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Gnasher
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Location: East Midlands, UK
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22-05-2014, 05:02 PM
Originally Posted by Rosebud77 View Post
i think what she means is that yes but they leave other plants alone but that is not so in my experience wherever i have lived.the damage they do to my flowers and vegetables breaks my old heart.
Yes, that's what I did mean, but apart from hostas which they do destroy, I suffer remarkably little slug and snail damage, despites there being gazillions in my garden ... I wonder why? Perhaps Ben terrifies them into behaving themselves!

You will never guess what. The masonry bee has returned! Yesterday I was eating my lunch in the conservatory and she buzzed in and went straight into the security key hole on the other door! As soon as she came out, I stuck a label over both holes, top and bottom, and sat back to watch. These bees sure are clever. She went round and round, both inside and out, trying to see if there was another entrance. She tried to crawl into the hinge that stops the door blowing open and shut to see if there was a way through to the hole, but no, there wasn't. You could see her really trying to work it out, it was absolutely fascinating. I felt so mean, but I really don't want her laying her eggs in my door not because I am worried about any damage she may do, but because I will squash her and her babies when I put the key in to security lock the doors. We discussed at great length the fact that we don't have to lock the security locks, and we could leave the windows open for her to come and go, but the windows are a long way away from the doors, and we are worried that she won't be able to find her way in and out at night, should she want to for whatever reason. Also if we forgot to go out and unlock the doors in the morning on a hot day, she would cook, so sadly we have had to block up all her potential nesting sites. Very sad
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Gnasher
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22-05-2014, 05:08 PM
Here are the photos of the construction of the 2 patios in our back garden. It looks very bare because we have had to flatten it and remove all the plants, and you can't really see the long fence with all the ivy and honeysuckle on it, but it gives you an idea. We are going to turf the garden with meadow grass turf which contains many species of wild flowers and which you only have to mow twice a year! Great for the wildlife, and for my poor old back!

http://s245.photobucket.com/user/Awf...0back%20garden
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Gnasher
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22-05-2014, 05:13 PM
I give up! i can't get the pictures to appear in the post, only the link to them. If you click on it you will see them, but I wanted the actual pictures to appear on here. O well, never mind
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Lacey10
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22-05-2014, 05:31 PM
Oh now they look fab Such a gorgeous house too Well done to OH Sure you're delighted
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Gnasher
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22-05-2014, 08:27 PM
Originally Posted by Lacey10 View Post
Oh now they look fab Such a gorgeous house too Well done to OH Sure you're delighted
I am, for an old fart of 65 the boy's done good. We are paving it with Indian sandstone and I think it's going to look great. We are downsizing in a couple of years time but we'll miss the house, we've been here 26 years!
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Tang
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22-05-2014, 10:27 PM
Looks lovely gnasher. Not so much of the old fart please!
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Rosebud77
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23-05-2014, 03:02 PM
Originally Posted by Gnasher View Post
Yes, that's what I did mean, but apart from hostas which they do destroy, I suffer remarkably little slug and snail damage, despites there being gazillions in my garden ... I wonder why? Perhaps Ben terrifies them into behaving themselves!You will never guess what. The masonry bee has returned! Yesterday I was eating my lunch in the conservatory and she buzzed in and went straight into the security key hole on the other door! As soon as she came out, I stuck a label over both holes, top and bottom, and sat back to watch. These bees sure are clever. She went round and round, both inside and out, trying to see if there was another entrance. She tried to crawl into the hinge that stops the door blowing open and shut to see if there was a way through to the hole, but no, there wasn't. You could see her really trying to work it out, it was absolutely fascinating. I felt so mean, but I really don't want her laying her eggs in my door not because I am worried about any damage she may do, but because I will squash her and her babies when I put the key in to security lock the doors. e discussed at great length the fact that we don't have to lock the security locks, and we could leave the windows open for her to come and go, but the windows are a long way away from the doors, and we are worried that she won't be able to find her way in and out at night, should she want to for whatever reason. Also if we forgot to go out and unlock the doors in the morning on a hot day, she would cook, so sadly we have had to block up all her potential nesting sites. Very sad
you maybe have plants they dont like...one year they destroyed every daffodil bud...bought slug killer today and am making plastic collars from milk flagons ready to plant my french and runner beans out...they leave pea plants and broad beans alone.
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Tang
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23-05-2014, 04:31 PM
I could never resort to pellets or poison to deal with my slug and snail problems because I had a giant tortoise for more than 30 years. Would have poisoned her too.

I used salt but oh YUKKK the mess that leaves - the slime is almost impossible to remove.

Beer bottles with just a little beer left in them, placed lying on their sides in the beds was effective in that they were FULL of slugs the next day. However I could never make my mind up if the beer was BRINGING THEM IN to start with, not just luring those already there!

And it was a hell of a job to convince my two lads to LEAVE A LITTLE BEER IN THE BOTTOM of their bottles!
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Tang
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23-05-2014, 04:33 PM
I planted strawberries in hanging baskets on huge wrought iron metal brackets on the side of the house well away from the flower beds and grass. The snails still got them. They went up the wall, out over the bracket and into the hanging baskets! Determined little b*ggers they are!
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Florence
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23-05-2014, 07:10 PM
Could you get a keyhole imitation and hang it up next to the door so the bee could lay her eggs there?

I don't know anything about masonry bees but they sound interesting. I shall go google for some info

Not bees but I've lived many times with wasps. When we were little kids my mum had a holiday cottage in the Bernese Mountains, at the top of the house and right underneath the roof we had a huge hornets nest. They were always buzzing around us in summer. My mum just told us to be careful not to squash them accidentally, and none of us ever got stung.

About 10 years ago we had a wasps nest in our attic. First it was the size of a fist and over the summer it grew. Funny thing was that down in the garden we had these wicker garden chairs that were so weathered they were grey. We could see the wasps gnawing at them and getting little shavings off, and the wasps nest was the exact same colour!

In winter they obviously all died, and we took the nest down (as my mum was going to sell the house).

I once encountered a bee swarm on the road I lived on! That was quite impressive.
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