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Anorak News | Salad Days: Preserving Wildlife In A Bag

Salad Days: Preserving Wildlife In A Bag

by | 14th, May 2007

salad-and-toad.jpgEVER year brings news of foreign bodies eating or destroying the habitats of our native British species.

This year horror is steatoda nobilis, the false black widow. Stuart Hine, an insect expert at the Natural History Museum, tells us: “They can hide in gardening gloves and will bite when you put your hand in. We would urge gardeners to be on their guard in the future.”

And not to bother with gloves.

But now we sense a new development. As the Mail reports, Jessanne De’Ath, 23, of Huntingdon, Cambs, has stumbled upon a way of preserving wildlife and keeping the people safe.

Mrs De-Ath has been to Sainsbury’s. She is returned home with the shopping.

Says she: “I just saw something brown with red spots moving among the lettuce leaves and it made me jump up with fright. I really couldn’t believe that there something alive and jumping about inside my salad.”

Sainsbury’s says: “We set extremely high standards for our salads and hand inspect every lettuce at the point of harvest and then a proportion again at packing.”

Sainsbury’s clearly takes the utmost care with its produce. Which leaves us to wonder if the toad was placed among the bag of herb salad deliberately, in the spirit of conservation?

The Mail says the 2ins natterjack is thought to have travelled here from Portugal. But toads already live here. And they are wanted – the BBC says, they have also been introduced to Hampshire and Surrey. And Dorset.

But more are needed. Natterjack toads eat spiders…



Posted: 14th, May 2007 | In: Strange But True Comment | TrackBack | Permalink