Do runner drakes hurt each other

[Jupiter]

if there are only the two of them, with no females to compete for? I read that they'd mate eachother, but is it harmful for them? It doesn't SOUND very good! I'd keep just one drake, but I also read they need ducky company. I wanted a boy because I read they are quieter, and my HOA has restrictions. As long as I don't annoy anyone, I think we'll be fine.

The runners look hilarious. I need to convince hubby, but that will be fairly simple....."Look honey, no more buying expensive pet safe slug killer pellets" We have slugs like no place I've ever seen. I hand picked them every night for weeks last summer and lost count after more than 200 a night. The kids were getting paid by the soapy bucket full. They ate all plants and laughed at my control efforts.

 

[WestKnollAmy]

You do realize that the best slug killer, besides your great pets of course, is beer? Just pour them a bowl and watch them dive in and die.
Works on raccoons, too. Well, the raccoons don't dive in and die but they drink it and then forget why they were at the barn. They just wander off in a drunken stupor.

 

[Jupiter]

Oh yes, they love beer, by morning the little tubs are full of drunk drowned bodies and the primroses are gone anyway. I can't put enough beer traps out to make a difference. For a while I had all these two liter bottles and tubs all over everywhere, and thought, well that looks even worse than chewed plants.

I've tried everything I can think of (except a duck) including only planting things slugs aren't supposed to eat. Yeah, right.

Luckily, the dogs have pretty much taken care of running off the racoons except at night when everyone is snug in their beds. No need to get them intoxicated

 

[mominoz]

I had my runners all together for 9 months and had two drakes, never saw them hurt each other at all. There were 6 of them and one drake was breeding his females . Now they are separate, but next to each other .

 

[WestKnollAmy]

I hope ducks work for you. I didn't know slugs would eat plants but we don't seem to be plagued with them here.

 

[rainplace]

Quote:
The reason I finally sat down and ordered ducks was because over the course of two night, slugs wiped out my entire lettuce crop. Slugs are awful, and beer does not slim down the population. Yes, you will see slugs dead in the bear in the morning, but what you don't see is all the slugs that were attracted to your garden but didn't make it to the beer.

You cannot keep ducks unattended in your garden though or they will destroy everything.

 

[Jupiter]

Quote:
The reason I finally sat down and ordered ducks was because over the course of two night, slugs wiped out my entire lettuce crop. Slugs are awful, and beer does not slim down the population. Yes, you will see slugs dead in the bear in the morning, but what you don't see is all the slugs that were attracted to your garden but didn't make it to the beer.

You cannot keep ducks unattended in your garden though or they will destroy everything.

Sorry about your lettuce. I know I've planted lovely little plants and gone to check on them the next day only to find tiny stems. I'm thinking I'm going to try the two males. I need to set up a safe nightime place for them, and then find a couple ducklings

Maybe THIS year I can have hostas

 

[rainplace]

Quote:
The reason I finally sat down and ordered ducks was because over the course of two night, slugs wiped out my entire lettuce crop. Slugs are awful, and beer does not slim down the population. Yes, you will see slugs dead in the bear in the morning, but what you don't see is all the slugs that were attracted to your garden but didn't make it to the beer.

You cannot keep ducks unattended in your garden though or they will destroy everything.

Sorry about your lettuce. I know I've planted lovely little plants and gone to check on them the next day only to find tiny stems. I'm thinking I'm going to try the two males. I need to set up a safe nightime place for them, and then find a couple ducklings

Maybe THIS year I can have hostas

Don't even get me started on hostas and those darn slugs!

This fall I opened up the entire garden to the ducks and they got fat little bellies. I'm hoping by spring they will have fertilized and greatly reduced the pest problem so that when I plant in the spring and shut them out, my little plants will grow grow grow!

 

[Jupiter]

Quote:
You are lucky! We have some native banana slugs that don't do much damage, they like leaf litter, but the other ones will eat and eat and eat.

 

[rainplace]

Quote:
You are lucky! We have some native banana slugs that don't do much damage, they like leaf litter, but the other ones will eat and eat and eat.

Doh... You're in Washington too! Yeah, those big ones are pretty cool looking. I use to keep them as pets... it's those brown ones... they are mean and evil and need to be eaten by ducks.