Snail/slug pellets

Cally_Smart

Leif wrote: »

According to studies snails thrown into a neighbour's garden simply make their way back home.

Mmmm.......Homing snails.. a vastly under-used resource....

C_Mababejive

Im sure small snails and slugs actually fall from the sky in heavy rain. There is no other explanation for it !

I have four sunflower which are doing very well in a growbag. The growbag is sitting in an expanse of gravel.

I have noted for a week or so that one particular plant is suffering from severe nibblage of its big leaves.. i put it down to birds as no slugs/snails in site.

Last night it was flogging with rain and i happened to go out in garden and what did i see? I small slug about 4ft up from the ground nibbling my sunflower leaf ! A closer inspection revealed a couple of small snails shimmying up the support canes ..!! arrghhhh

Ejected said creepers and deployed countermeasures in form of slug pellets,greased lower parts of canes with silicon grease and put salt on grease... I swear they rain from the sky..how else did they schlep across all the gravel?

morg_monster

I use the pick-em-off method on our patio pots, in the evening or in the morning, or after rainfall. I use scissors to pick them up or flick them onto the flowerbed, then cut them in half... gross but I hate getting the slime on my fingers, it never comes off. I step on snails in my wellies...
I have a beer trap in the raised beds amongst the lettuces, don't like to use poison because of our cats and used salt last year but went a bit OTT and killed some of the plants as well!
I've used nematodes this year too and numbers have definitely been down, but then it hasn't been as consistently rainy as the last two years so that has probably made a big difference. Last year I would easily pick 50 or 60 off just the patio plants in one go. I used wooden bbq kebab sticks that year and kept stabbing them until the stick was full, then they'd go in the bin.
I find the slugs REALLY like my potatoes, but don't touch tomatoes and don't seem keen on courgettes - anything where the foliage or stems are a bit hairy I think put them off. Their absolute favourite thing in my garden seems to be marigolds, munch them down to the ground in a couple of nights, so I usually plant a few sacrificial ones. Haven't touched the snapdragons next to them, weird.

Metranil_Vavin

Bleugh just went outside again and there are big slugs everywhere now too! It's been raining today, but these look like they have crawled into the pellets and died. Am I wrong to be feeling a bit of satisfaction?

Thrown as many of the dead snails over the back wall into a disused piece of undergrowth as I can. Can't face the slugs so will get OH to do those when he gets in.

C_Mababejive

The copper pipe/cable method works well too...

[Deleted User]

A Badger, I put no chemicals as such meaning I and my cat would happily drink beer but would not be happy about eating slug pellets

WestonDave

I used the Growing Success stuff which whilst still a chemical is supposed to be less harmful if something then eats the slug so less damaging to other wildlife. The slugs also tend to crawl away to die to you don't end up with a trail of dead ones but so far my veggies seem to be free from chomping!