Can animals bring slugs from the street. Various ways to deal with slugs in the garden

Slug (slug)- the common name for a number of gastropod molluscs, which in the course of evolutionary development have undergone reduction or complete loss of the shell ( slugs - English; limaces - French; Nacktschnecken - German.). Slugs are opposed to gastropods with a well-developed shell (snails). The slug form independently arose in several groups of aquatic and terrestrial gastropod mollusks, therefore, the totality of all species is considered not as a taxon, but as ecological form. Sometimes slugs that have retained a rudimentary shell are called semi-slugs (English semislug).

It is assumed that the reduction and subsequent loss of the shell had ecological prerequisites and occurred, for example, during the transition to habitation in dense thickets of aquatic plants or forest litter. According to another hypothesis, the reason was the lack of calcium necessary for the construction of the shell in the regions where groups were formed in which the form of the slug arose. An important consequence of the weak development or absence of the shell is the inability to isolate itself from environment when attacked by a predator or the onset of unfavorable (for example, dry) conditions.

Structure

The body of terrestrial slugs is quite elongated in length, but is able to change shape due to muscle contractions. Among slugs, they are found as "giants", the length of which, when moving, exceeds 20 cm ( Eumilax brandti, Limax maximus, Arion ater), and "dwarfs" - no more than 2 cm ( Arion intermedins, Deroceras laeve). Externally, slugs are bilaterally symmetrical. It is violated only by the unpaired pulmonary opening located on the right. The skin epithelium separates a large amount of mucus, which prevents the integument from drying out, promotes better gliding over the surface, and also repels predators.

Like other gastropods, slugs have three sections: head, leg, and visceral mass. The latter, due to the absence of a shell, does not form an visceral sac, but a notum spread over the dorsal side of the leg (Latin notum - back). On the head there are contractile tentacles (one or two pairs), on which the sense organs are located (developed eyes, organs of tactile and chemical sense). Behind the head on the dorsal side there is a mantle with an unpaired pulmonary opening (pneumostome) leading to the mantle cavity, which functions as a lung. The anus is located next to the pneumostome.

© Håkan Svensson

Ground slugs are characterized by hermaphroditism (sometimes sequential) and internal fertilization.

Ecology

Probably due to the lack of sufficiently effective adaptations to prevent dehydration, slugs live only in moist biotopes, such as, for example, bedding. deciduous forests. In the ecosystems existing there, they play a significant role, eating fallen leaves, non-lignified parts of living plants, as well as fungi (including those poisonous to other organisms). Usually slugs prefer relatively juicy and soft parts of the plant, avoiding areas with hard integuments or vascular fibrous bundles.

The choice of food largely depends on the nature of the vegetation growing in the immediate vicinity of the shelters in which the slugs hide during the daytime, as well as on the age of the animals - adult slugs readily eat coarser food than young ones.

Newly hatched slugs feed on the remains of their own eggs and unhatched eggs from the same clutch, and then move on to feeding on humus and decaying plant remains. Only with age, fresh plant food takes an increasing place in their diet.

Due to the fact that the activity of slugs most often occurs at night and twilight, they mainly feed at this time. The greatest voracity of slugs coincides with the period of intensive growth, that is, before reproduction and at the beginning of it, and decreases sharply towards the beginning of copulation (connection during sexual intercourse) and during the period of oviposition. At this time, slugs do not feed.

Representatives of some species are predators and necrophages, eating living soil invertebrates (for example, other gastropods and earthworms) and their corpses.

The feeding intensity of this predator is quite high. So, in summer, one slug 2 cm long on average every day eats one worm 4-6 cm long or an equivalent number of smaller worms.

Slugs have a fairly extensive range of enemies, including predators. Many vertebrates feed on them, however, there are no specific "slug-eaters" among them. Of the mammals, slugs are readily eaten by hedgehogs, moles, shrews, and some mouse-like rodents; from birds - rooks, jackdaws, starlings and some gulls, and from domestic birds - chickens and ducks. Slugs are also included in the diet of many frogs, toads, salamanders, lizards and snakes.

Among invertebrate insects, many insects feed on slugs. They are especially numerous among ground beetles (Carabidae).

© Spleines

reproduction

Slugs are hermaphrodites and have both male and female sex organs.

After meeting with a partner, they surround each other with sperm, which is exchanged through protruding genitals. There are times when slugs' genitals get tangled up with each other, and if the slugs fail to free themselves, they may allow the penis to come off. After that, slugs are only able to reproduce in the female part of the reproductive system.

© Lipedia

Economic importance

AT practical activities In humans, the role of slugs manifests itself in two aspects: as transmitters of dangerous helminthiases for domestic and game animals and as pests of many cultivated plants.

Slugs - pests of cultivated plants. Slugs harm a very wide range of cereals, vegetables, flowers, industrial crops, as well as citrus and grape plantations. Every year, special brochures and bulletins are published in many countries, informing about the harmful activities of slugs, giving forecasts for the near future and instructing farmers on how to deal with these pests. Although it has not yet been possible to accurately calculate the losses that slugs cause annually in all countries of the world, it is quite obvious that they are very significant. In addition, harmful slugs differ from many other agricultural pests in their very wide distribution.

Slugs damage a very wide range of crops. Tubers and foliage of potatoes, cabbage and cauliflower, lettuce, various root crops (leaves and root crops protruding from the soil), seedlings and young shoots of many vegetables, bean and pea leaves, strawberries, cucumbers and tomatoes. They cause less harm to red cabbage, parsley, garlic, onions, leaves of ripening cucumbers and strawberries.

They cause especially tangible harm to winter wheat and rye, eating both newly sown grains and their seedlings. To a lesser extent, oats and barley suffer from slugs; practically they do not touch spring wheat, flax and buckwheat.

The damage caused by slugs is very characteristic and easily distinguishable from traces of other agricultural pests. In leaves they usually gnaw irregular shape holes, leaving intact only the stem of the leaf and the largest veins. On root crops, potato tubers, strawberries, tomatoes and cucumbers, they gnaw various shapes and size of the cavity, usually expanding inwards.

In cabbage, they damage not only the surface and ground leaves, but also gnaw out deep depressions in the head. In grains of cereals, they gnaw out both the germ and the endosperm.

A characteristic feature of such injuries are numerous traces of frozen mucus, heaps of feces and earth. In addition to direct harm, slugs cause indirect harm by polluting crop products and contributing to their decay, and thereby reducing storage time.

Crawling from one plant to another, slugs contribute to the spread of various fungal and viral diseases among crops - cabbage spot, downy mildew of lima beans, late blight of potatoes. These diseases can cause losses to the economy no less, and often more, than the direct harmful activity of slugs. The fact that many of them willingly supplement their diet with fungal hyphae further contributes to the infection of plants with fungal diseases.

Number regulation

Prevention of harm caused by slugs

The first preventive measure is competent gardening. This includes various techniques aimed at improving the quality and structure of the soil, the correct selection of plants, the timeliness of all garden work, maintaining garden hygiene, attracting birds and other useful fauna for natural pest control (in this case, these are lizards, frogs, toads, fireflies and some other beetles, as well as hedgehogs), mutually beneficial neighborhood and rotation of crops, and much more. All these measures contribute to the strengthening of plants, because strong plants can resist the attacks of garden pests and diseases much better.

Means of mechanical control

To physical barriers include special plastic gutters that are attached around the perimeter of prefabricated ridges. Such gutters are filled with water, which serves as a mechanical obstacle for slugs. Any dry porous materials, as well as fine gravel, crushed shells and eggshells are unpleasant surfaces for slugs and snails, therefore they are well suited as row filler. However, it should be borne in mind that in rainy weather their effectiveness is greatly reduced. The action of a special ecological granular material (Slug Stoppa Granules) is based on the same principle, which are scattered around the plants and act throughout the season. Granules create a physical barrier for slugs and snails: they absorb moisture and mucus, dry out the surface of their bodies, making it impossible for pests to move. Wide plastic rims with a bent edge are also on sale, which are fixed in the ground around the plants and keep snails and slugs out of the plant. Planting vegetables in raised beds or tubs, tying legumes, tomatoes, and cucurbits to supports on time, using clear plastic caps (such as the bottom halves of large plastic water bottles), and plastic covers for young, vulnerable plants all make desirable plants for slugs physically less accessible.

You can collect snails and slugs by hand in the evening or after rain, in order to destroy them later (for example, in strong saline or boiling water) or take them somewhere away from gardens and cultural plantings (this option is more humane, but also more laborious). Live slugs and snails should not be placed in a cold composter, as adults will lay eggs under favorable conditions. Special traps for slugs and snails are a bowl covered with an umbrella-roof. The trap is set so that the entrances are at ground level. The bowl is filled with beer, fruit juice or other bait (the delicious smell attracts snails and slugs), the roof prevents rainwater and debris from getting inside. In the absence of such a trap, pour the bait into simple bowls from an old unnecessary set and dig flush with the soil surface on ridges and borders with the plants most beloved by snails. Check and empty the traps regularly in the morning.

To diversionary maneuvers can be attributed to the old leaves scattered among the plantings and the tops of plants loved by slugs (lettuce, tomatoes, cucumbers, comfrey, etc.). I personally successfully use this method in a greenhouse, where it helps to keep in check not only slugs, but also wood lice: being carried away by eating this waste, they no longer crawl to growing vegetables. Periodically, the leaves and the pests that eat them can be collected, replacing them with new ones.

Means of electrical control

Garden centers have self-adhesive tapes made of copper, rims, or copper-coated covering material (brand name Shocka). Contact with copper gives the clams a slight electrical shock, so they will not want to cross the copper barrier. Recently, headbands with a small battery have appeared on sale, which also give snails and slugs a small electric shock when crossing.

Biological controls

Means of phyto-control

Plants that slugs and snails do not like and try to avoid are primarily garlic, as well as many (but by no means all!) Aromatic plants (lavender, sage, santolina, thyme, rosemary, laurel, etc.), which they never touch. Garlic is used by manufacturers of special herbal infusions that repel slugs. Infusions of garlic, hot pepper, and mustard are known folk remedies fight against slugs and snails.

© Daniel Ullrich

Chemical Controls

On sale there are granules of metaldehyde (in Russia it is sold under the trademarks Groza and Meta) - an effective tool that attracts and kills slugs and snails. The packaging says that the product is poisonous to pets and people if it enters their digestive system. The high toxicity of the product is also evidenced by the fact that Bitrex (the most bitter substance) is added to it to scare away animals and children if they suddenly decide to feast on beautiful blue granules. Manufacturers claim that when used correctly, the product is completely harmless to people, pets and the environment, but warnings are often found in the horticultural press. Metaldehyde should be stored and used with great care. Wash vegetables and herbs especially carefully if you have used metaldehyde in the garden. I scatter blue granules exclusively around ornamental plants(hosta, delphinium, lofant, etc.) and only in early spring when young leaves emerge from the ground and are especially vulnerable to slugs and snails.

Caffeine is bad for slugs and snails

Caffeine in the form of an aqueous solution applied to the soil or on the leaves of plants repels and kills slugs and snails, presumably destroying them nervous system. This conclusion was reached by Hawaiian scientists from the US Department of Agriculture as a result of a series of experiments. According to the observations of scientists, a 1 or 2 percent solution kills even large individuals (although it discolors the leaves of some plants), and a 0.1 percent solution introduces pests into confusion, accelerating their heartbeat, and scares them away from plantations. To get a 0.1% caffeine solution, you can, for example, dissolve a double dose of instant coffee in a cup of water.

• Likharev. I.M., Victor A.J./ Slugs of the fauna of the USSR and neighboring countries (Gastropoda terrestria nuda). - L., "Nauka", 1980. - 438 p. (In the series: Fauna of the USSR. Mollusks. Vol. III, issue 5).

Slugs belong to the order - gastropods, there are many varieties of them. The most common species are field slug, net slug, and sometimes you can meet the blue slug.

The mollusk has a symmetrical, elongated, slightly elongated body. Can change shape due to muscle contractions. Like all representatives of the gastropods, the body of the slug has three sections: the head, legs and visceral mass.

If you look closely, you can clearly see the annular groove that separates the leg and body of the slug. The head is equipped with tentacles, they are responsible for smell and touch, leathery folds around the mouth.

An interesting fact: the mollusk has only one jaw, and the teeth are located on the tongue, their number is several thousand, and they work like a grater.

What does it breathe with

He breathes in an unusual way, the air passes into the lung through a hole in the back. It is located behind the head, in the form of an oblong shield, the role of which is to cover the lung (mantle cavity), equipped with a rather dense network of blood vessels.

Below the mantle is a thin, almost transparent plate (a rudimentary shell), which was left to the slugs as a memory from their ancestors from ancient times.

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What do they eat

Slugs cause tangible harm agriculture, since for food they can serve quite a variety of food. Cucumbers grown in the field, cabbage, strawberries, beets, melons and wheat are the first to suffer. Also, slugs are frequent guests in the greenhouse, here they feast on tender sprouts of seedlings of vegetables and flowers, and in the cellars they also eat root crops.

Slug varieties

Giant blue slug sometimes also called the "Carpathian slug", it got its name due to the limited area in which it can be found. It lives in deciduous and coniferous forests of the Carpathian Mountains on the territory of such countries as: Slovakia, Poland, Czech Republic and Ukraine.

The intense blue color of the slug depends on the diet. In the natural environment, it feeds on blue russula. Such a feature, for an experienced mushroom picker, serves as a guide to find a clearing with russula.

It lives under a layer of foliage, the litter of dead moist bark serves as an excellent home.

After the slug lays its eggs (beginning of autumn), it dies. After overwintering, young individuals emerge from the eggs in spring. Comfortable conditions for them: air temperature from +18 to +22, and soil moisture 20-30%.

Therefore, decorative breeding at home for the blue slug is unacceptable.

field slug has a color from whitish to brown, the body is spindle-shaped (from 4 to 6 cm). Sometimes in natural nature inhabitant of wet meadows, valleys and forest edges. But a great appetite can bring him closer to a person: a garden, a vegetable garden, cultivated fields.

It eats: leaves, juicy young stems, fruits of wild and cultivated plants, especially loves strawberries.

reticulated slug can be identified by its characteristic color: the brown body is decorated with many white and black spots, has dark tentacles, its body length is from 2.5 to 3.5 cm. Habitats are very extensive: they hide among fallen leaves, in the upper layer of loose soil, under shrubs or thickets of moss. More often you can find slugs not one by one, but in whole groups. It is believed that such cohabitation can protect the mollusks from detrimental drying out. mass gathering slugs in a certain area creates a special humid microclimate.

Living in the garden, it often eats cabbage, eating huge holes in the outer leaves, getting to the very head of cabbage. With favorable weather conditions, can cause significant damage to winter seedlings.

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You will be interested - all existing ways to deal with slugs

Slugs and their fight

Slugs

Familiar aliens

If the slugs were about the size of a person, then they could well correspond to the ideas we have about aliens thanks to science fiction writers. After all, it turns out that they are not like people. This is what slugs look like. Let's start with the fact that they do not have a head, but they do have a "face". On this so-called "face" we first notice two long tentacles, which we call horns. At the ends of the horns are the eyes and organs of smell. The eyes are rather primitive, it is believed that slugs do not distinguish the contours of objects, but only determine the degree of illumination. Therefore, if it seems to you that the slug that is in front of you has directed its horns in your direction, this does not mean that it is looking at you, it is sniffing you.

On their "face" you can see a mouth. This is a very important organ for slugs because food is their main occupation. There are two smaller tentacles near the mouth, and they also have organs of smell (it is very thin in them and plays a big role in their life) and taste.

Slugs are real gourmets and do not absorb all food, although they are polyphagous pests. It is estimated that about 150 plant species can serve as food for them. But if you lay out all 150 species in front of them, they will use their organs of smell and taste, sniff and taste all 150, choose two or three of them, and maybe even one most suitable, and only then will they start eating.

Especially willingly they eat cabbage, lettuce and strawberries. Bulky cavities are eaten away in potato tubers and carrot roots. Onions, garlic and sorrel do not attract them at all. Slugs cause great harm to seedlings and young seedlings. Sometimes you wonder why cucumber, pumpkin, or bean sprouts take so long to germinate. And they cannot ascend, because they have become the prey of slugs. Most often, seedlings suffer from them under adverse conditions that slow down germination.

Although slugs prefer tender young leaves, their mouthparts are also well adapted to cope with fairly roughage. In the oral cavity there is a hard jaw with a sharp edge, with which the slug scrapes tissue from the leaf, and a thick tongue covered with hard sharp protrusions is a real grater.

Immediately after the "face" is the neck, and then the back. On the neck is the genital opening, and on the side are the respiratory and excretory openings. The entire lower body of a slug is called a leg. Its lower side is covered with a denser skin, and on the front of this leg, just below the mouth, there is a wide narrow gap - this is the opening of the leg gland. When the slug crawls, mucus is constantly secreted from it and paves the path for the delicate sensitive body, smoothing out the roughness of the surface. With the help of this viscous sticky mucus, you can also move along vertical surfaces. The rest of the body, called the back, contains all the internal organs.

The main thing is not to overheat.

The skin of slugs is very thin and covered with a large number of grooves. Of these, mucus is also constantly secreted, which should keep the skin moist. Although slugs have primitive lungs, two-thirds of their respiration takes place through moist skin. In addition, mucus reduces body temperature and protects against overheating.

The body of a slug is 85-90% water. It is as if inflated with water, thanks to which the body and all internal organs maintain their shape and location.

Therefore, slugs do their best to prevent even a slight drying of the body and usually prefer to be in cool places where the surface of the earth is always slightly damp. In contact with wet ground, their bodies absorb water and maintain the water balance at a constant level. They cannot stand drought and when the upper layers of the soil dry up, they try to dig deeper, moving along the passages and minks dug by animals more adapted to underground life. Cases are described when slugs were found at a depth of up to one meter.

They don't like heat or cold

Temperature determines a lot in the life of slugs. For their active life, a rather narrow interval is optimal - 15-19 °. At a temperature of 24-25 ° they feel uncomfortable and stop eating, and at a higher temperature they die. In the morning, when the sun rises and the air begins to warm up, they must urgently seek shelter. And here they are rescued by the sixth or seventh sense, which tells them in which direction to move - the sense of a gradient of humidity and temperature. It is this that brings them to a damp and cool shelter. In the evening, it also suggests that you can leave it and go in search of food. Slugs crawl out of their shelters not only in the evenings, but also during the day after rain.

circle of life

Under favorable conditions, the development of embryos in eggs occurs quite quickly, and after 11-13 days, newborn slugs emerge from them. At first they are so weak that they cannot eat plant foods and feed on humus, which is why adults prefer to live at such a time on fertile rich soils.

When young slugs get stronger and can eat plants, they begin to grow and develop rapidly. The law of nature embedded in them makes them hurry. After all, by the end of summer they should become mature and have time to lay eggs. However, their development is highly dependent on the weather. If it is hot and dry, they may not have time to lay their eggs, and then they will have to spend the winter and do their duty next year in the spring. If, on the contrary, it is humid and cool, then their development is so accelerated that by the autumn the second generation of slugs has time to hatch.

In our middle lane annual slugs predominate. Among them, the most common species is the net slug. It got this name because of its color: on a light background, there are many dark spots that form, as it were, a grid. Annual slugs live, as a rule, 5 months from spring to autumn. After laying eggs, they die.

mating dances

Another feature of slugs is that they are hermaphrodites, that is, they contain both male and female organs. However, they do not mature at the same time. Outweighs first masculinity, then comes the turn of the female. Some inconvenience is that slugs cannot fertilize themselves; in order to continue the race, they have to exchange sperm. This happens during the male period of life. At this time, each slug is looking for a suitable partner by smell. When he finds it, a kind of mating dance begins. First, two slugs synchronously move in a circle against each other, gradually approaching. Finally, their bodies are intertwined, and there is an exchange of sperm. Then comes the female period, and 10-11 days after fertilization, the slugs lay eggs, trying to hide them in damp, cool shelters. Egg laying is quite long time- a month or more, depending on the weather, 30-50 eggs at a time. And just one slug can lay up to 500 eggs.

Why do they love the night

AT vivo slugs always choose habitats with a dense vegetation cover, under the canopy of which a damp, cool atmosphere reigns. Usually these are meadows, deciduous forests, river banks. There, their number, in accordance with the natural law of equilibrium, is maintained at a constant level. They move to garden beds only if something very attractive to them is planted there, for example, cabbage or lettuce. for the sake of tasty food slugs are ready to endure all sorts of hardships. Compared to life in the meadow, life in the garden is not sugar at all, it is much more troublesome and full of dangers. Frequent loosening destroys natural shelters and dries up the soil. Here slugs are rescued by their extraordinary sensitivity. In addition to the organs of smell and taste, they have a sense of the gradient of humidity and temperature, which helps them to exist in the extreme conditions of a garden bed, devoid of dense vegetation, open to the hot rays of the sun. The nocturnal lifestyle of slugs is not at all explained by the fact that they love darkness (light, apparently, plays a small role in their life), but by the fact that at night the air becomes more humid and cool.

Usually the life cycle of slugs is like this. In the spring, young slugs begin to hatch from the overwintered eggs. The development of the embryo in the eggs begins when the soil temperature reaches 5°C, but young slugs, very sensitive to negative temperatures, come to the surface only at the beginning of June, when the danger of frost has passed. At the end of summer they lay eggs and die. Eggs, on the other hand, tolerate negative temperatures much better than adult slugs. They withstand freezing down to -11°, and slugs die at -3-4°. This is the standard cycle, but it can be interrupted by the weather, slowed down or accelerated. Therefore, sometimes both adult slugs, which did not have time to lay their eggs, and young slugs of the second generation, which did not have time to mature before winter, overwinter.

Slugs cause the greatest harm in the second half of summer, when they become adults and they need a lot of food to ensure maturation. a large number eggs in their bodies. Moreover, the eggs of slugs do not ripen in the stomach, but in the back. They don't have a belly at all.

This is how these creatures live, unusually vulnerable, with soft, unprotected bodies, having only smell and taste of our usual senses, and yet prospering. Their offspring does not dry out, but multiplies, and the almighty man - the conqueror of space - breaks his head and does not know how to protect beds with cabbage and strawberries from them.

With an eye on the weather

Sometimes the weather helps us in the fight against slugs. In severe winters with little snow, when the soil freezes strongly, slugs and partly their eggs, wintering in the uppermost soil layer (0-3 cm), die. In this case, the next summer, the number of slugs is much less than usual. The spring drought is also unfavorable for them, which leads to mass death eggs and young. But warm rainy autumn and rainy spring promise a real invasion of slugs.

The number of slugs is determined by three critical periods for them: the first - the end of summer, the beginning of autumn - the period of oviposition; the second is wintering; the third is spring, when juveniles hatch. The main critical conditions in the first and third periods are humidity and temperature, in the second - the height of the snow cover and soil freezing. The most effective way to deal with slugs is chemical - baits poisoned with metaldehyde. But our task is to consider alternative methods suitable for use in ecologically oriented farms.

Ecological methods of struggle

The main difficulty. One of the main challenges in developing non-chemical methods of slugs control is the great diversity of their species composition. In each individual place, you can find up to 10 species. For the most part, these are annual slugs related to the reticulated slug. In appearance, they are quite difficult to distinguish, since the color can change depending on external conditions. Experts determine the species by the location of the internal organs, that is, by performing an autopsy. Despite the outward similarity, slugs belonging to different species differ greatly in behavior and food preferences. Behavior can be attributed to the speed of movement. One of the most “fast-moving” is the net slug. In one of the experiments, in 4 days he covered a distance of 70 cm, during another - the length of the day's journey was about 80 m. This means that if you cleared your garden of slugs, then from nearby meadows or other uncultivated lands, the so-called reservations , where slugs always live, their relatives will soon come to you. They will be attracted by the smell, which they are able to capture with the help of their antenna horns at fairly large distances. Obviously, garden plants as a source of food for slugs are preferable to wild ones. Therefore, they uncontrollably crawl on their scent from their native habitats.

Traps. Differences in food preferences have a big impact on the effectiveness of traps. Slugs are a problem not only for gardens, but also for a number of field crops. Abroad, many experiments have been carried out to identify the most attractive and most repulsive plants. It was then that a significant difference was established between the species of slugs. True, they all ate cabbage, lettuce and strawberries with great pleasure. There was no difference in this respect. The challenge was to find something more palatable for them that could distract them from the cultivated plants or lure them into a trap.

During the experiments, the reaction of different types of slugs to different baits differed several times. Even the most attractive bait did not collect more than half of the slugs of one species.

Beer traps are considered very effective against slugs. However, their effectiveness largely depends on the quality of the beer and on the addiction to it of those types of slugs that live in your garden. Here for gardeners opens up a wide scope for experimentation. Namely, to test different types of beer in practice. Maybe you'll get lucky and find a beer that the slugs will like. Then your life will be a little easier. Slugs are known to love sweets, so the appeal of beer traps can be increased by adding some sweetened water to the beer.

The simplest traps such as boards or pieces of burlap are very popular, under which slugs clog to escape the sun. During the day they are removed from there and destroyed.

We're trying to scare it off. Another direction of experimental work is the search for plants that repel slugs, and the identification of the reasons for the attractiveness and unattractiveness of different plant species. Slugs have been found to avoid plants containing essential oils, phenols, alkaloids, flavonoids, and bitter substances. For example, they refused to eat medicinal sage, thyme, geranium, oregano, watercress, white clover, basil. However, the treatment of lettuce with extracts of these plants did not positive result. The reason is the rapid evaporation of essential oils. But when their favorite salad forms a flower arrow and becomes bitter, they lose all interest in it.

In one of the experiments, they went for such a cunning trick. The cumin seed extract was not treated with plants, but with wood waste mulch that covers the ground. The mulch held the essential oils and prevented them from evaporating quickly. Slugs avoided crawling into such mulch, and if they crawled, they lost their appetite. This method is applicable, of course, only in small areas, for example, in one garden bed.

How to make life difficult for them. An important place in the fight against slugs is occupied by preventive measures, the purpose of which is to create unfavorable conditions for them, or, in other words, to make it difficult for them to exist. This does not mean that you will destroy all the slugs in your garden, but you will certainly significantly reduce their appetite and fertility.

The main thing is not to create a moist atmosphere for slugs that they love. To this end, the beds should be watered in the morning, and when the slugs crawl out of the shelter in the evening, the soil will be dry and hard.

In Germany and Switzerland, oilseed rape crops are severely affected by slugs. In one Swiss laboratory, researchers came up with an idea to distract slugs from rapeseed. It turned out that they are happy to eat dandelion, shepherd's purse, wood lice, cruciferous (with the exception of mustard). The experiments were carried out in laboratory conditions. During the first two days, the slugs ate almost all the plants offered to them, but then they switched to the most attractive food for them - rapeseed ... We use rapeseed as a green manure. Why not try using it as a distracting plant, by sowing, for example, on cabbage? The difficulty lies in the fact that slugs eat rapeseed seedlings as soon as they unfold a couple of leaves. Outsmarting the slugs is not easy. Maybe grow rapeseed somewhere inaccessible to slugs, collect young shoots there, put them in vessels with water and place them on a cabbage bed. Just scattering rapeseed on the ground is probably not enough.

Lettuce can be used instead of rapeseed to save cabbage. It is sown early in spring under a film, while the slugs have not yet left their shelters, and in mid-late May, lettuce seedlings are planted with cabbage seedlings. Slugs will happily feed on the more tender lettuce...

It is important to remember that if... Thickened plantings also create favorable conditions for the life of slugs. Under a dense canopy of leaves, they feel at ease - the hot rays of the sun do not penetrate there and a warm, humid atmosphere reigns there. On more sparse plantings, the soil between plants warms up and dries out - these are not the same conditions.

If you have a lot of slugs in some area by the autumn, then, naturally, they laid their eggs in the soil for wintering. This is easy to verify if you turn the top layer of the earth, naked eye you can see there heaps of milky-white translucent balls with a diameter of 1-2 mm. Before the onset of frost, until the snow has fallen, you should turn over the entire earth in this area with a rake so that the eggs, and at the same time young wintering slugs, are on the surface. Then there is a chance that some part of them will die from frost.

Sometimes desperate gardeners are ready to water their land with anything to destroy the slugs hiding in it. But at the same time, one should not forget that the soil is also a living natural formation, and before you are going to poison the slugs, think about whether you will poison it too.

Dry and hard soil will spoil the slugs mood and appetite. In general, it is advisable to water not from a watering can, but under the root or through a root dug into the ground with its neck down plastic bottle with a cut off bottom so that the top layer of soil remains dry.

The beds on which the plants most beloved by slugs - cabbage and lettuce - are planted, should not be covered with mulch. Mulch is a great hiding place for slugs, weather protection, and food. If the slugs are very annoying, then it is better to completely remove it from the garden. This measure is especially important on cold and damp soils. And you can apply such an insidious method - use dry and caustic material for mulching: wood waste, spruce needles, straw. A good result is a crushed eggshell.

As an obstacle to slugs, various caustic substances can also be used, which are poured in a strip around the beds or in a ring around the base of the stem (at a distance of at least 10 cm) or between rows. These can be mustard powder, freshly slaked finely ground lime (200-250 g per 10 sq. M), finely ground ferrous sulfate powder (100 g per sq. M), a mixture of ash and bleach 1: 1 (200-250 g per 10 sq. m). Tobacco dust sprinkled around the plants, or even on the plants themselves, protects them from damage. There is evidence that slugs do not tolerate copper compounds. If a thick rope or a strip of dense fabric is soaked in a solution of copper sulfate, it will become an insurmountable barrier.

A good result is also given by a mechanical anti-snail barrier, following the example of those used by foreign gardeners. They sell it there ready-made but you can do it yourself. This is a fence type of a metal corner, the upper edge of which hangs from the outside ...

Who else will help us. On gardeners' estates, as a rule, there are hedges that play the role of mini-reserves. Many birds, animals and insects live there, among which there are many enemies of slugs. These are hedgehogs, shrews, moles, toads, lizards, ground beetles.

They hunt slugs and birds. For example, rooks, thrushes, starlings. If you do not use pesticides and take care to attract these animals and birds to your site, they will help to cope with such unpleasant enemies of your beds as slugs.

N. Zhirmunskaya , candidate of biological sciences

(Novelties for the Garden No. 1, 2005)

Slugs and their fight

Of the terrestrial mollusks, naked slugs cause the main damage to garden plants. Their shell is underdeveloped (hidden by the mantle) or absent altogether. There are two pairs of tentacles on the head, the upper ones with eyes. The head smoothly passes into the trunk and leg. The skin is soft, moist, mucous. In the front part of the body there is a leg gland that secretes a quickly hardening sticky mucus that protects the delicate skin of the mollusk from drying out, overheating, damage, and predator attacks. On the same mucus they move. The presence of slugs on the site is easily detected precisely by the presence of its residues on the soil and plants. They breathe with a lung - a special section of the mantle, supplied with numerous blood vessels. Hermaphrodites, each individual has both male and female reproductive organs. They are very moisture-loving, live and breed only in low and damp places, shady and dense plantings, near forests and bushes. Dry places are avoided. They thrive especially in wet years. With the onset of adverse conditions, they crawl to more humid places. During drought, they are able to hide in the soil, sometimes at a depth of up to 1 m.

They feed mainly in the evening and at night, in the morning they hide in the soil, under leaves and other shelters. But in cloudy and rainy weather, they can eat during the day. They are illegible in food, they eat a variety of plants, but prefer more tender and juicy ones. Therefore, garden crops suffer in the first place. Potatoes, beets, carrots, rutabaga, both tops, and root crops and tubers are most harmful, not only in the soil, but also in storage. Cabbage, which is gnawed during the day, is especially harmful, hiding in heads of cabbage. They eat holes in strawberries. Onions, garlic, cucumbers, peas, lettuce, turnips, beans: buckwheat, sorrel, flax, and other crops are somewhat less damaged. Ornamental plants include calendula (marigold), nasturtium, dahlias, asters, and carnations.

On the leaves of plants, slugs gnaw through large holes with uneven edges, and on root crops they eat holes and stripes. They also eat flowers, buds, young shoots, roots. Their attack is especially detrimental to seedlings and seedlings. Of the weeds, burdock, dandelion, plantain, cruciferous are primarily eaten; less often sow thistle, wheatgrass, nettle, tartar. They also feed on decaying plant and animal remains, fungi, and lichens.

Although slugs are polyphagous, their different species still prefer different cultivated plants. So field and arable primarily harm field crops and strawberries, agile - cereals, reticulated - field, garden, garden and berry crops, a large slug - damages vegetable plants and fruits, brown and arion - garden and garden plants, bordered - field and garden. The greatest damage to agricultural crops is usually caused by arable, net, agile and bordered slugs.

Slugs lay their eggs in the ground. From them, young individuals are hatched, outwardly very similar to adults. In plowed and reticulated slugs, only eggs hibernate, from which juveniles hatch at the end of May. And in the fringed, yellowish and agile one, wintering is mainly carried out by young individuals born in August - September, and partially by adults.

The fight against slugs is quite difficult. They are poisonous, so only rooks, jackdaws and starlings eat them from wild birds, and chickens and ducks from domestic ones. But the latter at the same time can greatly damage the vegetables growing on the beds. Most predatory insects are not eaten, with the exception of ground beetles. Partially eaten by moles, shrews, hedgehogs, lizards. But the first ones are pests themselves, and they are being fought, and the rest of the animals in the plots are found sporadically, or completely absent. They are partly eaten by frogs, but they still prefer insects, and they are usually located in the areas as a "passage", that is, temporarily. Toad slugs are most diligently destroyed.

Slugs are not afraid of chemicals, or the concentration of the latter must be very high, which is not harmless to humans, animals, beneficial insects, and the plants themselves.

Passive control measures - drainage of sites, creation of diversion ditches for water. Thinning and clarification of garden and horticultural crops (care). Weeding weeds, especially in early summer, since slugs on cultivated plants pass from them. Cleaning up dead plant residues.

ACTIVE CONTROL MEASURES

Capture and destruction of slugs on baits from pumpkin, watermelon and other vegetable peels and peelings, specially laid out or lightly buried in places convenient for this.

Catching on artificially laid out shelters, under which slugs hide for a day (from below) - pieces of polyethylene, linoleum, boards, etc. objects. During the day, they are picked up, turned over and cleaned off the slugs in soapy water.

Trapping in buried vessels with beer poured to the bottom, into which they gather, attracted by the smell, and drown.

Pollination of beds with slaked lime - 30 g per 1 m2, or its mixture with tobacco dust (1: 1) - 20 g per 1 m2.

Pollination of beds with mustard powder.

Spraying between rows with a solution of mustard - 100 g per 10 liters of water.

Processing is best done in the evening, and catching - in the morning or afternoon. All of the above methods of dealing with slugs help reduce their number on the site, but they do not fundamentally solve the problem.

The main enemies of slugs, as already mentioned, are toads. Take care and protect the toads! The most effective way to deal with slugs is to attract, or rather simply collect in the vicinity and bring toads to the site. You can just in the hands. It won't cause any warts. It's a myth, just a fantasy. And in vain many people (especially women) are afraid of these animals. Yes, indeed, they are ugly and poisonous, but this poisonousness is passive. You shouldn't eat them... Otherwise, they are completely harmless, you can safely take them in your hands. True, before eating, the latter should still be washed afterwards.

Toads can live quite far from water in summer. Their skin, unlike frogs (in order to know exactly who was brought), is dry and covered with warts and outgrowths containing, as already mentioned, a poisonous secret. The hind legs are much shorter than those of frogs, so the toads move from paw to paw, very slowly. They jump very rarely, and for a very short distance, no more than 20 cm, and only frightened by something.

These are very useful creatures, and since they themselves move slowly, they are forced to feed on inactive creatures. First of all, slugs, also caterpillars, crawling along the ground and the lower leaves of plants ( for the most part harmful), as well as earthworms. In the latter case, they are slightly harmful, but the benefits from them are much greater. They hunt at night, and in the morning they hide in some kind of shelter, usually the same thing. Therefore, in order to reduce the number of slugs to a harmless amount, you should collect all the toads you meet in the vicinity at the beginning of summer and take them to your site. And in order not to run away, dig shallow holes for each in shady places not used for planting (one digging with a shovel is enough) with a gentle entrance. Half cover them with planks, bricks, etc. to make a shelter. And put in each one of the collected toads. The latter should be at least 10-15 pieces. on the average garden plot (10-12 acres). And preferably more. Since, unlike frogs, toads move slowly, they live in the presence of shelter settled, in one place. Then, eating at night, if they do not allow to get rid of the slugs completely, then at least they will maintain their number at an almost harmless level. This way of dealing with slugs will be absolutely environmentally friendly. However, this method also has one serious drawback, in April - May, all toads from your site will inevitably go to the nearest suitable reservoir for breeding and will not return back. Therefore, in early June, the toads will have to be collected again and so every year.

V. Starostin , Ph.D. Sciences

To discourage slugs

Slugs and snails are common garden pests. On hot and dry days, these gastropods hide in the dark, damp and cool corners of the garden. They crawl out to hunt in the garden and vegetable garden at night, along with dew, and also in rainy weather during the day. Pests gnaw the leaves of garden plants, leave their sticky mucus on them and spoil the ripened crop.

Slugs are gastropods that lack an outer shell. Their body is covered with soft skin with numerous glands that abundantly secrete mucus. The wide lower part of the body serves as their “leg”, with the help of which they move slowly.

Every year in early June, slugs begin to cause significant damage to seedlings of vegetables and flower crops, strawberries, etc.

Then they move on to cucumbers, tomatoes, peppers, cabbage. Even without observing sticky mollusks with our own eyes, we can easily guess their presence by characteristic irregularly shaped holes in the most tender and juicy parts of the leaves, especially cabbage and strawberries. At the same time, first of all, they damage the largest berries and eat the most tender leaves.

They are especially dangerous for young plants. But the harm from slugs is aggravated by the fact that they are carriers of fungal plant diseases, and primarily bacteriosis.

Slugs cause the greatest harm in the second half of summer, in wet years, mainly in lowland areas, on loamy and clay soil, on thickened crops, where the soil does not warm up enough.

In nature, slugs have a lot of enemies (frogs, toads, lizards, ground beetles, etc.), but gardeners ruthlessly exterminated this living creature on their plots. Slugs are hedgehogs' favorite food. But try to remember when you saw this most dedicated defender in your area.

Slugs are ubiquitous and multiply rapidly in rainy summers. In the spring, the female lays up to 500 eggs, and the young that emerge from them after two weeks eat everything.

In summer, they do not bypass the thickets of grass, where you can hide well from the sun's harmful rays. They feed at night, damaging not only the aerial part, but also the underground part of the plant. During the day, they hide under lumps of soil, under the leaves of plants, between the leaves of a head of cabbage. Their appearance is known by the traces left - silvery drying mucus.

Since it is quite difficult to deal with the invasion of slugs, it is easier to prevent it after all. First of all, it is necessary to create conditions unfavorable for pests and deprive them of their daytime shelter. This means that all excess boards and stones, heaps of weeded weeds must be removed from the site, the grass on paths and borders must be mowed, and especially wet areas must be dried.

When planting plants, try not to plant them too tightly. It is very important to periodically cut off the lower leaves of lettuce and cabbage, as well as loosen the soil, since mollusks can hide in cracks in the ground.

Together with the harvest, one must not forget to remove all plant debris from the site, including fallen leaves under the trees. Thus, you will deprive the slugs of shelter and food for the winter. Grass should also not be allowed to accumulate in nearby ditches and damp places.

Mechanical means of control involve the collection of pests by hand, as well as the installation of traps for them. It is most convenient to collect snails and slugs with tweezers.

Since pests prefer dark and damp places during the day, appropriate traps are prepared for them. For example, cabbage leaves, burlap, rags or boards moistened with fruit juice or beer are laid between the beds and on the paths. During the day, pests will crawl into traps, and in the evening they will only have to be collected. This should be done 5-6 days in a row.

In addition, such traps can also be organized - shallow containers are dug in at ground level, filled with strong saline or soapy water, and covered with burlap. Upon contact with soapy or salty liquid, slugs die.

It is even better to use the most delicious food for slugs - lettuce leaves, large branches of dill, melon peels, fallen dahlia flowers, etc. Attracted by the smell, slugs will gather near them at night, and in the morning they can only be collected.

And this is news to many. A significant effect is the use of the desire of slugs to "eat" beer. Often in the periodical press advice is given to pour some beer into low jars and arrange it overnight on the site.

But much more efficient. fresh leaves put burdock briefly in a bowl with old beer, and closer to the night spread them over the beds. By morning, all these leaves will be covered with slugs.

Effective double pollination of plants (especially cabbage) with an interval of 15 days with a mixture of tobacco dust and sifted wood ash, taken in equal proportions.

And after the hot sunny day it is necessary to periodically sprinkle (or rather, pollinate) the soil around plants and paths with ash, crushed superphosphate, ground pepper, etc. with immediate loosening of the soil to a depth of 3-5 cm, since it is at this depth that pests hide during the day.

A mixture of sifted wood ash (0.5 liters), table salt (1 tablespoon), any ground pepper (1 tablespoon) and dry mustard (1 tablespoon) is best suited for this purpose.

This should be done late in the evening, when the slugs went “hunting”. After about an hour, this treatment is desirable to repeat. Crawling to rest after a night robbery, in contact with these substances, the slugs are burned, damaging the skin. On the same day in the evening, it is necessary to pollinate again with the same mixture through a gauze bag, but not the ground, but the plants themselves.

It is effective to spray those plants with a solution of vinegar in the evening, on the leaves of which large holes have appeared (0.25 cups of 9% vinegar per 10 liters of water). The same effect is given by a solution of ammonia (2 tablespoons per 10 liters of water).

In the presence of a large number of slugs in the potato area in the fall, it is necessary to loosen the soil twice here, because. at the same time, both adults and their eggs die.

The fact that garden snails and slugs have very soft bodies can also be used against them. To do this, it is enough to scatter dry porous material near the plants - crushed eggshells, shells or fine gravel. Since such a surface is unpleasant for mollusks, they are unlikely to get close to plants.

By the way, in this regard, pests really do not like lime and superphosphate, since these substances absorb mucus and moisture from their bodies, complicating movement. However, it should be noted that in rainy weather, the effectiveness of such a tool is reduced.

It is useful to mulch the beds with finely chopped spruce or pine needles (spruce branches) or simply lay out small spruce branches. Besides, pine needles can be scattered on the lower leaves of cabbage. Dried nettles have the same effect.

And a completely impenetrable barrier for slugs is a strip of coarse-grained river sand or crushed eggshells with sharp edges along the beds.

And, of course, if necessary, modern plant protection products against slugs and snails should be used - granules "Meta" and "Thunderstorm".

But they should not be scattered over the entire area, as is often recommended, because. it is a very strong poison. It is enough to put 3-4 granules of the drug around each stem. They will blur into a common spot, deadly for slugs. But you can use this drug no later than 3 weeks before harvesting.

And if slugs are wound up in a cellar or a vegetable store, then the places of their accumulation are watered with a solution of table salt at the rate of 250 g of salt per 1 glass of water.

And, perhaps, the most important thing. In no case should we forget that it is necessary to fight slugs constantly, because. they will still appear on your site from time to time.

V. A. Loiko

About slugs, the layman's idea is rather boring, but are slugs so simple? The description of slugs will tell us about the appearance, lifestyle and habitats of creatures.

At the word "slug" everyone immediately has negative emotions. Who do we represent? A slimy, shapeless creature, disgusting to the touch, always crawling somewhere... but do we really think that nature is so stupid that it created a useless animal, good for nothing? Or do slugs have their own mission on our planet? Let's not argue, just let's study these creatures in more detail ... According to the scientific classification, slugs are representatives of the class of gastropods.

A feature of these creatures is that, unlike snails, their shell is either completely absent or reduced.

On our planet today there are several hundred various kinds slugs, but they all belong to one of three families: Soleolifera, Sigmurethra and Onchidiacea.

The body of slugs consists of one leg, also called the sole. It merges with the head of the clam. With the help of this organ, the animal feeds, moves, and reproduces. The upper side of the body is covered with a mantle, which is presented in the form of a plate. Under it are the anus and reproductive organs of the animal. In general, the body of slugs is symmetrical on both sides.

As for the size of these creatures belonging to the gastropods, they cannot be called large. The average size of slugs is only a few centimeters. However, such representatives of these animals as the blue-black slug, banana slug and large roadside slug can grow up to 30 centimeters!

The color of slugs can be varied: from inconspicuous, almost transparent tones to bright, juicy shades. In nature, there are anthracite-black, bright yellow, orange-red, brown, chestnut body colors of slugs.

The habitat of these animals covers vast territories. They live in humid and temperate zones. climate zone. They are found in Australia and New Zealand, North America, Central and Western parts of Europe, as well as in the Caucasus. Slugs take a fancy to forests, fields, meadows, caves and gardens.

These animals are rather slow, they make their movements due to the contraction of the foot-sole. And in order to avoid damage to this delicate organ, a special secret is secreted from the slug, which acts as a lubricant.

By the way, sometimes these secretions also serve as a deterrent "weapon" that helps prevent death in someone's mouth: the secret of some slugs has a very unpleasant odor, and this warns its natural enemies that it is not necessary to eat it!

Slugs feed mainly on plants. They eat foliage, soft stems, fruits and flowers. Some species diversify their diet with mushrooms. But there are those who use living organisms as food: earthworms, small slugs, and sometimes even newborn mice and chicks!

Slugs breed once a year. All representatives of this group of animals are hermaphrodites. Each slug can lay up to 70 eggs. The development of embryos occurs about 5 weeks, after which small slugs are born, which are already fully formed. The life expectancy of slugs in nature is only 1 to 2 years.

The natural enemies of these gastropods are salamanders, ducks, storks, frogs, pigeons, raccoons, noses, chickens, waders, ...

“Since I was twelve, I have eaten a few strange things and will continue to be happy to crunch on fried locusts or swallow live fish. And yet, unless I change drastically, I will never be able to eat slugs. Just thinking about it gives me stomach cramps.”

This is how Mary Frances Kennedy Fisher, better known by her initials M.F.K., begins one of her essays. Possibly the best English-language food writer of the 20th century.

“I tried to look at them with a sober, cold look. She continues. She tried to admire the beauty of their movements, evident in the fast-rolling of the film, forced herself to read in the Encyclopædia Britannica about the harmlessness of everything that forms their slimy bodies. All to no avail. Any mention of these creatures awakens the animal horror dormant somewhere inside me. Slugs are a nightmare, this is something abnormal, I am madly afraid of them and everything connected with them. However, I love snails. Most people love snails."

In that essay, titled "Fifty Million Snails" and first published in 1937, Fischer writes about how one day while living in Dijon, France, she ate so many snails that she became dizzy for two days while the gastropods "turned under the influence of garlic into old rubber. And nothing. She still loved them, as did most of the French, who, she said, ate 50 million snails a year. Since then, consumption volumes have grown so much that they are measured not in pieces, but in tons. Today we are talking about 35 thousand tons per year!

Parisians alone eat 20 tons during the Christmas holidays. I also love snails, although I find it difficult to say why. Honestly, I think I would eat anything after being dipped in hot butter. Even the chunky rubber slippers I wear at my home in Bangkok. I do not know whether to believe the historians who claim that snails were one of the main sources of animal food for the first people. Partly in favor of this theory are the piles of shells found in the caves of an ancient man, as well as the fact that it is easy to catch snails.

It is believed that the Romans were the first to breed them, feeding them with vines and grains. Pliny the Elder (I century) in the 37-volume " natural history”is written about fried snails, which were eaten with wine before dinner to stimulate the appetite or as a light snack between feasts and orgies, to which his fellow citizens were great hunters. The Gauls, who inhabited the territory of modern France, served snails as a dessert. And in the Middle Ages, the Church allowed them to be eaten during fasting. Usually snails were fried in oil or with onions, cooked on skewers or boiled. One of the earliest accolades for this culinary delicacy appeared in 1394 in the French newspaper Le Managier de Paris.

“Snails should be caught in the morning. Harvest small, black-shelled juveniles from grapes or elderberries and wash them in several changes of water until no more foam appears. Then wash once in salt water or diluted vinegar, pour fresh water and set to stew.

Next, the snails should be removed from the shell with the tip of a needle or pin, cut off their black tail, as this is their excrement, washed again and stewed in water, then laid on a dish and served with bread. Others say that the preparation described is not enough: the snails should also be fried in oil with onions and flavored with spices - such a dish can be served in the most refined society.

To XVII century the popularity of snails has fallen. In the following centuries, in a large part of the European continent, they were seen not as a potential delicacy, but as a garden pest. What they are, breeding in myriad quantities and devouring almost any greenery. In France, snails came back into fashion after they were served at the table at a dinner given by Talleyrand in honor of the Russian Tsar. Since then, France has remained the world leader in their consumption.

In England, snails have always been mercilessly fought as a serious threat to agriculture and neglected as food. In a curious book entitled "Why Don't We Eat Insects?", published in London in 1885, its author, Vincent Holt, devotes twelve whole pages to these creatures. Holt believed that snails, like many insects, fell victim to human prejudice, unwillingness to recognize them as a generous and affordable source of protein.

He makes, in particular, the following proposal. “Some progress could be made through the strength of example. Gentlemen could order delicious snail dishes prepared according to recipes used throughout the continent, and in time the servants would begin to imitate them. Also disturbing, according to Holt, is the erroneous idea that only one type of snail is edible. Whereas the only advantage of its representatives over the rest of the snails is a larger size.

The author is sure of the opposite: all snails are edible. He further writes that in Italy and other European countries, in many farms, snails are grown in a kind of reserves. “In specially designated areas of the garden, fenced off with a wooden fence and covered with a net. Hundreds of snails live in such reserves, feeding on fresh vegetables and those herbs that will give them a pleasant taste. I would like to see such reserves in every English garden.

French snail meat recipe.

Classical preparation of snail meat.

The snails that live in vineyards are considered the best. Pour some water into a saucepan and bring to a boil, then lower the snails into it. Boil for a quarter of an hour. Remove the snails from the shells, rinse thoroughly several times, then throw them into clean water and cook for another quarter of an hour. Remove them from the pot and rinse again. Then dry and fry on with a little butter until browned. Serve with some hot sauce.

French-style snail meat.

Crack open the shells and toss the snails into boiling, lightly salted water with herbs to create an organic aromatic bouquet. After a quarter of an hour, remove the snails from the water. Remove from the shells and boil again, then transfer to a saucepan with butter, parsley, pepper, thyme, bay leaf and a little flour. After stewing enough, add a well-beaten egg yolk and lemon juice or a little vinegar to the saucepan.

Isn't it true that one description already causes appetite? Holt's appeals were ignored by his contemporaries, they were never recognized as worthy of the table either in England or in other developed countries. The attitude towards them as food became more and more favorable, which was associated with the gradual transformation of France into the trendsetter of the world culinary fashion. Today, in some areas of this country, snails are starved for a week, or even longer, to remove all toxins from their bodies. Eliminate all unpleasant tastes associated with the food they consume. Elsewhere in France, they are put on an aromatic diet of thyme and other herbs.

How are snails prepared?

They make broth from them; they, right in the shells, are stewed with wine or garlic oil, chili sauce and chives; they are freed from the shells and cooked with a white sauce based on butter and flour or with garlic mayonnaise and bérnaise sauce. And they are also grilled, sprinkled with salt, pepper, thyme and ground fennel.

Snails are served with homemade bread and red wine. In Laos and northeastern Thailand, snail snails are harvested during the rainy season from paddy fields, simply boiled and eaten, dipped in a mixture of crushed garlic, chili, fish sauce and coriander leaves. Traditionally, sticky boiled rice serves as a side dish.

Eating the meat of slugs.

If the above and many other recipes for cooking snails have become quite widespread, then slug meat now remains not only at the lowest “gastronomic position”, but for many on the last line in the list of promising culinary products. The unattractive appearance of common garden and marine (nudibranch molluscs) species of slugs, devoid of a pretty, geometrically perfect shell, could serve as an excuse, but crabs, lobsters, oysters, and the same chickens are hardly more attractive "alive".

In fact, the only significant difference between snails and slugs is the shell. She protects the body of the majority invertebrate molluscs, but slugs lack this armor. Although they belong to the same classification type, along with squids and octopuses. The shell is an important thing, but snails and slugs have a lot in common. Like snails, land slugs feed on plants, usually at night, and therefore are also classified as pests. As for sea slugs, being in many ways similar to their terrestrial relatives, they feed on corals and other animal organisms.

If land slugs failed to get the attention of a hungry public, then catching and cooking nudibranchs have a long history in vast areas from China and Japan in the south to the Eskimo camps in ice-bound north. Land and sea slugs have some external differences. If the former can be of a wide variety of colors, including red, gray, yellow, black and white, and vary in size, depending on the species and age, then the latter in most cases are gray or black in color, much larger and weigh up to 900 grams.

Alas, history has preserved only a few written evidence of eating sea slugs. One of the earliest dates back to the period before the 5th century and is contained in a fragment of a Chinese source called the Gastronomic Canon. There, these creatures are called haishu, that is, "sea rats", and are described as "similar to leeches, but larger."

Over time, the status of nudibranchs increased, and they began to be called haishen, which can be translated as "sea ginseng." They were credited with strengthening and tonic properties. In China, nudibranch mollusks were so popular that the emperor sent powerful fleets that reached the shores of Africa and Australia in search of sources of additional supplies.

It got to the point that shellfish became an occasion for real war. In 1415, the then king of Sri Lanka ordered the Chinese ships to leave, but the Chinese responded by sending troops, capturing the king and continuing to fish for slugs at sea and collect along the shores of the island. One of the reasons for the hype around shellfish was their supposed ability to increase male potency. Such an idea was probably based on the external properties of this creature: a long, thick, elastic body that swells when touched.

From the 16th century, a Chinese document has been preserved, which proposed, in the absence of a mollusk, "to take a donkey's penis and be content with it as a gastronomic substitute." In 1913, in Alaska, a woman named Eli Hunt was questioned in her native Kwakiutl about the technology of catching and cooking nudibranch clams. According to her, the hunter, always a man, waited for the low tide and sailed around the remaining lakes in a canoe. sea ​​water, stringing on a two-pronged spear in abundance the mollusks remaining in them. “He takes a knife and cuts off the head of the slug. Then he squeezes his insides into the water and with force throws him to the bottom of the canoe with words. "Now you'll be as hard as your grandfather's cock."

On the shore, the mollusks were hovered for two days, then the slugs were boiled over an open fire. Since the water almost always went over the edge during cooking, the man, according to the narrator, threw handfuls of dirt from the floor of the hut into the cauldron and thus supported the cooking process. After cooking, the clams were washed again and served as is. Today, nudibranch molluscs are sometimes referred to as sea ​​cucumbers, most often dried, soaked for several days and then boiled, changing the water several times, until the original spongy structure of the tissues is restored.