Insects or people, "this town ain't big enough for the both of us".

Irish Gardener

Locally there have been a few light car accidents (or tips as we call them), mainly at country road junctions.
A lot of the involved parties blamed the uncut grassy roadside verges obscuring their view.
I believe the verges are uncut at the moment to provide shelter and hosting for insect life.
Now, being a gardener, I love insects especially benificial ones.
But I also love people (nice people)
What do you nature folks think about the subject...

crosstownk

I picked the third option as I live in Dublin, while I keep the grass cut and tidy, I don't go all out to get rid of insects unless they pose some danger (wasps for example). I've lots of insect activity in my garden, ants under the patio who keep removing the sand from below, a nest of earwigs (I think), I've a large population of woodlice but I haven't figured out where their 'crib' is yet.

I do put slug pellets down as those slimey ba$tards make short work of a lot of plants. Any idea what sort of birds will kill slugs/snails and how would I go about encouraging such a bird into the garden?

Archeron

I'm going for protect the people on this one. My own limited experience with the insect world has taught me that they'll make a new home quick enough, and the chances are it will be in the worst place imaginable like the back of a cupboard of under your bed.

At this point, I think back to the many times I've run in what felt like slow motion while some sort of flying alien creature the size of a volkswagon polo swoops in with an aerial attack. Are bugs getting bigger or am I getting smaller?

Irish Gardener

crosstownk wrote:

Any idea what sort of birds will kill slugs/snails and how would I go about encouraging such a bird into the garden?

Plant more trees and large shrubs, crosstownk.
Put up some bird feeders, but let them go empty of food every so often.
The birds will say to themselves "The ejitt forgot to put out food again, oh well, I might just eat some of those juicy slugs down there.

crosstownk

Cheers I'll give the 'more food' idea a go but if I plant any more large bushes I'll have chimpanzees, macaws and God knows what else. I'm at my limit if large shrubs!

boneless

crosstownk wrote:

I picked the third option as I live in Dublin, while I keep the grass cut and tidy, I don't go all out to get rid of insects unless they pose some danger (wasps for example). I've lots of insect activity in my garden, ants under the patio who keep removing the sand from below, a nest of earwigs (I think), I've a large population of woodlice but I haven't figured out where their 'crib' is yet.

I do put slug pellets down as those slimey ba$tards make short work of a lot of plants. Any idea what sort of birds will kill slugs/snails and how would I go about encouraging such a bird into the garden?

Make sure the slug pellets are bird friendly!! I use the old beer traps myself for the slugs; they die happy and the birds are protected:)

Thrushes and blackbirds take slugs, as do the mad magpies. Put ot some ground food to attract the two former mentioned; but not too much or you will attract other vermin... you can guess!!

Back on topic: I think that a good medium can be reached in the protection of insect habitat and road safety. I do feel though that impatience and speeding contributes to accidents at junctions.

artieanna

okay I hate snails and I hate pellets....cats do eat them i don't care what it says on the pack I have checked this.. and young kids can pop them in their mouth..
my solution is i have flat stones (small flagstones) raised slightly around the garden, raised slightly with pebbles. The snails crawl under them during the day i lift stones and remove snails and dump them alive far away from my garden (it takes long time for them 1. to find my garden again and 2. to travel all the way back). check under thick foliage too for the slimy critters.
anything is better than pesticides, which are pure posion...

artieanna

Irish Gardener

Fair play to you artieanna.
Everyone including the slugs live.
And it is a free form of pest control