Slug pellets

eDicky

Slugs are a major part of hedgehogs' diet. Unfortunately the hedgehog population has diminished drastically, largely due to consumption of poisoned slugs, so it's good to hear that metaldehyde has finally been taken off the market.

Residential gardens are now usually fenced without any gaps at ground level which would allow access to hedgehogs, so this natural slug control agent cannot include such gardens in their nocturnal ranging.

In Essex my garden was regularly visited by hedgehogs and sometimes they hibernated there, I had no slug problem.

If you successfully offer hedgehogs access and support they repay you with evening entertainment and slug control.

 https://www.hedgehogstreet.org/

twopenny

When the path was relaid the guy did such a good job that the gate/paver were left no gap.
I was able to make a tunnel by scraping out a 'tunnel' from the gravel edging but in summer thats dodge on the edge of the path.

I plan to get someone to make a hinged hedgehog gate at the bottom of the real gate. Open at night, closed in day. So no cats.

I can vouch how well they dispose of slugs and snails.

Easier is a small tunnel under fences with neighbours. They then plot a route.

Dustyevsky

eDicky said:

. Unfortunately the hedgehog population has diminished drastically, largely due to consumption of poisoned slugs, so it's good to hear that metaldehyde has finally been taken off the market.

  Without wishing to be unkind, you haven't provided the evidence to support this statement. 

I live in the country and there are hedgehogs in my garden. There's also quite a number of badgers about, and I know they are much more prevalent than they were 50 years ago, so the rise in badger numbers has matched the decline in hedgehogs. Circumstantial evidence, of course, but badgers are the only significant predator where an adult hog is concerned. They also compete directly for food, which is less available where modern farming methods are applied. Then there's the increase in traffic, both in suburbia and the countryside.  People experience hedgehogs most frequently as something flat lying in the road. Also, where the hedgehogs might have found front gardens 40 years ago, there are now barren parking spaces, while at the back, patio slabs and astroturf!

I'm not saying metaldehyde pellets were a good thing, but the situation is much more complex than will be rectified by the ban on them.

ispookie666

@eDicky unfortunately you are wrong about slugs being part of hedgehogs diet. If a hog eats slugs, it's a last resort before starvation. Slugs harbour lung worms and are deadly to hogs. 

Beetles, worms and grubs are the major diet. Badgers compete for the similar fauna. We used to have a huge population, unfortunately the last summer has decimated the population.

If anyone is interested, cat food (ones with high protein) is good - I use kitten food in a dedicated shelter. I used to have a few resident hogs in the garden but have not seen them in the last few nights. 

The new formulation seems to work only time will tell if it's as good as metaldehyde. I'll equate slugs to aphids, all you can do is control them!

Bettie

Grandmama said:

I am teetotal therefore no beer. 

Also dried yeast. A packet of 5 costs about 60p. One packet mixed with a teaspoon of sugar and  warm water will make 4 or 5 traps. 

Krakkkers

I have never managed to hit a slug with one of these pellets.

Dustyevsky

Krakkkers said:

I have never managed to hit a slug with one of these pellets.

No, they're not the same as the slugs we use to put in our slug guns as kids either.

Did a small experiment last night and planted some wildish plants in my wild area, adding a good shake of ferric pellets around each one.

This morning, none of the plants had been eaten, but there was no trace of the pellets.