Somewhat random

[urbpan]

Last night Maggie woke me up at 11:30 with her heart-attack inducing alarm bark because, hooray!, Alexis came home. Now if you want to read detailed descriptions of our dogwalks, you can return to their regularly scheduled appearances at cottonmanifesto's journal. And as Weird Al said "Even made a home page for my dog," so you can go over to chaggie to get the dog stuff without all the Jef and Alexis clutter.

Also, Alexis brought with her a Very Small Dog, so there will be much more to say about all that. I woke up for about a half hour and watched it spring about the kitchen like a jumping bean with teeth, admired the terrible cuteness of it all, and passed back out. Pictures forthcoming.

Someone told me that my journal appeared on Boston.com yesterday, but it was part of their rotating front page picture, so it doesn't seem to be there? Did anyone happen to see it? I did a search for it, and found that my journal had been mentioned half a dozen times there during the 365 urban species project, and I never knew.

Now that I'm getting Googlenews updates on the subject "Pest control," I feel like I should start a new daily feature (which I can add to my many other daily features, which happen about once a week or once a month depending) "weird pest control product of the day." I actually started this without knowing it way back when I posted about the artificial coyotes. (Only, I can't make a "weird pest control product of the day" tag because I've reached my limit of 1000 tags--apparently this is a relatively new thing? Does that mean I can blame the Russians?)

Presenting The Slug Pyramid, for those gardeners who wish to control slugs but want the option of sealing them in a plastic bag for their trip with RA and Osiris to the Afterlife. It's a matte black plastic pyramid that conceals a slug live trap (mechanism not explained) that somehow catches the slugs in a baggie that they can not slime their way out of. I'll pretend I believe that slug can find their way in but not out just for a second. But the selling point of this product is that you may choose the fate of the slugs; they may be "disposed of, or released back into the wild." You already know how I feel about releasing trapped pests (where "in the wild" are you supposed to release your trapped slugs? In your neighbor's garden? In a box sent to the Giuliani campaign?) but the other option, disposing of them, is a tidy way of saying "let them suffocate and cannibalize eat other in a plastic bag. This from a website that mentions not just the pain that slugs suffer from other control methods, but their stress as well. A pan of beer with a piece of bread crust in it is simply too barbaric, I suppose. But hey, if you already have an ancient Egypt or perhaps Stargate motif going on in your garden, you could do worse.

On this day in 365 Urban Species: Seaside goldenrod. I almost can't believe we were out walking around and found a blooming flower this time last year. If I were doing the project this year I'd have to chip Alberta spruce bushes out of the ice--I'd be up to the 15th species of rhododendron by now.

Comments

[g-weir.livejournal.com]

Congrats on the puppy! I have to report you to the grammaton clerics now.

--G

[aemiis-zoo.livejournal.com]

I think the slugs should be sent in a box to the Giuliani campaign. That'd be great! =)

[kryptyd.livejournal.com]

Haha, the slugs going with Ra and Osiris is the funniest thing I've heard today!

I'm reminded of a man I heard of who spent years picking up the snails in his garden and throwing them as far as he could manage and then noting the results. Predictably there was no decrease in snail population in the garden. I have a feeling that the pyramid probably wouldn't make a noticable dent in the slug population, but some gardeners might get the satisfaction of revenge for their cabbages.

[cottonmanifesto.livejournal.com]

i think you should post a Very Small Dog picture for people to see.

[gigglingwizard.livejournal.com]

I catch slugs in my basement and feed them to my chickens.