Slugs...aaargh

gem4

I must have hundreds, I must have the entire neighbourhood's slugs and snails. I wondered what was causing so much devastation in my garden. Every plant I put in gets stripped overnight, new buds on flowers dont see the light of day, all my hyacinths were stripped back to stalks, my replanted snapdragons have been stripped to stalks......and now I've noticed lots of micro sluggies too......they've had babies :eek:

Whats the answer? I've tried slug pellets but there are too many. I'm pulling my hair out with frustration. Help.....please :mad:

youngie

make slug traps from marg tubs ect cut hole in lid half fill with left over beer(ask at your local for some out of the slops tray)this will attract the slugs they will die happy and its envirometally friendly

ckerrd

I have used a slug spray. Get them in most Garden Centres. Mix it up with water and then use one of these pump action spray bottles.
Next morning it was like the killing fields - dead slugs and snails everywhere.

Done this now for a couple of years on a regular basis and eventually it seems to be doing the trick.

KatrinaC_2

gem4 wrote: »

I must have hundreds, I must have the entire neighbourhood's slugs and snails. I wondered what was causing so much devastation in my garden. Every plant I put in gets stripped overnight, new buds on flowers dont see the light of day, all my hyacinths were stripped back to stalks, my replanted snapdragons have been stripped to stalks......and now I've noticed lots of micro sluggies too......they've had babies :eek:

Whats the answer? I've tried slug pellets but there are too many. I'm pulling my hair out with frustration. Help.....please :mad:

I could never get the beer traps to work, but found that going out after dark or just before dawn with a torch to pick them up individually worked quite well. They are also attracted to bread and if I put out slices of bread they'd be all over it when I came out - all I had to do was put the slice and the slugs in a carrier bag with the top tied and then throw the whole thing into the wheelie bin.

Copper tape for anything in pots works well (they get an electric shock when they pass over it) so long as there is no other route for the slug to get onto the plant.

My MIL swears by putting down dried, crushed eggshells (she bakes them in the oven to get them really sharp) and my grandfather used sharp flinty gravel, albeit with a cocktail of slug killing materials mixed in with it.

You can also get predators - either big ones like hedgehogs, frogs and toads (although you'll have to be wary of using chemical killers if you introduce them into your garden) which will view your garden as an enormous 24 hour slug buffet, or nematodes which you can water on.

Kat

BlondeHeadOn

I've tried just about everything except the nightime slug-hunt (just can't face doing that!), and the best method I've found is the slug nemotodes that you water in and let do the work for you. I used Nemaslug, and it worked a treat!

Doesn't work on snails though, but those are easier to find in the daytime and chuck over the fence or dispose of in some other way....

cuddlymarm

Hi

We had a massive slug problem a couple of years ago so I put pots of beer out and it worked really well. Unfortunately Barney, our daft boxer dog got to the beer pots before we could. Boy did he stink for bthe next few days:eek: :eek:

MKwife

I put crunched up shells (egg shells, sea shells, etc) all over my flower beds, it looks quite pretty and keep the slugs and snails off my flowers and veg as they cut themselves on the shells so they keep off!!

KatrinaC_2

BlondeHeadOn wrote: »

I've tried just about everything except the nightime slug-hunt (just can't face doing that!), and the best method I've found is the slug nemotodes that you water in and let do the work for you. I used Nemaslug, and it worked a treat!

Doesn't work on snails though, but those are easier to find in the daytime and chuck over the fence or dispose of in some other way....

Where did you get your Nemaslug from, is it safe for wildlife, and how much was it? My nextdoor neighbout insists on using chemicals and I'd rather she didn't as I want to get some frogs. I was wondering whether to buy her some Nemaslug and give her garden a quick going over too, depending on the price and whether it'd kill off my good guys.

Kat

BlondeHeadOn

I get mine from Green gardener, link is here:

http://www.greengardener.co.uk/slug.htm

I used the version you can apply via a hose end feeder, which is dead easy - just put the nemaslug in the feeder, attach to the hose, and water in wherever the little blighters go....

BlondeHeadOn

Sorry, missed out answering the other questions. It costs from around £9 - £10, and lasts for about 3-6 months, so I found it was cheaper than slig pellets overall. And it is totally safe for wildlife, children and pets, as it is a nemotode that occurs naturally anyway - you just add a bigger concentration of them to the sluggy soil!

okra

I'll second nematodes - they work brilliantly. Pellets, copper tape and the like only kill off the slugs which are above ground (and the pellets contain chemicals to attract the slugs, so you could end up with more of them anyway). Nematodes kill off the lot, organically