This morning's garden foray was weird.
Where were all the gastropods?
In 30 minutes of serious hunting, in past hiding places and what looked like reasonable candidates as auxiliary hiding places, I mostly came up empty. Some possible explanations for this:
- I've put a serious dent in the snail and slug population, and they need to do some serious reproducing to replenish their ranks. (I doubt I'm this successful so early in the campaign.)
- The snails and slugs that remain are hiding in the far recesses of the yard (like way the heck under the wisteria in the corner). From there, they may eventually make their way out to my hunting grounds, but at their snail's pace, they haven't yet.
- The relatively low humidity this morning (it was slightly less dewy than usual) means the snails and slugs were lying lower than usual (maybe beneath the soil) in my established hunting grounds.
- Maybe Thursday is the gastropod day of worship and they're all off ... worshipping somewhere else?
Yeah, I don't know.
Even thought I'm happy that maybe my sustained efforts are making a difference, my snail-picking time felt less efficient with so many fewer in evidence for me to pick.
Today's take: 28 snails and slugs (in 30 minutes).
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There just off building a really big trebuchet to retaliate for yesterday's incident. Well, you should hope it's just a trebuchet. I understand that when they get really angry RPG's are used. Gastropods are really vicious little buggers…
Rocket Propelled Gastropods?! Sounds awesome.
Some areas are cursed with migratory herds of gastropods. Once upon a time (in a much wetter climate that I won't be returning to) one morning the yard was thick with them. I wasn't much bothered, having nothing more than crabgrass and they were welcome to it. Less than a week later, the crabgrass was still there and the critters were gone.
The dog was curious, but I don't think he even tasted them.
I'd like a graphical representation of the haul by day. Perhaps we can extrapolate some trends.
I think it was significantly colder last night or rather this morning -- I wonder if there's a tipping point not only in humidity but ground temperature. Don't know for sure.
or their oracles finally got around to warning them off:
http://www.diggercomic.com/?p=121 ;)
It might be worth a shot to recruit a toad to aid you in your hunt. Gardeners' Supply Co has a toad house on sale: http://www.gardeners.com/toad-house/SnailsSlugsGrubs_Cat,37-461,default…
They're molluscs, not morons. They're onto you.