One of the main features at Hunza Eco-lodge is the large garden. The garden uses organic and permaculture techniques to create a unique design yielding many varieties of herbs, flowers, berries and vegetables. Though beautiful, there is a war being waged in the garden at Hunza. Every evening an army of slugs invades the garden in search of dinner.
Around 9:30 or 10:00 P.M. we, the volunteer army, would go out into the garden armed only with headlamps, a jar, a spoon and a fork. These were our weapons against the never ending invasion. They came from the edges of the forest — out of the dense thickets of weeds looking for food to eat. These nocturnal beasts slowly, steadily move across the soil, not bothering to hide their slime trails. They’re bold creatures, eating everything in reach. They move, zombie-like through the night taking down everything in their paths. Sometimes they eat all the leaves off of a single plant. They especially like potatoes and tomatoes.
Me and Pat’s jar at the start of Slughunt. By the end of each night we’d have a jar packed to the brim. After a week slughunt was almost fun.
Bent double, we worked in pairs. One person would have the jar, the other a spoon and a fork. When our paths crossed with a slug’s we would use our slug-hunting utensils to pry them off of their leaf and put them in the jar. As the jar got fuller, the slugs would try to wriggle out and make a break for it. We use poke them back in with our forks, sometimes more forcefully than others depending on how feisty the slugs were that day. We’d continue like this until the whole garden was cleared. Even on our days off, or days after having too much palinka we’d stumble after the slugs, jar them and, in the morning, feed them to the ducks.
The next day they’d be back.