Slimy slug sale leaves social media trail
Maddy Savage - [email protected]
Published: 14 Jul, 2015 CET.
Updated: Tue 14 Jul 2015 16:43 CET
A Swedish man fed up of finding so many slugs in his garden is attempting to sell one kilogram of the slippery creatures online in a move that has caused a stir on social media.
Daniel Claesson, 40, says the last straw came when he and his wife Nina, 38, returned from holiday over the weekend to find almost 300 of the creatures covering their lawn in Jönköping in southern Sweden.
"We always have plenty of them in our garden and it is mostly Nina who is picking them up and killing them, which gets tiring," he told The Local on Tuesday.
"After weighing one kilo of them in just one evening, I thought maybe there is someone who would actually want them. I didn't think anyone seriously would but I was tired of the slugs and so I put an advert online as a fun thing to do."
A close-up of the snails. Photo: Private
His advert on Swedish online marketplace Blocket (similar to Craigslist in the US or Gumtree in the UK and Australia) has since gone viral after being picked up by several newspapers, although Claesson says he has only had 15 messages from potential buyers.
"It is interesting how something little like this can become enormous," he laughed.
"The responses have not been serious, they have asked things like 'are the animals ecological?', 'how old are they?' or 'have you fed them anything other than grass," he explained.
Daniel Claesson who is selling the slugs. Photo: Private
Claesson said that if he did find a buyer for the slimy garden creatures, he would give the money to his local church, which has recently launched a number of initiatives to help growing numbers of EU migrants who have moved to the area.
"I think it is really important to find a way to help these people make it...I am not a politician so it is not up to me to judge if they should be here. But it is my way to help those who are here in any way I can," he said.
"It's not what I had in mind when I put the advert up, but after all the interest in what I was doing I started to think about how I should spend the money."
Claesson added that he doubts anyone will spend more than 100 kronor ($12) on the animals, however if his sales method works, he said he would turn to Blocket again to sell more of the creatures, to save him from killing them.
"Usually I cut them up with scissors or put them in a bucket of beer - that's a good tip," he told The Local.
"I am not sure what is the most humane way of getting rid of them, I don't really think they have that much feeling, but I am not an expert in these things."
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Daniel Claesson, 40, says the last straw came when he and his wife Nina, 38, returned from holiday over the weekend to find almost 300 of the creatures covering their lawn in Jönköping in southern Sweden.
"We always have plenty of them in our garden and it is mostly Nina who is picking them up and killing them, which gets tiring," he told The Local on Tuesday.
"After weighing one kilo of them in just one evening, I thought maybe there is someone who would actually want them. I didn't think anyone seriously would but I was tired of the slugs and so I put an advert online as a fun thing to do."
A close-up of the snails. Photo: Private
His advert on Swedish online marketplace Blocket (similar to Craigslist in the US or Gumtree in the UK and Australia) has since gone viral after being picked up by several newspapers, although Claesson says he has only had 15 messages from potential buyers.
"It is interesting how something little like this can become enormous," he laughed.
"The responses have not been serious, they have asked things like 'are the animals ecological?', 'how old are they?' or 'have you fed them anything other than grass," he explained.
Daniel Claesson who is selling the slugs. Photo: Private
Claesson said that if he did find a buyer for the slimy garden creatures, he would give the money to his local church, which has recently launched a number of initiatives to help growing numbers of EU migrants who have moved to the area.
"I think it is really important to find a way to help these people make it...I am not a politician so it is not up to me to judge if they should be here. But it is my way to help those who are here in any way I can," he said.
"It's not what I had in mind when I put the advert up, but after all the interest in what I was doing I started to think about how I should spend the money."
Claesson added that he doubts anyone will spend more than 100 kronor ($12) on the animals, however if his sales method works, he said he would turn to Blocket again to sell more of the creatures, to save him from killing them.
"Usually I cut them up with scissors or put them in a bucket of beer - that's a good tip," he told The Local.
"I am not sure what is the most humane way of getting rid of them, I don't really think they have that much feeling, but I am not an expert in these things."
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