Know what you mean...ugggg! Have a pot of pansies and they're being eaten up like mad. Checked under the leaves, and there it was, a giant slug ~ happy, fat and eating lunch, and the mighty ear-wigs were busy scurrying around less I catch them. Out here in BC the slugs are called "banana slugs" and really look like a banana, lol.

And in case you were wondering.......yes, you can eat the lettuce, lol.

Just joking back to the ants-in-the-honey discussion.

In the future, submerge fresh picked veggies in a basin of soapy water to quickly get rid of creepy crawlies hidden in the leaves. I keep liquid organic soap at the sink all the time.

If you garden, you will have those garden "helpers" (helping themselves, as well as being the garbage eaters; I hate them, but....) I usually bring garden picked stuff directly to sink which has chilled salt water( not too much salt! and it is rinsed off), and they are prepped for use. I have organic soap for veggies too, but the salt works for bugs....soap is for those "cides", as in pesticides etc. Organic gardening (to me) means that healthy food is tested by healthy(ugh) bugs. They have their place in the cycle of food production, so one has to control them ...that is keep them at bay.... and get (ugh) over (ugh) the creepy crawly feelings about them. Darn it, I really don't know exactly their purpose in life is (ear-wigs & snails shivver) but, there is no getting completely rid of them. Mother Nature, must know best!

Your honey comments made me laugh. Yep, rinsed and wrapped in paper towels and in a bag, ready for my next Greek or any salad.

Thanks for the tips about using soap/salt. We had a bunch of kale as well, but the ear-wigs don't seem to have the same liking for that.

I give a lot of produce a quick salt water soak, then rinse before cooking. (pour some salt in with hot water and swish around until dissolved, then add cool water so as not to blanch vegetables). Those little worms that are exactly the same color as broccoli? They come right out and die in your sink which isn't wonderful, but I'd rather find them in the sink than eat them since their color disguises them so well :) And the things I've found in parsley!

We have them everywhere. I had never seen one before moving to Ontario. Anything outside usually has at least one on them. I wonder when my kids will learn this for when they pick up a bike helmet and one drops on them, freak out ensues, rinse, repeat....

I remember that well. One fell out of a screen door, into my thick hair when I was a kid.... still gives me the shivers.

The one bug that terrified me as a child (I still shudder and stay away from them) are June bugs!!! I'd scream and Mom would have to sweep the sidewalk before I'd go outside.

I don't like June bugs either.

My bug memory from my youth would be canker worms. I remember walking in the middle of the roads because they would hanging by the hundreds off the trees. It was just the way to was. The kid (didn't matter which one) who sat in front of me usually had one in their hair - as did I.

I've been lucky in garden as I haven't had much of anything, bug wise, going on. I don't use any sprays, just luck.

Cookie, as a kid, my grandpa would burn the worms off the trees. There was a particularly fast-growing tree that I don't think are around anymore. I think it was killed off, much like the elm trees were with the dutch elm disease. Darned if I can think of the name of the tree now.......tall and skinny. Would those be canker worms? I've never heard of them.

They fed on Manitoba maples. Not sure where else they would be but ugh, so many. We had a huge infestation of Dutch Elm disease too. Where I live now we are dealing with the Ash Borer. My husband, from the same city, calls them tent worms.

watch the ear wigs ppl-they WILL bite

As tiny as earwigs are, their bite would never be more than a teensy pinch.

Tent caterpillars are a little creepy in the way that their population explodes out of control occasionally. That's the kind that people used to torch the big nests out of the trees.

It's a far better idea to use a pole, rake, or even a strong spray of water to rip open the webby nest, making them vulnerable to the crazy amount of critters who will eat them.

Birds love them, so do predatory insects of every kind, frogs and toads, squirrels, spiders, etc.

Cookie, your caterpillar may have been the larvae of the Winter Moth.

Tent caterpillars, that's what they were! And the trees they were in were poplar trees. I just remembered.

I keep jar lids in my garden and fill them with beer. Earwigs especially love the beer and drown in it. Saw my first June bug here last night. Not my favorite thing.