Yes, I did. And I’m not ashamed of it.
This is what the ground looked like under the capillary box that I grew tomatoes in last year (and weeds this year, since I didn’t actually plant anything in it this year…). Or rather, this is what it looked like under the capillary box after I had poured two litres of boiling water over the ground, so these will be dead slug eggs.
Now, there are slugs I HATE (killer slugs) and there are slugs I tolerate. These eggs, by all probability, are from a type of slug that I tolerate, the leopard slug.
That would be the mother/father of the eggs I killed off. I do kill all kinds of slug eggs, but I don’t mind having a small population of leopard slugs in my garden. For one things they are significantly more stylish than the killer slugs, and secondly they also have a knack for hunting down other slugs and kill them. (And they don’t breed in the same ridiculously prolific fashion as the killer slugs…)
It IS a pest in some ways, but all things considered it’s good to have them in the garden since they are preferable to other slugs and will keep them at bay, at least to some extent.
NOTE: This is only true in areas where the Iberian slug, i.e. the KILLER slug, has invaded, so Northern mainland Europe. Had I gardened on the British Isles, for example, I’d have killed it on sight!
(Also, according to wikipedia, they are rather clever little fellows: “Limax maximus is capable of associative learning, specifically classical conditioning, because it is capable of aversion learning and other types of learning.”)
And now enough of this; I finished digging out the unnamed flower bed in the lawn last night, so now it’s time to find some compost and dig in so I can get some stuff planted in there!
Spotted my first leopard slug a week or so ago when we were out for a walk. I agree, quite stylish . . . well for a slug. Fortunately for it, it wasn’t in my garden or at the plot so it survived. Like you I’m ruthless when I find a slug now.
I like that it preys on other slugs… And at a top speed of 6″ per minute it’s really rather fast for a slug. I like my slugs like I like my women: Stylish and fast – and never in any sort of intimate physical contact with me.
In the UK I’d kill it at sight, because it DOES eat all sorts of plants, but here I tend to let it live in moderation as part of my Army Against Killer Slugs!
Interesting that the leopard slug kills the killer slugs! And we don’t think of slimy things like that having brains that function enough to learn, but how else would it have survived for so long? I bet they think of us as big dumb ugly (non-slimy) giants!
I’m quite sure the leopard slug in the picture thinks of me in no kindly terms, considering that it nearly had its tail scorched when I poured out the boiling water…
But yes, I was quite fascinated by their supposed learning abilities, and I am now considering if it’s possible to train them to live only on a diet of killer slugs and ground elder…
I don’t believe I’ve ever seen any stylish slugs in the US.
Well, I could have exported some, but I killed the eggs… Sorry…