Urgh!!

[laser_jock99]

I just knelt on a big, black slug while doing my polar alignment. Black goo all over my clothes. Now it's started to cloud over as well. What else can go wrong......

[LukeSkywatcher]

For the slug, i'm thinking it cant get much worser.

[Steve Ward]

I just wandered out onto the patio for a last look see before bed ...... barefoot........ You can guess the rest ..........Urgh ! indeed...........

[sam mayo]

i had a similar problem a few nights back got out the shower seen it was clear so put the scope out to cool bare foot and felt the slimy thud or a massive slug between the toes(i was wearing clothes just bare foot)then did the old shack to rid it and then promply spread in on the mat as i went inside, was not my best moment

slug 1

intelligence 0

mat down!!

[JamesF]

My son was out on the patio the other day without shoes on and stood on a slug, much to his disgust. Since then we have started referring to going barefoot as "wearing your slug-squashing shoes".

James

[LeeB]

Its a lovelly noise of an exploding snail for me as I walk across the lawn, .......

[Black Knight]

Years ago I used to live close to a canal. At the time, I used to work shifts so I'd be walking home probably around midnight down a narrow poorly lit lane to get home. Anyway, once a year frog-spawning season would be upon us, and once the little beggars could hop, they be off, like a plague. Trouble was they be off all over the lane. You couldn't avoid them, everywhere you stepped you'd tread on one. I used to carry a torch so I could try and avoid them, but the ground was covered with them - thousands of them. Even when I trod really carefully, the occasional tiddler would hop straight under my boot .... I hate to think how many I must have squelched ....

[Mr Q]

To control those slimy slugs, take some table salt and pour a thin line line of it around your observing site and, if it's near your house, make a walking path to the scope. If you are standing on grass, the salt will work but may damage the grass slightly. Slugs get burned by the salt as they touch it and will not cross the line (if they do, they will die shortly). Of course, if it rains, the line(s) will have to be replaced after the ground dries.

[TheThing]

To control those slimy slugs, take some table salt and pour a thin line line of it around your observing site and, if it's near your house, make a walking path to the scope. If you are standing on grass, the salt will work but may damage the grass slightly. Slugs get burned by the salt as they touch it and will not cross the line (if they do, they will die shortly). Of course, if it rains, the line(s) will have to be replaced after the ground dries.

That's also a good way to protect yourself from ghosts, according to Supernatural!

Is it just me or is it a bumper year for slugs?

TheThing

[laser_jock99]

Is it just me or is it a bumper year for slugs?

TheThing

It is a bumper year for slugs I believe:

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-19337612

[MAN or ASTROMAN]

As an allotment holder,I can definately confirm that IS the 'year of the slug'.Did stand on a snail that had managed to slither up our flight of steps the other night-I can confirm that they do make a guiltily satisfying CRUNCH! Whilst I moan about slug and snail damage to my plants,I tend to think that every living thing has a purpose,and have to grudgingly admit that the molluscs certainly seem to fill their evolutionary niche with great success. A thought that has struck me several times, when I've been annoyed enough to squash one of the blighters, is that if we ever found the Martian equivelent of the slug,then it would perhaps be the greatest scientific discovery of all time (too much time on my hands,LOL!).

[Shibby]

Yes definitely a major slug problem this year! Must be the humitidy... I now always check the area with a torch before polar aligning!

One night I came in to find a snail half-way up my leg, so I must have been stood still gazing for a while!

[Beulah]

Cabbage White butterflies are all the rage at the moment as well.....

[Si W]

Got a resident snail crashing down during the day on the rail of my obby.

[The Sailor]

Snails and Cabbage White butterflies, garden is full of them!!

Reading what Andy said about walking along the lane and the frogs reminded me of the crabs in British Honduras, out of the swamp and across the road at breeding time, the road for miles was a carpet of them and cars just ran over them. Problem came to a head when they invaded the camp and quite a few of the lads got slugs guns to take them on, the whole perimeter of the camp was full of dead crabs and they started to stink in the heat, lots of cleaning up to be done .

Jim

[Star Gazer]

I stood on a slug a couple of nights ago when I was out for a quick peak in my socks. Yuk Yuk! It must be the unfortunate or should that fortunate side of star gazing

[Cath]

I have the same problem, you can't see them in the dark cuz they're black .. Have to use the torch to walk around them when in and out to/from the scope.

[Moonshane]

I often like a can of beer while observing. Once I was observing something interesting and it had been sat for a while. I picked it up for a slurp and found I was beaten to it by a slug. Basically I did not see it and ended up kissing it! No magical transformation thank goodness.

[Dunkster]

Anyone else suffer with fox poo? I'm compelled to hose down the patio on evenings that hold promise... what to do when it's dark before I get home from work?

[JamesF]

Anyone else suffer with fox poo?

No. I'd get to see the doctor if I were you

Actually we do get it around here, but not around where I observe. It's particularly bad when the apples are ripe and the eat the windfalls. It is rumoured that they can be warded off by hanging old tights with a filling of human hair (I imagine a visit to the local barber would sort that if you don't have enough of your own) around the border of the garden. I wouldn't overdo it though, or the neighbours might talk..

James

[The Sailor]

I honestly hated it when after working on a box out in the country, get back into the van and realise that I have knelt in fox poo or where they have urinated, stinks to high heaven. The coveralls would still smell after weeks of washing .

Jim

[Richardisgreat]

I stood on a slug a couple of nights ago when I was out for a quick peak in my socks. Yuk Yuk! It must be the unfortunate or should that fortunate side of star gazing

Yep i did the exact same thing, i went out for a quick peek with socks on and squelch, cold and wet yuk.

[jam1e1]

No. I'd get to see the doctor if I were you

Actually we do get it around here, but not around where I observe. It's particularly bad when the apples are ripe and the eat the windfalls. It is rumoured that they can be warded off by hanging old tights with a filling of human hair (I imagine a visit to the local barber would sort that if you don't have enough of your own) around the border of the garden. I wouldn't overdo it though, or the neighbours might talk..

James

Or line your fences with old rose canes, the spikes keep bigger animals away!

[Cath]

Caught them diving for cover this morning ...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9yIWSA_2oDk

[sam mayo]

haa ha