Slug pellets

ispookie666

What are everyone's opinions on these?  I'm fed up with using beer traps.  

elsien

I don’t use them.
I know which plants are reasonably slug resistant in my garden. There are some areas where plants get really slugged, but they will be okay in a different bit of garden. And I use copper tape and grit on any pots.
I’m happy with how my garden looks without having to poison things.

Nobbie1967

The new ones are rubbish, barely any effect, luckily I’ve still got some of the old type. Next time I go abroad I’ll pick some more up.

Dustyevsky

The ferric phosphate ones are supposedly organic, and apparently the slugs go to ground before dying, so there's little visual confirmation of them working.

The metaldehyde pellets were banned last year and said to be harmful to other wildlife, though evidence was rarely cited when I saw these claims made. It's illegal to have them now, though I understand some people may have stockpiled. They'll be living in perpetual fear of the pellet police.

My personal view is that both kinds work, but the ferric ones disappear quickly, even under cover. The old pellets were used in huge quantities by commercial growers, so I'd be interested to know what they're doing now.

twopenny

I've started collecting sheeps fleece in spring and wrapped around plants seems to work very well.
I've bought the fleece pellets and they work well.
Both last through all sorts of weather.

I do have some of the old pellets but I used to use them with the plants covered in netting so nothing else could get at them but it was stll gruesome where my current method is clean and neat.

ispookie666

@twopenny fleece pellets?

Grandmama

I am teetotal therefore no beer. I  have a few of the new pellets but use only sparingly. This week I googled about what I could use instead of beer. Good old marmite came.up. Having some in fridge I melted a small amount in hot water let cool and added to a small.pot dug into ground to.soil level by my slug eaten lettuce last night. Found 5 drowned slugs.In it this.morning. Repeating exercise tonight!

RAS

For what it's worth, the rodent population here harvest the modern slug pellets. On two different occasions I've encountered rats ensconced under pigeon netting nibbling their way through the pellets scattered by plotholders. 

I suspect that is why those I occasionally used disappeared overnight.

twopenny

Spookie - 
https://www.cbc-corner.co.uk/doff-slug-be-gone-wool-pellets---1l-13823-p.asp?msclkid=e923c154f3d81969419aa50bde03fb15

Not cheap but I found they worked. Rain makes them swell and form a mat that lasts all year. The colour blends with the soil.
Found them in local hardware shops. Bigger stores may do them.

Dustyevsky

RAS said:

For what it's worth, the rodent population here harvest the modern slug pellets. On two different occasions I've encountered rats ensconced under pigeon netting nibbling their way through the pellets scattered by plotholders. 

I suspect that is why those I occasionally used disappeared overnight.

I suspected that too, but had no evidence. If the potato farmers are spraying these about as they did the others, it will do wonders for boosting populations of those rodents!

RAS

Dustyevsky said:

RAS said:

For what it's worth, the rodent population here harvest the modern slug pellets. On two different occasions I've encountered rats ensconced under pigeon netting nibbling their way through the pellets scattered by plotholders. 

I suspect that is why those I occasionally used disappeared overnight.

I suspected that too, but had no evidence. If the potato farmers are spraying these about as they did the others, it will do wonders for boosting populations of those rodents!

The evidence was scuttling about under a plot neighbours brassica netting snuffling out little blue pellets and eating them. Twice, different plots.