Dad declares 'war' on common pest in $20,000 garden

After his wife and daughter are tucked up in bed at the end of the day, one garden-proud dad is getting ready for battle. Mike Dinnebier is at war with a tsunami of slugs that have left him holding midnight vigils over his beloved garden every night.

The dad who has spent nearly AU $20,000 carefully cultivating his tropical-themed backyard oasis, he sneaks down to his garden at midnight with a head torch and bucket to pick slugs off of his plants — by hand.

The 33-year-old from Norfolk, UK, originally tried cutting holes behind his sheds to encourage hedgehogs and frogs to come into his garden and eat the pests - however they 'couldn't keep up' - and doesn't want to put slug pellets because if hedgehogs eat slugs that have consumed them, they too will be unwell.

The sheer volume of the slithery creatures has meant he's been forced to take matters into his own hands and now essentially acts as a security guard for the plants, with nightly visits at both 8pm and midnight.

"This year because it was so wet over spring and it was a really wet start to the winter, the slugs really took hold," he said. "There's been so many slugs this year that they [the plants] were just kind of taken over and the hedgehogs and frogs couldn't keep up.

"They usually keep them under control, I've never seen a single slug in the three years before this."

Dad reveals tactic for removing pesky slugs

Dinnebier explained that in order to remove them, he "picks them off the plants" and puts them in a bucket.

"I have to get up at 5am for work and I'm out there at midnight most nights because that's when the slugs are the most active,' he said. "They still manage to get a bit of a hold of it, a lot of the plants have got loads of nibble holes but the damage was reduced so it is definitely worth it."

The most expensive plants in Mike's garden are three tree ferns that were imported from New Zealand that he bought for AU $1200 four years ago, He said they can take about a hundred years to grow to six foot tall.

The father-of-one, who makes formula one car parts for a living, says he spends up to 20 hours a week in his garden since buying the home in 2019 and shows no signs of slowing down.

Mike said Nora loves spending time looking at plants in the garden, in particular she is fascinated by his 33 varieties of Venus flytraps, but that Jasmine does not always share the same sentiment.

"I get moaned at for being in the garden too much," he said, adding that his wife tells him that he needs to spend more time with her instead of in the garden, but adds "she puts up with it because it's worth it."

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Garden is a labour of love for dad

The garden-proud man says some days it feels like he spends hours just weeding for it to look no different. But he says its all worth it when people come to admire his hard work.

"I'm obviously out here every day and it gets a bit tedious sometimes," he said. "You can spend an entire day out here and do weeding and you look at it and it's like it's no different to the way it looked this morning and I've just been out here for eight hours. I'm just getting tired now and I'm not seeing any change.

"But when everyone comes along and is like this is really good it lifts your hopes back up and gives you the appreciation back again."

— Kennedy News and Media

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