Slugging it out with garden foe
Anyone spotting me lurching about my garden in the dark with a torch in one hand and a can of beer in the other could be forgiven for thinking that lockdown has finally finished me!
But they'd be wrong, because I'm using my torch and lurching about to avoid the slugs swarming across the grass, and the beer's for the slug traps for the little blighters to die happily before they finally destroy my cabbages.
We're not allowed to use slug pellets so beer is the answer, obviously, isn't it always? I wonder how much beer farmers are using for their slugs and how long it takes them to dig enough holes to sink the jamjars among their acres of sluggy treats.
Since 2020 they've not been allowed to use most forms of poison but some are approved for "selective use" as part of an "integrated pest management scheme".
I don't even understand this, but I'm sure those who thought it up do.
Happily I don't have to rely on my supply of cabbages for the next 12 months, there are UK farmers to provide them, and if they fail because they can't control the pests, there's always foreign farmers who can!
Rosemary Allen is a retired livestock farmer living near Ellesmere
