- Morning Morsel Muncher
On the one hand, I admire that chickens don’t like to eat slugs. I can’t think that any self-respecting person would, except as a last resort. On the other hand, since our girls are messing up the flowerbeds with their dust baths and endless searches for yummy little morsels of who-knows-what, it would be helpful if slugs were a part of their diet.
I understand that ducks like slugs and we’ve been tempted to add a few to our backyard menagerie. But the trade-off – slimy duck poop all over the lawn – is said to be worse than the slugs. Chicken poop is bad enough but at least it’s not slimy. If I have to deal with slime, it might be easier to stick (so to speak) to slugs.
Years ago, when we were all much younger, Nyel would do a dawn walk around the garden collecting slugs and dropping them into a bucket with a couple of inches of soapy water in the bottom. He always got 100 or more. His record for one morning was 179! After several months with no let-up in the numbers (and no let-up in the damage) we began to take more serious measures. Slug bait.
Since getting the girls, though, we’ve been avoiding the slug bait route. Those little poison pellets might look too much like something edible, although people tell us that chickens are smarter than that. Maybe. Lately, we’ve been using a liquid snail and slug repellent (read poison) but it looks to me like it soaks right into the wood chips that Fred used for mulch. So, is it working? If I weren’t so sporadic in my gardening duties, maybe I could tell.
The other day on our walk we spied a medium-sized slug climbing up a tall stalk of grass. Climbing!! That might explain the huge chomped holes in my climbing nasturtiums. I could swear that those leaves were fine just a few days ago. The bind weed, of course, is thriving – not even slugs like morning glory!
Chickens aren’t smarter than that. I tried the non-poisonous slug bait but our girls were wild for it. I had to fence everything off until it had dissipated. I don’t know what it might have done to them but they would eat every last pellet!
I once planted a row of marigolds along my walk and the next morning instead of bright orange blossoms, I was greeted by a row of stems! A friend of mine tried the duck route. He told me after only a few days he had to use a toothbrush to “deslime” his duck’s beak or the duck would starve to death, unable to open his mouth! … Shortly after that he dined on duck. 🙂
Try putting little saucers of beer out. That is what my friend does. Her Pug, Winston, goes around and drinks the beer though…lol. The chickens might get drunk!