What are you guys doing with all these slugs?

hemophobic

faerie~spangles

A._Badger wrote: »

Slug pellets. They work.

...And also kills whatever eats the poisoned slug.

annie123

VanMan2007 wrote: »

I don't want to kill them; but like most of us I guess, I'm being swamped by them.

I considered bagging them up and taking them to a local nature reserve. They would at least stand a chance; or if not, help the local animals there.

Any comments/suggestions on this?

I don't have slugs so much as snails, I can collect 100 per day for days each spring and this year throughout the summer.
I collect as many as I can and drive to the local woods and let them go. There must be a massive population there by now as I've done that since I moved here 20 years ago.

This summer has been so bad I did use organic pellets eventually for a weekend but made sure I collected and binned as many dead ones as I could find each morning.

I don't see any reason to be cruel to them any more than one would be to any other animal.

Leif

A._Badger wrote: »

Slug pellets. They work.

They do indeed. Salt is fun though.

Leif

faerie~spangles wrote: »

...And also kills whatever eats the poisoned slug.

I was against using slug pellets, but without them I cannot grow anything except bindweed, grass and Chard which they do not eat. I checked online, and although metaldehyde pellets are poisonous, the toxicity is low, and unlikely to kill wildlife. I would be more concerned about lawn pellets which contain weedkiller and moss killer.

VanMan2007

annie123 wrote: »

I don't have slugs so much as snails, I can collect 100 per day for days each spring and this year throughout the summer.
I collect as many as I can and drive to the local woods and let them go. There must be a massive population there by now as I've done that since I moved here 20 years ago.

This summer has been so bad I did use organic pellets eventually for a weekend but made sure I collected and binned as many dead ones as I could find each morning.

I don't see any reason to be cruel to them any more than one would be to any other animal.

Thanks annie123, I think we are of the same mindset. But I don't have crops growing, so I do sympathize with those whose crops have been decimated by them.

If the beer trap worked cos they passed out through too much beer consumption, I would go with that; but as they drown..

I dunno. The older I get, the soppier I get! :rotfl:

Jojo_the_Tightfisted

Apparently, they are excellent bait for catching Chubb.

I've got enough of the spotted racing variety to deplete every flaming river within a hundred acres of Tightfisted Towers.


So I send them on their holidays to the house over the back where the teenager that climbs over my wall and damages the plants to get his football back without asking lives.

Plantie

Last year (my first year with a garden) i collected them up and once a week i deposited them at a wood too far for them to travel back from.

The begining of this year i got fed up with driving them so they ended up in our garden waste bin for them to go wherever the grass clippings go.

Since they have decimated my veg this year i have toughened up and i now tread on them (especially snails) with no sad feelings at all.

My mum is worse than me, she cuts them in half!!!!

Leif

Jojo_the_Tightfisted wrote: »

Apparently, they are excellent bait for catching Chubb.

I've got enough of the spotted racing variety to deplete every flaming river within a hundred acres of Tightfisted Towers.


So I send them on their holidays to the house over the back where the teenager that climbs over my wall and damages the plants to get his football back without asking lives.

Not long ago a R4 listener did a scientific experiment by painting coloured marks on snail shells, then moving them into areas away from their house. They discovered that they all came back, from up to 30m away. They did not try longer distances. So you might well be wasting your time.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/blogs/radio4/2011/09/so_you_want_to_be_a_scientist_1.html

Anyway slugs and snails are very primitive organisms without much in the way of a brain if any, so just kill 'em. I'm sure you also know some people who satisfy that description, but don't kill them. Unless they eat your garden veg, of course.

Jojo_the_Tightfisted

Leif wrote: »

Not long ago a R4 listener did a scientific experiment by painting coloured marks on snail shells, then moving them into areas away from their house. They discovered that they all came back, from up to 30m away. They did not try longer distances. So you might well be wasting your time.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/blogs/radio4/2011/09/so_you_want_to_be_a_scientist_1.html

Anyway slugs and snails are very primitive organisms without much in the way of a brain if any, so just kill 'em. I'm sure you also know some people who satisfy that description, but don't kill them. Unless they eat your garden veg, of course.

Did the R4 listener have ten foot walls around their property?

I do. So I'll keep on giving the little beggars flying lessons for the time being.

I tolerate their existence on the grounds that they are important deitrivores. But the compost heap is only little, so any surface dwellers not quick enough can go fly off to try deitrivoring over the back

(I don't do the poisoning thing for anything. Well, maybe I would if the Japanese stuff pokes its head up, but other than that, I don't)