Just wanted to share my joy with you guys. We've been having a very wet winter here in Los Angeles, and that's wonderful, since last year was the driest since 1881, but it's turned my sheet-mulched yard into a slug fiesta. They are literally everywhere. I love caterpillars and everything else that creeps and crawls, but slugs are just mean and ugly. I've been handpicking, and set up some beer traps, but mostly I've just been despairing that this must be the downside of having an ecological garden.

I'd read about what to do about the little bastards, and the books all said that frogs and lizards and salamanders would balance them out eventually. I always just snorted. I live in the middle of the city, and I thought my chances of getting any of those were slim to none.

Well, tonight, while out on my slug-picking rounds, I had a wonderful surprise. What's that there in the weeds? It looks kind of shiny, but not slug shiny...OMG IT'S A SALAMANDER. Would you believe that the mud plus the sheet mulch plus the new brush pile plus the slugsplosion attracted a salamander?! I'm calling him Rusty because he's a common garden-variety California slender salamander and his little gray body has lots of orange speckles on it.

He's quite friendly really--just looks up at me with his little adorable black eyes and then edges deeper into the grass. I hope he doesn't get found by something bigger and meaner, but he should have plenty of cover along that wall, not to mention plenty of delicious bugs and slugs.

Anyway, just wanted to share my excitement and tell you that it DOES work!!