Agency puts its foot down in Sweden's battle with killer slugs
Published: 18 Jun 09 07:39 CET | Print version
Online: http://www.thelocal.se/20138/20090618/
Agriculture authorities in Sweden are setting up battle stations in the country’s continuing struggle to fight off killer slugs.
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Officials are hopeful that they will finally get an answer to the question of how to reduce the number of killer slugs, also known as Spanish slugs (Arion Lusitanicus).
“Today we don’t have enough knowledge about what dose is necessary to combat the slugs or if the substance used has a strong enough effect,” said Eva Mellqvist of the agency’s Plant Protection Division, to the TT news agency.
The killer slugs mainly affect farmers in Halland and Bohuslän near Sweden’s west coast, but recreational vegetable growers also have trouble with the slugs.
The Agriculture Board is participating in one project which examines different silage harvesting methods to see how they affect the number of slugs in the fodder.
Another project involves looking into the effects of the iron phosphate pesticide Ferramol in mixed-grass pastures.
A third project will attempt to uncover what aids the slugs’ survival and reproduction.
When asked about predictions for the scope of this year's killer slug infestation, Mellqvist said a lot depends on the weather.
“I don’t think it will be like 2007. Then there were a huge number of slugs following all the spring rains,” she explained.
“As long as there isn’t any more rain [it shouldn’t be as bad this year].”
What do you think? Leave your comment below.
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The Swedes are just getting hysterical
In days of old when a farmers horse and cart developed a squeaky axle in the middle of nowhere they would grab a handful of the big black ones and stuff them in the bearing for lubrication.
Not sure how well they would do in a modern car axle,.......maybe they would come out well done,fried, cooked,and ready to eat.
I heard the story about slugs years ago when the guide at a waterwheel claimed that they gathered slugs to use for bearing lubrication. Of course someone obligingly went outside and gathered some up.
ps Funny that Swedes call both slugs and snails sniglar. Pity cos I rather like snails, at least the small ones, but definitely not slugs. Its like them sometimes calling both a butterfly and a moth en fjäril (ok - moths nattfjäril, but not always)
Well at least they'll die happy.
The Spanish know how to deal with them.
They either put them in a pot and cook them with some garlic or else poison them with some pretty lethal stuff.
Always bring some back with me ...poison that is.
Like many things down, there from medications, to fireworks, to slug and weedkillers it is mighty powerful and needs to be used with care.
*simple really*
When did they immigrate, how, and how do they survive the Swedish winters?
Even on the Costas the temperature occasionally drops below zero.
Much of Spain is on high ground and snow into April is not unusual....
and I am not just talking about the tops of the Pyrannees.
In recent years during bad Winter weather the police set up road checks on many roads leading inland and turn back any vehicles not carrying snow-chains.
Having spent a few years in the temperate Canaries,very different, I was surprised to find Peninsula shops stocked up with large amounts of anti-freeze at the start of the Winter, just as in Sweden.
Initially read that as CIA! Second thought,probably couldn't arrive at a solution either.
*gross little buggers they are,slugs that is*
Some reasonably fine wire mesh over the beer tray will at least keep out the house toting varieties.