Snails, Slugs and Spittle Bugs

Gardening is fun! It's like a game or even a competition. You put your best effort in and see what your opponent serves up. Offensively, I've turned up the soil, added compost, water and fertilizer - pruned and weeded - optimum growing conditions. But then there's a few pesky things to deter the happy advancement of this game...hmmm - like snails, slugs and spittle bugs - my greatest opponents right now.

These creatures, created for a specific purpose I'm sure, are fascinating and quite clever at times. Snails, for example can be dark or light depending on which plant they're feasting. They usually come out before sun-up or after sun-down. But I don't let them off the hook when I spy one. Even my grandchildren have learned how to look underneath the hydrangea leaves for a culprit.

The Spittle Bug is not so crafty, however. Like aphids, they suck juices from plants and then blow air into it, producing masses of white foam. The bug just sits within this foam - protection against predators and keeps the insect moist but a dead give away (pun not intended)for the gardener since, although invisible in that foam you know within each foam mass lurks a tiny creature. You can simply spray them off with a hose or slide your finger through the white foam - there tucked inside is a tiny yellowy-green bug. This is the infant stage. They develop into adult leaf hoppers which will later ruin the leaves.

The slug (no picture yet) is another creature I don't tolerate in the garden. Although composters, they love to munch at the stems, preferably right at the juncture of stem and flower, thereby decapitating it. Marigolds, iris, tulips, and most annuals are not exempt. Slugs can smell a favorite flower a mile away and make their way to a potted plant, burrow in and set up house-keeping. Frequently I've discovered a plant looking wan, bedraggled and unresponsive only to find an enourmous slug even way down in the bottom of the pot.

So little creatures beware - that trusty trowel is raised and poised - the defensive gardener is on the prowl!