Spreading tealeaves (used, of course) on the garden is a very old trick for keeping slugs away. If it works, is this because slugs are allergic to tea, or is it that the little leaves stick to their undersides and detract from their locomotive ability?

If it is the former, then presumably teabags would also work. If it is the latter, wouldn’t sawdust be just as good as tealeaves.

Have a cup of tea and think about it.

I forgot the most important question.

Does it work better if you use an infinite number of tealeaves?

Also, do coffee grounds work as well?

I will 'scientifically' experiment with this. I have recently adopted an elderly pug who (which) eats the blood and bone plus earth from around my newly planted veggies! With awful air polluting results!

As I can't use snail bait,( the pug is an omnivore), I have also tried placing containers of beer around the plants as I was told that this is a good way to get rid of snails. No-one told me that this method would result in tragic looking drowned snails bobbing around. I had thought they would carouse a bit, then die. Your method sounds much more humane.

I did try empty egg shells smashed and sprinkled on the ground. The snails are not supposed to like walking on their jagged edges, (somewhat like the tea-leaves). The pug enjoyed crunching the shells up. Not quite what I had in mind.

So I will experiment with tea-leaves as it sounds a lot more ethical than the beer. Though maybe not as much fun for the snails, at least to begin with. I will continue to think about what is a very big problem for me as I drink my cuppa.

Ellis, I mentioned your pug to my wife; her eyes lit up, she said:
Ooh! Findoutaboutherpughowoldisit?whatcolourisit?tellherwehadapugandourdaughterhaspugs. At this point she had to draw breath.

It is some years since we had a pug of our own, but our daughter has several, breeds the occasional litter, and is actively involved in the rescue. She lives only about a mile away, so we have plenty of pug contact.

Our own dog is a recently acquired 5 yrs old Pomeranian who was supposed to be "good with other dogs". In fact he thinks no other dog should be on the same planet. They never tell you the whole story.

I hope the tea leaves work. Anyway, if the pug eats them they will make his/her coat shine.
Orifhe/sheeatstoomanythey'llmake'umsick! (the Wife!)

I have only just acquired the pug (about 4 months ago). Until then we had a succession of exquisite, elegant, loveable cavaliers to support. They required enormous emotional and physical support just to deal with their highly-bred emotional angst, not to mention the anguish of selecting food they would deign to eat. I loved my cavs, but even I admit they are hard going at times. Then our last, and most needy cavalier had to be put down by the vet. We were all sad. There was a large vacancy when he left us.

Then one day, 4 months ago the vet rang to ask if we would adopt a pug recently brought in as the owners were old frail and could not cope with his needs. She explained he was old, (10), bald from a thyroid condition and needing medication, and deaf! I said OK and so I went to see him.

You cannot imagine him. He was all the things the vet said (plus some more---they DON'T tell you everything).He was really ugly and also had a tongue that hung out of ONE side of his mouth. and funny-shaped ears! It was love at first sight--- and he seemed OK with me too. So I brought him home. We have worked out now that the thyroid condition is Cushing's Disease. Treatable but a bit nasty, and probably the reason he eats anything as pica is often a symptom. He has fitted into our lives as though he was always here and he's still very ugly, though slightly hairy-er.

Nevertheless we are besotted with him and I have turned into the sort of person who greets fellow pug walkers with- "Ohyouv'egotapugI'vegotonetoo!" etc so I understand your wife!

Wil the pug is a small pug and fawn with a black face. Whilst he is still one of the ugliest dogs I have ever seen he has an amazing personality and greets every day with delighted anticipation! Having spent most of my 40 years of dog-owning in the company of the canine equivalent of Hugh Grant, I now feel I am enjoying the rather more robust company of a canine Danny de Vito. Certainly hardly a day goes by that his happiness does not make us smile!

PS The snails are not such a bother now. It is too hot and dry. No rain for 10 days and 41c yesterday and 37c today. Horrible weather. The snails like it cool and rainy! (At the moment so would I).

(Someone will NQS this any day now!)

Thanks for the information about your pug, he sounds like a real character. I shall pass the computer to Donette (my wife), she will be delighted. I shall comment on the real subgect of the thread first, as it may be a while before I get the computer back.

I had wondered how slugs and snails survive in temperatures above 40C, they must have developed some good survival techniques; or is it just that slugs and smails in Oz are extra tough? I had visions of crispy slugs and baked snails.

We sometimes have crispy slugs and worms too, baked on concrete mainly, rather than the earth, which is never as hot. Snails just seem to hunker into the shrubbery though. They withdraw into their shells under leaves, pots and such like. We never see them in the heat. But as soon as it is cooler and wet (not just showery wet but rainy wet) they appear! (I was going to say from nowhere but in deference to science I won't, as obviously they are somewhere.)

We do see many empty shells after a long spell of heat, and some do die as a result of drying out. There are native snails as well, so obviously as a species they can survive here, so the immigrant snails can too, like humans.

Personally I like snails though they are quite bizarre!

It's cool and a bit showery today (here we don't usually get more than 2 or 3 days of extreme heat thankfully), but there was time for about 100 grass fires to start--- none serious, and all out now. Not enough rain for snails though.

As Orac seems to have vanished, I feel constrained to ask if you have considered the possibility that the snails might be somewhere only when they are being observed.

Bill S observed:
"As Orac seems to have vanished, I feel constrained to ask if you have considered the possibility that the snails might be somewhere only when they are being observed."

Possibly the unobserved snails are listening to unobserved trees crashing in forests all over the world.

Only if unobserved snails develop unobserved ears!

An alarming thought occurs, though. When posters are not logged in to SAGG do they still exist.

Come back Orac, we need you!

I forgot that snails don't have ears---- or, maybe they have unobservable ears on their foot, since they seem to have most of their sensory functions there. Watching them munch up algae on a fish-tank's glass side through the mouth on their foot is an experience everyone should have. Though perhaps not at breakfast.

We should start a Come Back Orac petition! Unless he is proving your contention and does not exist because he is not online. I so want to say that perhaps he is in the forest observing the non-listening snails and hearing the trees crash--- but I won't.

Ellis, your self restraint leaves me aghast!

Some years ago, when our son was in his early teens, we often had odd creatures living and sometimes breeding in the house; beetles, scorpions, tarantulas etc. The largest of these must have been the giant African land snails. They were quite something. Never did spot any ears, though.