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Old 23-03-2005, 05:04 PM
Instep
 
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Default Pansies

Does anyone know what could be eating my pansy flowers? There are pieces
missing from the petals.

Is it vine weevils or birds, we are visited by pigeons.

Ann


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Old 24-03-2005, 12:50 AM
Miss Perspicacia Tick
 
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Instep wrote:
Does anyone know what could be eating my pansy flowers? There are
pieces missing from the petals.

Is it vine weevils or birds, we are visited by pigeons.

Ann


Birds, generally, don't eat flowers (OK, bullfinches are an exception) - but
the answer is the same for what eats 85-95% of everything in a garden -
slugs and/or snails...

My grandfather has always told me to always suspect slugs first - they even
eat the leaves of the Brugmansia (sp?) (it will always be known as a Datura
to me - why do they have to b*gger with the names?! Was it first cultivated
by a Mr Brugman(s) or something?) and that's deadly poisonous (though,
unfortunately, not to slugs).

Actually, I'm rather glad it doesn't kill them - I wouldn't like the thought
of a lot of dead thrushes, blackbirds, hedgehogs, etc...


--
In memory of MS MVP Alex Nichol: http://www.dts-l.org/


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Old 24-03-2005, 12:31 PM
Mike Lyle
 
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Miss Perspicacia Tick wrote:
[...]
deadly poisonous (though, unfortunately, not to slugs).

Actually, I'm rather glad it doesn't kill them - I wouldn't like

the
thought of a lot of dead thrushes, blackbirds, hedgehogs, etc...


This raises a question I ponder every now and then. I know toxicity
is often in practice simply a matter of physical things like the
length of an animal's gut and speed or manner of digestion; but I'd
assume that, these things being equal, what will kill one
warm-blooded vertebrate will kill another. Meanwhile, do birds and
hedgehogs actually eat dead slugs and snails? If not, is a living
slug carrying a load of poison more of a danger to birds and
hedgehogs than a dead one?

--
Mike.


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Old 24-03-2005, 06:49 PM
Kay
 
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In article , Miss
Perspicacia Tick writes
Instep wrote:
Does anyone know what could be eating my pansy flowers? There are
pieces missing from the petals.

Is it vine weevils or birds, we are visited by pigeons.

Ann


Birds, generally, don't eat flowers (OK, bullfinches are an exception)

And sparrows.

- but
the answer is the same for what eats 85-95% of everything in a garden -
slugs and/or snails...

My grandfather has always told me to always suspect slugs first - they even
eat the leaves of the Brugmansia (sp?) (it will always be known as a Datura
to me - why do they have to b*gger with the names?! Was it first cultivated
by a Mr Brugman(s) or something?)


The names are more than just names - they show the plant's position in a
family tree. As knowledge increases about where a plant fits in that
family tree, it may be necessary to move it from its previous wrong
position in the tree and put it what we now believe to be its correct
position. And that may mean we also have to change its name. The name
change is nothing to do with a sudden desire to commemorate Mr Brugman -
although if you are in a position where you need a new name, because you
realise, eg, that a group of species are sufficiently different from the
rest of the Daturas to need to be in a separate genus, then you may well
take the opportunity for commemoration.

and that's deadly poisonous (though,
unfortunately, not to slugs).


Or to greenfly or to whitefly or to red spider.



--
Kay
"Do not insult the crocodile until you have crossed the river"

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Old 24-03-2005, 06:57 PM
Kay
 
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In article , Mike Lyle mike_lyle_uk@REM
OVETHISyahoo.co.uk writes

Meanwhile, do birds and
hedgehogs actually eat dead slugs and snails?


Something eats dead slugs. But it may well be other slugs.

If not, is a living
slug carrying a load of poison more of a danger to birds and
hedgehogs than a dead one?

I would have thought so. It worries me that poisoned slugs can travel
quite a distance before coming to a stop and therefore presumably have a
period where they may be indistinguishable from healthy ones as far as
predators can tell.

Research by the research arm of London Zoo suggests that the copper
content of slug pellets reaches frogs through their eating of slugs and
lowers resistance to a North American ranovirus which is currently
having big effects on frog populations in the S of England.
--
Kay
"Do not insult the crocodile until you have crossed the river"



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Old 26-03-2005, 06:23 PM
Trevor Appleton
 
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Birds eat my Primula 'Wanda' and Primula denticulata and I don't see a
single flower compared to the glorious display I hade from the same plants
in Devon

Trevor
East Yorkshire

ps they also eat all the blossom off Prunus subhirtellaAutumnalis


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