Record breaking mutant slug

Where do they come from - slugs - you turn round for a second and when you turn back there's a big 'un sat on the floor! Well the one this morning, I'm not kidding it was the biggest slug I've ever seen - it had to be 3" long without stretching, I had to trowel him up and fling him into the back field, where I heard the thud as he landed! I swear I saw a human arm hanging out of its mouth...

 

Some weeks ago I found a leopard slug in the garden, 1st I've ever seen, very big, greyish with darker spots and stripes, no keel that I could see. I'm not sqeamish but it gave me a fright. What colour was yours? :D

 

No slugs or snails here - it's much too dry. Poor old blackbirds are blunting their beaks on the lawn trying to find something to eat. Haven't seen the thrushes for ages.

 

But you've got lots of shade? It's been very hot and dry here but under the trees at the top it's still damp, and every time I lift a pot I find some slugs. So I try to move things every day so that the birds can collect as much as possible. There are thrushes in the garden, but I suppose they don't need a bashing stone as we have mainly slugs.

 

First thing in the morning when there's still some dew on the grass is when they are about, and thats early at this time of year.
I've not seen any of the so called slug eaters ever eat a slug, Hedgehogs Thrushes etc. but I have seen Crows.

 

No - no signs of slugs here. Even under the shade its bone dry now - I have massive mature ashes and a poplar at the bottom of the garden and they will be drawing up water from deep, deep levels. Same in the local woods - all of the undergrowth is crisp and brittle. Trees are shedding leaves and dropping whole branches. Under some pots, I found a few snails and they had sealed their shells as they do for the winter. Worms stay deep down where there is still moisture, but that has to be very deep now.

Blackbirds are coming into the house to eat from the cat's dish. Robin sits on the patio table and shares my muesli :D

 

Liz mine was the colour of a Guernsey cow, and about the same size!! :D :D :D

Hornbeam my sparrows love the oats & soya milk that I save them from my muesli!

 

Yes - raw porridge oats are appreciated by all the birds - even the insect eaters. Sparrows are in serious decline and I haven't seen one in my garden or in town for ages

 

That's cos I've got them all... mwuahahahaha!! :D
Seriously though, we do have absolutely loads of sparrows here.

 

Loads of Sparrows in our end of Essex. Same with starlings, supposed to be in decline, not by the amount that roost round here. We had three nesting birds in our foliage this year. The obligitory Robin, blackbird and indeed sparrow. After a good midnight slug and snail slaughtering with my trusty patio mallet and torch the squished offfenders are always gone by morning.

 

I went on a torch-lit wander last night and caught a snail on the top leaf of one of my hostas!!!! it had climbed all the way up the pot, up the plant and up the stalk - leaving a huge hole in the middle of the highest leaf!!!!! Almost as if it was hell-bent on doing the most visible damage... it slimed straight past the easy-to-get-to leaves.... needless to say, it went for a long flight - right over the fence....