12 
Slugs and Snails. 
By ,‘Farmer 'Giles.” 
We all know slugs and snails, unfortu- 
nately. -During the last five months they 
have so much increaséd all. over the 
country that. there have been cases of 
whole fields of cabbage and. other . plants 
haying been; completely destroyed by 
tiem, In allotments and gardens they 
haye frequently been so numerous that it 
has been impossible to crop a crop of 
early peas and beans and even potatoes 
and flowering plants, 
Fancy man being at the mercy of a 
thing which he can easily crush at any 
moment under his heel, and which can- 
not vet away either’ as rats, for instance 
But so it is, nevertheless, 
With 
our usual careless in these matters, we 
and sparrows, 
for it is ‘the quantity as does it.” 
have let them kecome sonumerons that 
nothing but very determined action on 
our part will get. them under again and 
save our crops from their slimy jaws. 
Slugs have no shells like the snails, but 
are, nevertheless, protected. In the first 
place, they wear a kind of breastplate 
under their slin ; and sccondly, they are 
able to exude—sweat out—a slime which 
isa perfect protection against one dress- 
iug with lime, fairly good against three 
dressings. At the third dres ing it is 
all over with the slug. 
— Different Kinds of Slugs. — 
The: best-known -that is, the worst 
slug of the whole tribe—is the Grey Field 
Slug. There is not a garden or allot- 
ment of field where these slimy pests do 
not come out at night and “rasp up” the 
best plants with their teeth, which is set 
in a ribbon acting like a rasp. 
They are double-sexed, and each slug 
lays 500 eyys in the season, from May till 
November. The eggs are of a milky 
colour, round and opaque—that is, not 
not transparent?. They are usually found 
in batches of six to fifteen, in the earth 
or under rubbish, -When they are hat- 
ched—at the énd of three or four weeks 
—they are not longer than one-twelfth of 
an inch, but they begin at once to rasp 
up the food, picking out, of course, the 
choicest p'ants, and grow rapidly—at 
your expense, 
THE AUSTRALIAN GARDENER. 
Another slug, the Root-eating Slug? 
does itself well on your bulbs and roots 
during the night, and in the morning pulls 
down a leaf, which it takes along with it 
to its hiding place to serve as a provender 
and helping it to while away the time of 
day, for it seems to be eating twenty-four 
hours in the day, The large Black Slug 
leaves fields alone, and gives its attention 
evclusively to gardens and allotments—it 
is more particular in’ what it eats. 
The Yellow Slug lives in the house—in 
cellars, sculleries and dairies. It has de- 
veloped a fondness for meal and flour, 
eats enormous quantitses and spoils more, 
In the dairy it lives on cream. and in the 
cellar on anything it can get° down to 
bear drippings. 
Of the snails, the large Garded Snail is 
the most common kind. Everyone 
knows her brown house with the pale zig- 
zag lines. Snails, too, are double-sexed, 
and lay alarge number of eggs, about 
sixty to seventy to each heap. These 
eggs are round like slug eggs, but white 
and shiny, batch in fifteen days and then 
the young snails grows—you can almost 
see them growing. The Strawberry 
Snailis only half an inch long, but does 
fearful damage in strawberry beds and 
violets. Iris and other garden plants are 
almost completely ruined by it. Its shell 
is dirty brown or reddish brown, with 
brown streaks, and a little white band 
round the last whorl, Like the others, 
it feeds at night, but comes out during 
the day after a rain. 
The Small Banded Snail is a terrible 
pest in fields and gardens near the sea, 
At night they come out in vast numbers, 
attacking herbs and bushes en masse and 
doing great damage, in particular to 
wheat, mustard and other field crops. _ 
_ — Natural Enemies of Slugs and 
Snails, — 
Fortunately for us there are several 
birds who are very partial to snugs and 
snails, and deyour, and at any time kill, 
enormous quantities, First among ‘them 
is the thrush. In the war against these 
slimy pests wecould not wish for a better 
ally,.for thrushes are slug and snail kill- 
ing all the day long. They break the 
shells of snails against stohes, and then 
pick out the juicy owner of the house. 
June, 1910 
Blackbirds and starlings are also useful 
in destroying them: Toads are worth 
their weight in gold in an allotment or 
field, and the man-who kills a toad ought 
not to be allowed to have a garden. 
Poultry and ducks are perhaps most: use- 
ful-of all, because, as.is done in France, 
Germany, and elsewhere, they are fatten- 
ened for the market by being used. for 
clearing fields and gardens of slugs and 
snails, This is not’ only: combining 
good business with pleasure, but doing 
double good business. 
— To Get Rid of the Pests. — 
Here is a list of things which you 
might do, and some of which, you should 
do unless you don’t mind the slugs and 
snails having half your crop. - 
1. Encourage the thrush. In Germany 
smallholders have nesting boxes especially 
built for thrushes, ‘They ‘cost a few 
pence and saye pounds. If they takea 
little fruit afterwards it won’t hurt you 
very much, and if you think it does you 
can easily keep them off. : 
2. Pen ducks and poultry on infested 
land wherever possible. 
8, Don’t kill the toads, 
4, In gardens put down cabbage leaves 
or moist oatmeal. Both act as an effective 
trap. 
5. Heavy applications of/soot are a good 
thing to keep off snails. 
6. Keep on picking them off from May 
until September. You will see the bone- 
fit next year, 
7. A small but deep trench filled with 
lime or tar is a powerful protection 
against an invasion from slug and snail 
infested land, because it will trap every 
one of them that attempts to invade. 
Rings of slaked lime put around any 
choice plants will keep both slugs and 
snails off, 
Two years ago I saw a garden where 
_there was not a single slug or snail, whilst 
two neighbouring market gardens were 
also eaten up by them. Slugs and snails 
are vermin of the garden and field. 
_ Every tramp began with only one louse 
or two. Lack of vigilance or indifference 
brought about oyer-population and 
much tribulation. Exactly the same 
applies to farmer’s foes. Always keep a 
sharp lookout for them, and when you 
seo them, kill, 
