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We have an unbearable problem with snails and slugs at the farm. Even when it’s dry, they’re a problem. When it’s rainy, as it has been the last week, they’re everywhere: they eat the lettuce, the kale, the cabbage; they climb up the stems of flowers, colonize the bottoms of rocks, and make walking through the grass an audibly crunchy experience.

We’ve tried several techniques for minimizing their destructiveness, from hand-picking them off of plants to trapping them in saucers of beer (Coors Light, if you must know). But this year, as the garden expands and the costs of pouring beer into the ground go up, we’ve decided to take a new tack. Meet our two Cayuga ducklings, Pate & Toast:

Ducks are famous and voracious slug eaters–or so we hear, and so we hope. So far these critters have pretty much hung out in their little duck palace and wait for us to throw them cups full of slugs. We’re giving them a few days to adjust to their new work schedule, but if they’re not out following slime trails for their supper soon….