Slugs and hanging baskets?

Pixiechic

Last night I was outside and as I reached for the door handle to open it to come back inside, I noticed a huge slug lying stretched out on the door handle :eek: and another one crawling up the house.

I'm not precious about any other creepy crawly but I can't touch a slug, so I just used the other door

This morning I noticed that my lovely hanging basket has no flowers left

Has this happened to anyone else? Do slugs slither/crawl up buildings to get to hanging baskets or is it something else?

peter_the_piper

They will eat anything if its in their way, if the basket is away from the wall smear vaseline areound the bracket after making sure there are none left up there.

Pixiechic

Genius idea! Thank you!

I just couldn't believe it, I didn't know that they would 'climb' up the house! I was really pleased with my baskets pre slug attack.

I'm overrun with the disgusting little slimy things! I think that I have an army of them conspiring against me :cool: I don't like killing them though

Such a good idea, I was about to give up on the baskets too.

Thank you

Lovelyjoolz

Sorry, shouldn't laugh, but I'm imagining the "Mission Impossible" theme playing while the slugs sneak up on the hanging baskets.. :rotfl:

peter_the_piper

I used to live in the basement of a 3 storey house and the snails went up to the roof, intrepid climbers indeed.
ps, give them a good feed and they'll come back. The "pruning" may well have done them good

DaftyDuck

Lovelyjoolz wrote: »

Sorry, shouldn't laugh, but I'm imagining the "Mission Impossible" theme playing while the slugs sneak up on the hanging baskets.. :rotfl:

Thanks VERY much for that! Not :mad:

I'm going to spend the next few hours with that meme in my head, curse you!

Tum tum ti, tum tum ti ... Da Nah...
Oh, and slugs slowly lowering themselves from the gutter on strings of slime, then stopping an inch from the plant.... waiting.... waiting ... one globule of slime detaches, falls in slo-mo... falls... falls... and is swiped up with a slurp by an eyestalk.
Tum tum ti, DA Nah...

Put a few slug pellets in the basket, whatever other (sensible) precautions you take. They'll have left the rearguard behind, bandanna wrapped around the head, knife between teeth, waiting for darkness before silently launching out of the jungle that is your hanging basket....

Then there's their eggs. They'll have laid eggs in there, ready to burst out when you least expect it....

You can tell my work is slow again today, can't you?

Pixiechic

Lovelyjoolz wrote: »

Sorry, shouldn't laugh, but I'm imagining the "Mission Impossible" theme playing while the slugs sneak up on the hanging baskets.. :rotfl:

:rotfl:

I thought it was Mission Impossible, I was wrong :cool:

Pixiechic

peter_the_piper wrote: »

I used to live in the basement of a 3 storey house and the snails went up to the roof, intrepid climbers indeed.
ps, give them a good feed and they'll come back. The "pruning" may well have done them good

I really never knew that they 'climbed'!

Thank you, I thought the plant would die! I'll feed it and see how I get on.

I have now vaselined the bracket , thanks for your advice.

meg72

I have never had any experience of climbing slugs, and in the case of hanging baskets would think it more likely that they have hatched out in the soil, but by god snails climb I have found them at the top of 8ft bean poles.