THE GOSSIP: Cavs are struggling, Ohioans and mental health and summer slugs

MENTAL HEALTH FIRST AID: HELPING OHIO STATE HELP OHIOANS – If someone were having a panic attack, delusions, suicidal thoughts or an overdose from alcohol or drugs in front of you, would you know what to do?

Ohio State University Extension professionals will soon be trained in how to identify and handle such situations.

Mental Health First Aid, offered by the National Council for Behavioral Health, is being offered to OSU Extension staff statewide. The goal is to help people gain the skills needed to identify, understand and respond to signs of mental health and substance/opioid abuse challenges and crises.

OSU Extension professionals are in all 88 Ohio counties, making it invaluable to arm them with the ability to respond to a mental health or substance abuse crisis, said Roger Rennekamp, director of OSU Extension, the outreach arm of the College of Food, Agricultural, and Environmental Sciences at The Ohio State University.

SLUGS MAY THRIVE THIS SUMMER - Something very small has benefited from the heavy rainfall that has played havoc with field crops statewide: the slimy and frequently hungry gray garden slug.

Planting corns and soybeans early sometimes helps reduce the amount of damage from slugs because the crop has a chance to outpace the growth of the slug, whose appetite increases as it matures, said Kelley Tilmon, a field crop entomologist with Ohio State University Extension, the outreach arm of The Ohio State University’s College of Food, Agricultural, and Environmental Sciences.

But with above average rainfall across the state and some late-season frosts, a significant number of farmers are planting — or replanting — corn and soybeans later in the growing season. And those emerging plants are tasty meals for the slithering bandits.