critters

It didn't end up raining yesterday (so I didn't get a chance to test my dedication to snailing by snailing in the rain). Today dawned cold and dewy. Which meant I knew I was going to get some gastropod action. And indeed, I did. There were slugs aplenty on the moist leaves and blades of grass. Owing to the cold (which my fingers don't especially care for), I lost a few of them that leapt back to the earthy depths, but a good many found their way to the Soapy Bucket of Merciful Deliverance (the same one I prepared yesterday, when the pickings were slim). Today, there were a bunch of mid-…
This morning was cool, overcast, and very dry. There was no discernible dew on the grass. In other words, not conditions in which the gastropods come out to play. Having some experience of this kind of weather earlier in the snail eradication campaign, I went right for the well-insulated hiding places: the bases of plants that provide a lot of shade, the sides of the raised beds, the sides of the compost bin. Nothing. Finally, I ended up scraping the bottom of the barrel (actually, the bottom of a watering can) and found a few wee slugs. I managed to find some more slugs and a couple of…
This was another cool, dewy morning following on the heels of a blazing hot day. In other words, good snailing weather. I got started a little earlier than usual, because I had to empty yesterday's Soapy Bucket of Merciful Deliverance onto the compost pile and prepare a fresh Soapy Bucket of Merciful Deliverance. I was a little disconcerted at the bodily integrity of the slugs in the bucket -- perhaps it's a side effect of watching too many horror movies, but I have this tiny irrational fear that, since they're not melted, they might come back. Reason enough to turn the compost pile and make…
About half of the Free-Ride silkworms (who you know from pictures and videos) have decided that it's time to pupate. Of course, we immediately broke out the video camera. But, then the truth started to dawn on us. It takes a good while for a silkworm to make a cocoon. The ones that seem ready started almost 24 hours ago, and we're only now starting to see convincing signs that there will be cocoons soon. Because, having never made cocoons before, the silkworms kind of flail around for awhile, spinning silk and trying to stick it to surfaces it won't stick to, then tumbling down, then trying…
Yesterday was a super-hot day, and this morning was cool and dewy. Later, though, we're expecting temperatures higher than yesterday's. So the gastropods were out enjoying the break in the heat while it lasted. On the plus side, many of them will not have to suffer through today's heat. I brought them to my Soapy Bucket of Merciful Deliverance. (Thanks to Heddi for the tip!) The gastropods in evidence were skewed heavily toward slugs today. My shocking discovery was a climbing rose against the back fence whose blooms closest to the ground were festooned with slugs. At a certain point, I…
Well, I think it's safe to say that the slim pickings on days six and seven were related to the low level of dewiness. This morning: much dewier. The gastropod population in evidence in the back yard: back in the triple digits. Still, things seem not as infested as a week ago, when we launched the eradication effort. Most of the snails and slugs I found were a good distance from the vegetable garden, and the strawberries seem largely slug-free. However, I did have to pick a handful of snails out of the apple tree. Speaking of handfuls, my current record is 46 snails in one hand at a time.…
This morning I overslept, so I didn't get out into the yard until 6:15 AM to commence the gastropod picking. Either someone got to them before me, or there just aren't many left in the parts of the yard I am actively patrolling. Seriously, there weren't even any slugs on the side of the watering can (which is usually good for at least five slugs and snails on any given morning). By rummaging around at the bases of some of the bushier plants, I was able to scare up a few slugs -- fairly little ones, too, probably not mature enough to be reproducing. Like yesterday, this was not a very dewy…
We offer a couple more video sprog segments with the much enlarged silkworms. It won't be long before they're spinning cocoons (we're guessing -- and the mulberry trees are hoping), so these may be the last of their baby videos: Silkworm breeding: A perfect opportunity for a little child labor: My better half recommends the site wormspit.com for useful information about raising silkworms. The worms may pupate any day now. (Apparently, the sure sign that this is imminent is that the clear their guts. Ew.) I don't know if silkworms will make their cocoons on camera, but if they do, we'll…
Those wee little silkworms which you saw in videos last week are growing at an impressive rate. Here, see for yourself: They're bigger! Owing to their voracious appetites, the silkworms have sent us ransacking neighborhood mulberry trees (we've identified three so far)and bringing back a gallon of leaves at a time. They don't last long. At this point, the leaf-munching is loud enough that you can hear it if you hold your ear close to their container. The day the silkworms molted: My better half has graciously allowed me to post the picture of the molted silkworm faceplates here: I…
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…
Today, I may have picked slightly more slugs than snails. And, in the process of acquainting myself with the ways of the slug, I discovered a very good reason to perform early-morning gastropod removal as a solo activity: The tall grass slug trebuchet. Seriously, if either of the sprogs had been on the receiving end of the (totally accidental) launch, I think the screaming might still be in progress. Anyway, the slugs seems to like stretching themselves to their full length, helping them look like dew on stems and narrow plant leaves. But when you try to pick them, they rapidly change shape…
This morning, it seems like the pickings were somewhat slimmer. Part of this may have to do with the weekday morning time constraints (30 minute time limit). However, it seems like some regions of the yard that were swarming with gastropods over the weekend had only a few wee snails this morning. (It's possible that there are gastropod hiding places yet to be uncovered. That's a project for Saturday morning.) The wee snails may also be a sign that I'm making some progress -- the proportion of large snails relative to tiny ones was greatly decreased today. Since snails can't reproduce…
In light of our recent snail eradication project: Why does salt "melt" snails and slugs? (And how do people manage to prepare escargot without ending up with a big pot of goo?) To answer this question, let us consider the snail as seen by the chemist: The snail is an animal whose sliding-along-the-plants part (the foot) is made up of cells. Animal cells are, roughly, bags of aqueous solution and organelles wrapped in phospholipid bilayers (the cell membranes). For what we're looking at here, the important thing to know is that cell membranes are semipermeable membranes: some stuff travels…
Today was the first school day of our snail eradication project. This meant I had to get out to the yard a bit earlier (just after 6 AM), and that I had a fairly limited time to pick slugs and snails before I needed to get inside to propel the sprogs school-ward. Last night, when I was buying more salt, I noticed that rock salt was significantly cheaper than table salt, so that's the gastropod-melting agent that I'll be using until it runs out. Today, it seemed to do the job (while sounding a lot like gravel as I shook it to make sure the gastropods I had picked stayed picked). We may try…
This was another early morning out in the garden picking snails. It was, however, markedly yuckier than yesterday's foray. First, to those who have recommended alternate strategies for dissuading the gastropods, I've done the copper tape before. It seemed to help a little, but it was far from perfect -- some of the snails seemed not to mind getting a charge out of sliding across the copper. I think we may have a bit of copper tape in the garage. Perhaps I'll put it along the perimeter of our raised beds. The drowning-in-beer strategy we have tried. Each time, a few slugs and snails have…
The most troublesome invasive species in my backyard garden is the snail. Yesterday morning, when I took out the buckets of shower-warning-up and vegetable-rinsing water to feed to my plants, I was horrified to find snails on my carrots, snails on my chard, snails on my potatoes, snails on my garlic, and especially snails on my tender pea plants. The strawberries that were starting to get nice and red? Shot through with slugs (which are basically snails without the convenient handles). On top of our wee little lime tree? Snails copulating. This is not a situation conducive to effective…
Here's some more video footage of the Free-Ride silkworms, with color commentary from the Free-Ride offspring. Let me note here that as "pets" acquired as the elementary science classroom winds down for summer, silkworms are pretty agreeable. As long as you have a stable source of mulberry leaves and keep feeding them, they seem pretty content. Another animal in our science classroom that is looking for a summer home is a Madagascar hissing cockroach. The handout from the science teacher says he eats romaine lettuce and cat food. Talk about a hard sell! What's the adaptive advantage of…
This week, our first-ever video sprog blog. (Yeah, I know, I'm going to have to turn in my Luddite card now.) Because it's hard to do silkworms justice unless you can watch them squirm! Recall that these silkworms (who you've already seen in pictures) hatched from eggs that came home last June and stayed in the refrigerator until spring (when mulberry trees are nice and leafy). Dr. Free-Ride's better half warns that the silkworms are slightly out of focus in this video. I remind you that here at Friday Sprog Blogging, we make a point of protecting the identities of the very young. Yeah,…
A few weeks ago, the Free-Ride family welcomed some new members. About 14 new members (although it can be hard to get an accurate count when they're squirming around). Right now their main interests are eating, growing, and climbing on their siblings to find more to eat. Their growth is pretty alarming in its rapidity (especially since we've just moved them to the largest wide-mouth jar we have). We were waiting for their arrival for a good long while. Now that they're here, we're trying to enjoy the days before they grow up and have kids of their own.
It being spring and all, the Free-Ride offspring sometimes get that wistful why-aren't-we-4H-kids? look in their eyes. Not that there aren't critters aplenty in the back yard. The younger Free-Ride offspring sizes up the ladybugs and looks for a jar with holes in the lid that would be appropriate as a ladybug barn. (Then, I point out that the ladybugs are needed in the garden, right where they are, to keep the aphid population under control.) Most mornings, we have a delightful selection of colorful birds hopping around and eating (bugs, one assumes) right out our window. There are…