Slugs

[eastdulwichproperty]

Hi

Each week I buy new beddi g plants, each week they get eaten completely-sometimes just over night. I've tried nemaslugs but this doesn't seem to work on heavy clay. I don't want to use slug pellets for obvious reasons, anyone else had success her to g rid of them?

Thanks

Paul

[Penguin68]

If you use slug pellets then things that eat the poisoned slugs (toads, frogs, hedgehogs) may also perish. Better to harden things off in a cold frame surrounded by grit etc. which slugs don't like crossing and then planting them out when the lowest leaves etc. are less tasty.

Or planting things that slugs are known to dislike.

Making slug traps (containers sunk into the ground and baited with e.g. beer - like Brexit the slugs may check out but they'll never leave) can also work - and slug predators are less impacted by beery as opposed to poisoned slugs. And putting fine grit around your newly planted seedlings will also discourage slugs, that don't like crossing it much.

[Blackcurrant]

Buy plants that slugs and snails don't like. It means you can use fewer chemicals and have healthy plants with masses of flowers. Hardy geraniums, for instance. Also look at perennials - tougher and don't need re-buying every year.

Keep trying lots of different plants and you'll find the ones that thrive in your garden without pesticides.

[Jules-and-Boo]

We use egg shells you can also use sand, as it's quite sharp adn they won't want to cross it. Some plants repel slugs so you could plant rosemary as well.

Or copper wire...it gives them a shock so they won't go over it.

[Peckhampam]

Strulch is really good. You can get it at garden centres

[nxjen]

This year I?ve used something called Slug Gone which is laid around the plants which the slugs / snails won?t cross. It?s made from wool, surprisingly, and it?s been very effective. I found it at Shannons in Forest Hill

http://www.sluggone.com

[bawdy-nan]

Nothing I;ve tried has worked entirely. I have watched slugs glide over coffee grounds, wept at the devastation beyond the wool pellets and backed away as crows fight for the eggshells. Nematodes will only kill the slugs underground apparently. I'd second planting things they like less (though they even ate my onions and I found several on the leaves). The other thing that has made a difference for me is picking them and scissoring them. (If you're squeamish you could relocate them to the park). On my allotment I picked 185 one day and then more than 200 the next. After that I still find them but usually only about 40 or 50 a time. Try and find them at dusk or at night using a torch, and / or put out some lures... half a grapefruit, a plank or two, a wet newspaper or carboard box. You'll then be able to find them and snip, snip snip.

[Jules-and-Boo]

Eugh. just the thought makes me feel nauseous. I don't like slugs at all at the best of times.

[Jenny1]

I used nematodes one year and they did work. I got them from Garden Organic I think. I had to order and apply them twice during the course of the season. Follow application instructions carefully. My garden is small so I was able to apply them over the whole lot - I think it would be too much work in a larger garden.

[Robert Poste's Child]

If you don't want to cut them (not sure I could do that) you can just drop them in a bucket of hot water, or salty/bleachy water.

[tiddles]

Saw a chap on gardeners world swear by garlic spray - boil garlic cloves in boiling water. Steep overnight, strain and spray Over the plants. It makes the leaves taste revoltingb(to slugs and snails at least!)

I feel your pain