Snail and slug hunting

We came back from our weekend vacation and found the lettuce we had just planted was gone. Not all of it. About a third of the little starts we had so optimistically planted. The remainders were forlorn and stripped of most leaves.  And of course we could see the telltale silvery trails around the beds.

oh no. we have had a snail and slug attack. We decided against using Sluggo. Yes, I have used it around two of our flower beds and it really works. But I just don't like putting it into our vegetable beds. Even though it is ok for organic gardens. Just overly cautious I guess.

So we decided to try the manual method. The photo above may resonate with a few of you. Have you gone out for an evening of snail hunting?  We did it for 3 nights in a row. I won't tell you how many we had to catch. It was distressing since I basically think that snails are cute. Slugs, not so much. But each night there were much fewer.  We only did it for 3 nights and now our lettuce is growing again. That really wasn't so bad.

So we have won one battle. I know, not the war. But it feels good anyway.