A Very Slimy Disappointment

This is a gross post…just to warn you.  Well, not that gross, I am just a huge wimp.

Slugs.  We have lots of them in Oregon.  We had none in Colorado where we used to live.  They are huge (like 8 inches long) and gross, and they crawl all over the back of our house by the hose spigot and leave slimy trails on the back wall.

According to permaculture (sustainable gardening) wisdom, I should not think, “I have too many slugs.”  I should think instead, “I must not have enough ducks.”

Ducks apparently love slugs.  We don’t have ducks.

We have chickens.  Chickens are supposed to like slugs too.  But only little slugs.

Mine are not little.

Google searching tells me that chickens will eat even large slugs if you train the chickens by cutting up the slugs first.

I have spent about the last 4 months wondering if I could cut up a slug.  Even thinking about it gave me the heeby-jeebies.  I shudder just a little when I even see the little suckers lurking there, all quiet and slimy by the spigot.  I told you I’m a huge wimp.

Well, morning is the time for slug hunting, and it is also when the chickens expect me to come out and check on them and bring whatever scraps we have from last night’s dinner.

Don’t worry, at this point, I realized that it is impossible to cut a slug with kitchen shears and hold a camera at the same time without slug-sliming the camera.

I chopped that slug (apparently slugs are mostly water inside… there was a lot more dripping than I expected).  I scattered those slug pieces.  It was kind of horrifying (I kept telling myself, “It’s just a piece of meat, it’s like cutting raw chicken.  Oh, that’s ironic, sorry, girls…”)

Those darn chickens won’t touch it.

And my husband wouldn’t let me tell him any of the gory details over breakfast, so I am telling you.

Does anyone know how to get chickens to eat slugs?  Also, does anyone know if slugs carry any weird diseases that can’t be removed from kitchen shears by basic sterilization methods?