Buddist veg growers

[Bluemchen]

Do you exist and if so, what do you do about slugs and snails and other pests???

I really struggled with squashing the little blighters until I found the cabbage white caterpillars that were demolishing my brassica bed, and I squished them all - with relish. I thought I should really stop doing it, but I have used nematodes, and that is causing slugs to die too, allbeit you don't physically kill them yourself, you are still the cause.

I'm not buddist, but do respect their ideals and wondered what everyone else thinks... oh... the things we ponder while on the plot!

[smallblueplanet]

Net your brassicas with environmesh and then you don't have to squish.

[fastlearner]

I started off believing i'd be ever so kind to nature and hand removed any slugs and snails - but by the end of last summer i'd made myself a little spear from a bamboo cane and speared any slugs i caught sight of i got so sick of them !!!! but that is my only sin i promise (so far lol!)

[vicky]

In Buddism do you 'start' as a low form of life and go higher and higher?
Or does how you live your life determine what you start your next life as?

If the latter then it would be easy to squish as you would be destroying those who have chosen to be bad.

Is that anywhere along the right lines?

[squashysu]

i went to a buddhist retreat with the school kids the other week and buddhist monks cant even garden, because if they killed a worm by accident, then this could be their dad or grandad in a new life,

they believe in enlightenment, its quite a complex religion, my boss is a buddhist (not that you would know), i liked the retreat, but i would still kill the slugs and snails!!!!! - so i am glad i am not converting!!!!

SS

[di]

since getting chickens my conscience is clear!!I just move the beasties from the veg to the chook run!!
but proof that veg growing has turned me into slug massacist(spelling?)on the plot i have no tender loving feelings for them at all,however on a recent nursery trip i found myself fretting that my son was carrying a slug on a metal spade!(don't think they like metal?)

[Jadesdaddy]

I hate to kill things too and agree with the buddhist philosophy of live and let live, but (and maybe I shouldn't say this) slugs make excellent bait for fishing rivers with! Seriously no weight on the line just a big fat slug on a big hook trundled down the river......the chub like nothing better!

[Garden_girlie21]

I don't like killing them, so they pretty much end up in a wheelie bin. On odd occasion I have left them in a container to be disposed of, and have forgotten them, so they died. I felt really bad.

Jennifer

[Snadger]

Confucious say " He who invests in enviromesh and nematodes will follow the path of righteousness"

[parrot1974]

To kill or not to kill, that is the question... I am with andi&di on this one - lobbing them in the chicken run is the ultimate in recycling. However, pre-chickens I was a great one for throwing them in the pond for the toad tadpoles - they got used to finding the ones that had drowned and then latching on to them. Hoping that means good strong toads over the next few years with a fetish for snails!

[rainbowbrite]

i pop mine in the compost bin, i'm not sure if it's the same ones night after night that i'm removing from the plot but it makes me feel better.

[lynda66]

i put mine out for the blackbirds and robin

[zazen999]

If I'm near the canal, they get chucked in there
If I'm in the courtyard, they get chucked on the roof of the soon to be demolished garage for the birds.
Haven't found any any at the lottie yet.