Fresh caviar and more additions

You’d think fresh caviar’s a good thing, right? Not so much.

Sure, it starts out innocently enough…

But then it turns into this:

And the next thing you know, these little guys are everywhere, eating everything.

See that last picture there? “J” stands for “Jesus, these things are everywhere.”

I’ve been seeing holes in all my lettuces for a couple weeks now, but I’ve never seen any culprits, day or night (yeah, laugh it up, I went out at night with a flashlight). I even tried the ol’ beer slug trap, which resulted in a drunk raccoon but no slugs. The source of the holes was a mystery to me until tonight.

So someone tell me – what are these things and how do I get rid of them?

Time is of the essence to me here, so if I can’t figure it out tonight, I’m going to try the local university extension office for the first time. I’ve even got a sample prepared, in case they can’t ID it over the phone or via photo.

At any rate, I spent about an hour or so tonight getting rid of these things and cleaning out all the destroyed leaves and plants. On a side note, I think some of the arugula is starting to bolt, so it might be about time to clean that row out and start something else.

While I was out there, I did add some more veg to the garden (west bed): a half a row of green onions (2 ft.), 2 half-rows of green beans (4 ft.), and about a 2×4 foot square of various carrots. Given my luck with the carrot seeds last time, I sowed rather heavily this time; I figure I can just thin it out if it starts to get out of control. I also planted a few more of our marigolds in that bed.

Pics of the new stuff:

Now begins the waiting game…