Go out at night when they are about, armed with a flashlight and sissors
and execute them (think of it as feeding the birds), this is VERY popular
in England (the English are a funny lot.)
6. Give up and learn to live with them (I do that a lot.)
7. Move to France and eat them.
As for deer--
If you drive your car VERY fast, late at night down Zayante Road you will
definitely reduce the deer population of the Santa Cruz mountains. I know
that this works, as I used to get up at 3AM every morning to go to work and
if my truck had been just a bit faster I would have reduced the population
of deer by one or two every morning.
Another thing you can do is take off your clothes and run around the
garden. Deer dont like naked humans running around. I have first hand
experience with this as well.
But I recommend that you go to the barber shop and ask for all the hair
cuttings. Take them and use them as a mulch. The scent of hair gel (and
humans) turns deer off and they will go to a garden owned by someone with
better taste.
I hoped that this helped you solve your problems.
Regards,
Wm Guiness--Teaching the British to Yoddel
North Chingford, London, England
Now, William, if you lived on Zayante Road, you must be a fan of that folk
phenomenon, The Banana Slug String Band, based in lovely Santa Cruz, CA..
Quoting the lyrics from one of their memorable hits:
Banana slugs, banana slugs,
I like them, they're _beautiful_
Banana slugs, banana slugs,
They're part of the circle...
It must be January. Not much to do but tell tall tales of vermin, leaf
through seed catalogs, and (once in a while) turn the compost.
Don
Charlotte 8a
NC, USA
(You teach them to yodel?)
Has any one seen todays paper? Her in the Orlando paper it is big news that
the University of California, Santa Cruz has offically made the Banana Slug
it's school mascot. Costume and all. Those slugs will get you one way or
another
Anne, who spent the day picking snails out of the garden.
