Slugs!!

Davesnave

LincolnshireYokel wrote: »

Try ringing a Hedgehog Hospital, they'll put you straight.

Metaldehyde is poisonous to slugs and hedgehogs. Hedgehogs eat slugs that have eaten slug pellets. After about 200 slugs, the hedgehog has enough metaldehyde to kill it, very slowly and painfully.

Now there are people who will argue with that, but it may be better to err on the side of caution, wouldnt it ?

That would be like ringing the Archbishop of Canterbury to ask if there's a God.

I take it you can't provide the link either then.

It seems odd to me that independent evidence seems so hard to find. I'm not denying that your assertions make sense on a 'common sense' basis, but in education, where I come from, the common sense answer isn't enough.

Erring on the side of caution is fine, so long as it enables people to grow their food successfully. I have no argument with those who want to use organic methods or 'safe' chemicals. Good on you.

However most of us don't buy organic, so by our actions, we give support to farmers who use metaldehyde. Limiting ourselves on our own plots, while laudable, is therefore inconsistent. It's like keeping chickens at home to very high welfare standards and then buying ready meals full of foreign chicken, raised in poor conditions.

Lotus-eater

On the other slug thread there is details of 2 slow worms being killed by them.

I can't think of one poison that kills something, that doesn't inadvertently damage something else.

Ignoring how farmers use chemicals on our food, is as bad as ignoring the possibility of chemicals we use damaging wildlife.

While I see the contridiction of buying non organic food and using organic pellets at home, surely at least we then have one area that wildlife can be potentially safe in.
The farmers fields are going to be pelleted anyway, you yourself can't stop that, but you do have the choice how you run your garden.

Davesnave

Lotus-eater wrote: »

While I see the contridiction of buying non organic food and using organic pellets at home, surely at least we then have one area that wildlife can be potentially safe in.
The farmers fields are going to be pelleted anyway, you yourself can't stop that, but you do have the choice how you run your garden.

I'm just being devil's advocate. I agree that it's good to garden in the lightest way possible, but there often has to be a bit of horse trading. For example, my garden used to have dormice, but only because it was a wilderness when I took it over. I knew that as I tamed it the dormice would move out.

And it's OK for me, as I now have a fairly slug/snail tolerant garden and my polytunnel isn't hospitable to them, but at my last place I had to use pellets or my livelihood would have been under threat. The research I did then suggested there might be a link with red leg disease in frogs, but despite that, my garden was jumping with those, and with newts & toads. So, I didn't know what to conclude, because the very animal that allegedly should have suffered most, was doing incredibly well.

Ainsley1

We also use the Garlic spray method with some success.

However does wash off in rain so repeat doses are required and that is a difficulty if it rains often (such as at present).

If you like a very similar easy method then go along to an equestrian feed supplier (or farmers store) and buy garlic powder or dust. From memory about £5+ per kilo and throw that around - works especially well when plants are damp as it then sticks to the foliage but still washes off eventually.

All these garlic treatments also help with the darned little blighters that eat roots and tubers as it goes into the soil. Doesn't affect the taste of the veg either....but that might have been a plus point!

sickofusernames

Had enough, the revenge begins!

They ate the base of one of my two cucumber plants killing it, they sometimes cling to my dog when she's been outside meaning a nice slug on the carpet and to top it off, i've found another large one just come under the kitchen kickboards tonight.

I'm so annoyed at the little **** that I scooped it into the dustpan, opened the patio door and flung it towards the floor so hard it was no more.

I'm thinking of a homemade flame thrower, salt just doesn't do it for me now...