I pulled up a lettice the other day and in the roots and the container I had grown it in were hundreds of small white spherical balls. A bit like the polystyrene ones in bean bags. What creature do they belong to?
There was a live maggot, almost see through on the lettice which was on my husbands plate. I was in trouble, and I thought I'd been so careful. It has put me off eating them now. :(
i think that these are slug eggs.
http://www.livingwithbugs.com/slugs.html
slug eggs look spherical and white..we wash all our lettuce in salty water, that seems to kill off most things, at least you can see what's on your own vggies, the ones you buy in the supermarket are sprayed with all sorts :)
Just a thought - the old teaching of salted water - they die in situ?
Why not just plain water in which they will swim to the surface??
Is a live maggot that can be spotted because it moves better or worse than finding a cooked caterpillar on the calabrese after it's been steamed and on it's way to your mouth?!! :o :o :o
Thank God I saw it in time. Sorry for going off topic.
Quote from: tim on June 19, 2007, 11:36:25
Just a thought - the old teaching of salted water - they die in situ?
Why not just plain water in which they will swim to the surface??
I can see the animal on a leaf - "oh no, the water's rising, I'm going to drown... oh, wait, it's not salty, phew!".
My theory with this, is that the salt helps to reduce surface tention, thereby decreasing their chances of survival in an air pocket. Detergent would work better, but would be less popular. Because personally if I was drowning, the medium in which I was encumbered would be of significantly less concern than the encumbrance itself.
and it kills them quickly, so, if there are any left, they're dead ;D
Hi Cambourne 7. Yes you are right, they are slug eggs. Then the maggot must have been another flipping problem.
Belinda, I think a live maggot and a cooked catipillar are equal on the 'yuck' scale. If only I had a web cam and you could see my face........ just the thought of it is making me retch!!! ::)
What are the small polystyrene balls sized balls that are brown, dry, not in groups?
Dh says that they are soil moisture retaining balls, but we have so many of them in the garden, and I have never used the soil moisture retaining stuff.
Oh and they pop when you squash them!!
YUK
Deffo eggs!
Louise
oh gross. Even slugs eggs are disgusting!
Slug eggs.
Wonder what the brown ones are then???
Could they be ant eggs (not that I know anything about ants by the way)? Last week I lifted some weed control sheeting and hundreds of ants were scurrying about. As soon as I uncovered them they started shifting white eggs as you have described. I suppose they could be slug eggs which they have collected as food.....
Big difference in size, Red'....and ants don't eat slug eggs to my knowledge.
Quote from: kenkew on July 06, 2007, 20:11:23
Big difference in size, Red'....and ants don't eat slug eggs to my knowledge.
the eggs the ants had were about half the size of a pea
I remember seeing lots of ant eggs when I lived in Germany and also in Oxford. They looked rather like rice crispies - long and white. not round.
Quote from: SueSteve on June 19, 2007, 20:21:47
What are the small polystyrene balls sized balls that are brown, dry, not in groups?
Dh says that they are soil moisture retaining balls, but we have so many of them in the garden, and I have never used the soil moisture retaining stuff.
Oh and they pop when you squash them!!
Sounds like slow release fertilisers which comes in the shape of balls, are light brown and when squashed resemble an insect egg.
I remember spending ages once killing these slow release balls that were in a plant I bought.lol. We had some folks to dinner when the kids were small and I had grown some calabrese. The trouble with it is that the maggots are the same bloomin colour as the veg and you can't see them very well. They do come to the top if you cook them in boiling water but sometimes they get trapped. One of my daughters spotted one on her veg and screamed. Of course apologies were made but it really was embarassing. I don't grow my own anymore cos I steam everything and the b******s would never come out.
A couple of weeks ago my daughter crunched into a snail in her salad :o........teenager, was NOT impressed! ;D ;D
Salty water washing wen't into effect the next day! ;)
OMG. I wouldn't have been impressed either ;D