Bloody slugs

malebolge

I found some out of date beer in my garage so got some beer traps off ebay and they've been working really well. I read that they only work on slugs/snails in about a metre diameter of the trap so I did get loads. I also read that it's not beer as such that attreacts them, it's the yeast, so when I've exhausted my supply, I', going to try with a yeast based mix. Fingers crossed!

andymandy

I agree with KEN68 use crunched up egg shells and place on soil round plants they work well if not very pretty. I keep a plastic container with a lid on and just save them till I have enough to put round the plants.

silverwhistle

creativemieu wrote: »

This is supposed to be a bad year for slugs...

MWwaaahahahahaha!

Solidarity with all affected gardeners. I've lost plenty this year, in particular my stocks and beans. I have a couple of late nights every week out with the torch and rubber gloves, chuck em in a plastic jug and flush them down the loo or on top of the nearby lock-up garages so the birds can benefit.

Personally - I'm wondering how high slugs can easily climb. I expect the answer to that isnt the one I'd like to hear...:cool:.

Well money.., somewhere on my phone I have a photograph of a snail on my upstairs window; I've had them on both front and back..

blootoon

malebolge wrote: »

I found some out of date beer in my garage so got some beer traps off ebay and they've been working really well. I read that they only work on slugs/snails in about a metre diameter of the trap so I did get loads. I also read that it's not beer as such that attreacts them, it's the yeast, so when I've exhausted my supply, I', going to try with a yeast based mix. Fingers crossed!

I have used beer traps for years using the dregs from homebrew but this year i am being forced to use pellets as the figgin badgers seem to like a tipple as they keep raiding my beer traps knocking off the lids and often scrapping the traps out of the holes

ktjackson

I feel your pain. Snails are the brain of my life at the moment. I have a morning ritual of pulling them off my plants and drowning them in soapy water. Its a pain but I'd rather do that than have my garden destroyed...I just hope karma doesn't exist or I may come back as one of the slimy creatures!

REEN

Snails climb six feet and more up my rowan and apple trees. I even found one in a hanging basket. To get there it must have gone six feet up the house wall, along the bracket and down the chain. On damp evenings I see them coming over the four foot fence from next door's wilderness.

firebird082

They get up to my hanging baskets too - I occasionally catch them on the wall of the house on their way up of an evening.

A friend just mentioned coffee grounds round selected plants - may have to see if I can acquire some from work again...although I don't think that will reduce the need for evening slug patrol

PasturesNew

moneyistooshorttomention wrote: »

Personally - I'm wondering how high slugs can easily climb. I expect the answer to that isnt the one I'd like to hear...:cool:.
.

Last night I went outside and there's a streetlight at the front of my house - I could see a "blob" on top of my 6' high wooden gate .... it was a slug crawling happily across the top of the gate.

DigForVictory

My sister asked for & got the coffee grounds from a Waitrose machine & has that around her plants. Smells lovely she says, and seems to be effective against slugs.

Since I have three trays of etiolated seedlings hardening off on the coal shed, I may ask my Waitrose if they could spare some used grounds & see if that defends the feeble things from the ravening slugs. My husband was ranting it's June - all plants should be in the ground! Then the slugs ate his £20 spree of tender herbs from the garden centre.

We also have snails - in one very bad year for snails we offered a 10 pence bounty per snail - and one son earned £37 quid (& the nickname snailfarmer) before we realised they have satnav & a 2 mile homing instinct, neither of which help when you under attack by a peckish chicken.

Davesnave

PasturesNew wrote: »

I could see a "blob" on top of my 6' high wooden gate .... it was a slug crawling happily across the top of the gate.

Nah, that's anthropomorphism. Slugs don't have the capability to feel happy....


Besides, for all you know, his girlfriend might just have dumped him!