Introduction Averted

[Dsmith74 16]

Holy cow I almost made a big mistake today! I had about a dozen spare Geranium x cantabrigiense 'Biokovo' that I potted up last year after ordering WAY too many for a groundcover project (which isn't doing so well, but that's another issue). The potted ones are doing pretty good so this weekend I decided to take them up north and put them in the ground because I get so much enjoyment from providing deer with new and different things to eat.

 

After planting them, I gathered up the empty nursery pots, which I was going to toss in the barn for future use. As I picked one up, look who I found.

 

 

That is Limax maximus, or leopard slug, an introduced pest common around my house in Grand Rapids, but neither present (to the best of my knowledge) nor desired at the family shack "retreat" in northern Michigan. Let's hope this was the only one, which is now deceased. One isn't enough to start an invasion (unless already carrying fertilized eggs), but still too close for comfort.

 

I'll really be mad if I caught the adult and missed a blob of eggs in one (or more) of the pots. These little slime monsters and their crazy, swingin' sex shows are not something I enjoy, although at home they do very efficiently dispose of inconsiderate neighbors' pet waste, as well as every other kind of slug that may have once lived here. Now if I could just teach them to eat black vine weevils.