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Well, I guess I have to admit I have no compassion whatsoever for bugs. None. I enjoy photographing them and I do appreciate my beneficials but when they are doing anything that crosses my imaginary line between friend and foe (defined as anything that bites or stings me or touches my figs, etc.) I'm quite happy to stomp them or smash them with one of my many fly swatters. I used to carry spiders outside and release them unharmed until I was subject to a couple rather nasty bites and subsequently learned enough about our local spiders to understand there are far more capable of causing me discomfort them I was lead to believe.
I bought this odd weapon/toy (Bug - A - Salt 2.0) that looks like a child's squirt gun on steroids for around $50. It fires regular table salt at insects and and I hoped to use it to kill brown wasps - which it does -- but a warning here -- it is not effective against nests; you will get stung if you attack anything more then a single wasp at a time. Believe me --- I have a thick paste of baking soda on my stomach currently as I got stung this AM because I got too @@@@y and fired on a brown wasp nest. Bad idea.
I have used this new toy to shoot hard to reach flies and stink bugs and have been quite happy with the Bug-A-Salt so far.
AND - I have found a new use for this thing that really makes the $50 I spent on it worth the money: shooting slugs with salt!!
Firing salt into a nasty little slug's body and watching it fall and struggle as the salt desiccates the little bas&^%d's innards so it can no longer leave slime trails or use it's radula to damage my ripe figs. No more slime trails or getting bit while out hunting slugs at night. No more spreading things to help get rid of or at least discourage these darn shell-less snails. No more hard to remove slime on me or my figs!! Now their slime trails are their death trails. Ahhh hahahaha!!!
I love this "gun" thing so I thought I'd pass along my recommendation. I have only fired it 50 times so far which isn't even a full "magazine" of salt, but it has been fun and useful. It is easy to operate and uses only salt -- NO BATTERIES!! It is so cheap to use (compared, say, to using .22 caliber shot shells) that I think every gardner should consider one.
It is true I'm not thrilled to add salt to my soil but the amounts we're talking about here are minimal. In my opinion this toy is actually a useful tool. The price may seem high but it does seem to be built well. Good luck -- wear safety glasses.
I bought this odd weapon/toy (Bug - A - Salt 2.0) that looks like a child's squirt gun on steroids for around $50. It fires regular table salt at insects and and I hoped to use it to kill brown wasps - which it does -- but a warning here -- it is not effective against nests; you will get stung if you attack anything more then a single wasp at a time. Believe me --- I have a thick paste of baking soda on my stomach currently as I got stung this AM because I got too @@@@y and fired on a brown wasp nest. Bad idea.
I have used this new toy to shoot hard to reach flies and stink bugs and have been quite happy with the Bug-A-Salt so far.
AND - I have found a new use for this thing that really makes the $50 I spent on it worth the money: shooting slugs with salt!!
Firing salt into a nasty little slug's body and watching it fall and struggle as the salt desiccates the little bas&^%d's innards so it can no longer leave slime trails or use it's radula to damage my ripe figs. No more slime trails or getting bit while out hunting slugs at night. No more spreading things to help get rid of or at least discourage these darn shell-less snails. No more hard to remove slime on me or my figs!! Now their slime trails are their death trails. Ahhh hahahaha!!!
I love this "gun" thing so I thought I'd pass along my recommendation. I have only fired it 50 times so far which isn't even a full "magazine" of salt, but it has been fun and useful. It is easy to operate and uses only salt -- NO BATTERIES!! It is so cheap to use (compared, say, to using .22 caliber shot shells) that I think every gardner should consider one.
It is true I'm not thrilled to add salt to my soil but the amounts we're talking about here are minimal. In my opinion this toy is actually a useful tool. The price may seem high but it does seem to be built well. Good luck -- wear safety glasses.
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