Two years ago, among a garden full of plants including many types of chile,
only the hab plants were attacked by the vermin crawlers. The leaves on the
hab plants were totally eaten by the critters, which I assumed were slugs, and
the rest of the plants were left alone to grow. No habs that year.
Last year, the same thing occured, but I caught on after the initial attack,
and after using slug/snail bait many of the habs were saved.
This year at planting time, I applied the bait and the very next day after
planting, I found two dozen large dead snails clustered around the hab plants.
In the days following, many more of the dead fellows have been found near the
wanted plants. Several weeks later, I still find an occaisional dead snail,
all ways near the habs.
So my study continues:
The attacker is the snail, but why the attack on the habs only? And now I
know I can use habs as a lure to kill off snails. Anyway, the habs prosper
and grow and if the season is long enough I will finally have a good crop.
Hot escargot? Maybe I'll let off on the bait later in the year and see if I
can breed some good ones....
Best regards to all chile-heads Bill wbradford@delphi.com Salt Lake City