Slugs

[patacake]

My slugs and snails seem to have no natural predator - so I have happily taken on that role. I favour the torch and salt pot method. They don't like it up 'em.

[revmichael]

Slug Bait - they love it.

I find that when I use it slugs come into my garden from miles around.

So, the answer is - drop some over the fence into your neighbour's garden and they will all go there.

Now, reading that I realize I have written something very nasty.

I have a very nice neighbour and I wouldn't dare try to lure slugs into his garden.

Please forgive me for putting very naughty ideas into other people's heads.

[Shuggie]

revmichael said:

Slug Bait - they love it.

I find that when I use it slugs come into my garden from miles around.

So, the answer is - drop some over the fence into your neighbour's garden and they will all go there.

Now, reading that I realize I have written something very nasty.

I have a very nice neighbour and I wouldn't dare try to lure slugs into his garden.

Please forgive me for putting very naughty ideas into other people's heads.

Next time you're in conversation with the "guv'nor" Michael, bring up the subject of slugs and ask him why ..

Could you also mention greenfly ..

[Doug Mattaytersup]

I have recently adopted the chuck 'em over several fences or over the road with a headache approach. I used to go out with a torch and a knife but felt cruel and it really didn't seem to make any flaming difference. They were still ample supplies every night, sometimes twice a night. I put 44 runner bean plants in before I flew to Corfu at the end of May and came back to 40 stalks and 4 half eaten on the allotment.

But then I suppose I've always kept animals so I might as well just feed these blighters

[Tigger]

The problem with chucking them over the fence is not just that it might annoy your neighbours, but also the fact that slugs can find their way back to a favourite spot from 1 mile away - true

[territalks]

Most of my plants have been hit my an 'epidemic' not sure if that is the right word of slugs Yuck I hate them thankfully I can't see them for which I am greatful, unless they are pointed out to me! As I have animals a guide dog and a cat what can I put down that will not harm the animals and the wild animals also? If the suggestion is salt do I put it around the bottom of the pots?
Please help!
Thanks
Love
TT xxxx

[lily]

territalks003 said:

Most of my plants have been hit my an 'epidemic' not sure if that is the right word of slugs Yuck I hate them thankfully I can't see them for which I am greatful, unless they are pointed out to me! As I have animals a guide dog and a cat what can I put down that will not harm the animals and the wild animals also? If the suggestion is salt do I put it around the bottom of the pots?
Please help!
Thanks
Love
TT xxxx

Terri, I went out a couple of days ago and have never seen slugs so big...all a good 3 to 4 inches and had massacred my strawberries. I was so mad I got a big pack of salt and just put it all around the plants...if I had pots I'd do the same to stop them crawling up (or whatever it is slugs do).

xxx

[scoo]

Re the metal pole for the bird feeding station. A good smearing of vaseline, stops the squirrels climbing up. It's hilarious to watch them slide down

[Fi]

territalks003 said:

Most of my plants have been hit my an 'epidemic' not sure if that is the right word of slugs Yuck I hate them thankfully I can't see them for which I am greatful, unless they are pointed out to me! As I have animals a guide dog and a cat what can I put down that will not harm the animals and the wild animals also? If the suggestion is salt do I put it around the bottom of the pots?
Please help!
Thanks
Love
TT xxxx

Terri, whatever you do, dont put down slug pellets. I don't care what it says on the box, I nearly lost two of my dogs to a slow and especially painful death after they decided that the pellets would make a tasty snack. I, and they, were lucky, I guessed what they'd done and got them down to the vet within half an hour, a short enough time so that they vomited up most of them, after being given washing soda of all things, rather than having absorbed them from their stomachs.
Slug beer traps are effective, although emptying them is yukky.

[carlott]

revmichael said:

Slug Bait - they love it.

I find that when I use it slugs come into my garden from miles around.

So, the answer is - drop some over the fence into your neighbour's garden and they will all go there.

Now, reading that I realize I have written something very nasty.

I have a very nice neighbour and I wouldn't dare try to lure slugs into his garden.

Please forgive me for putting very naughty ideas into other people's heads.

Slugs and snails are food for many of our garden birds including the at threat Thrush so Slug Pellets are a big no no as well as the threat they pose to pets.

Try copper rings for around selected plants.

[territalks]

Thanks Everyone for your suggestions,
Dear Fi please don't worry I would not use slug pellets, I have had a thought about salt too if Porscha or Tipsy the cat tried to lick it it might make them sick! I would not want that either. As for beer!!!! I might have drunk dog and cat!! So I think Carl's suggestion of copper rings is the best. Do I get them from a Garden Centre? If not there where please?
Love
TT xxxx

[lily]

territalks003 said:

Thanks Everyone for your suggestions,
Dear Fi please don't worry I would not use slug pellets, I have had a thought about salt too if Porscha or Tipsy the cat tried to lick it it might make them sick! I would not want that either. As for beer!!!! I might have drunk dog and cat!! So I think Carl's suggestion of copper rings is the best. Do I get them from a Garden Centre? If not there where please?
Love
TT xxxx

Terri I saw Monty Don on Gardeners World and he just used copper pipe...about an inch wide and he put it round the veggie patch. I think he said it gives a sort of 'shock' they don't like so won't cross it.

xxx

[carlott]

You can get them from a garden shop but they will charge (geddit - shock + charge) quite a lot. If you have anyone who can call in at a scrap yard just ask for some scrap copper wire or strip. It should not cost a lot as it will be at scrap value or a simple handling charge. Alternatively do a bit of skip surfing if anyone has electricians or plumbers in. Form the copper into circles roughly and place around the plants. You could simply lay it in strips around the plants. The slime that slugs and snails lay down acts like the electrolyte in a battery and as said they get a short sharp shock if they cross it. They don't like it up em you know.

[Peek]

Oh slugs...that reminds me. On the last episode of Coast they filmed in Ireland and apparently slugs absolutely hate seaweed!

So all you need is a good dollop of seaweed on your garden!

[territalks]

Only one problem with seaweed!!!
I live miles away from the sea!
Love
TT xxxx

[Fi]

territalks003 said:

Thanks Everyone for your suggestions,
Dear Fi please don't worry I would not use slug pellets, I have had a thought about salt too if Porscha or Tipsy the cat tried to lick it it might make them sick! I would not want that either. As for beer!!!! I might have drunk dog and cat!! So I think Carl's suggestion of copper rings is the best. Do I get them from a Garden Centre? If not there where please?
Love
TT xxxx

Terri, the shape of the beer traps makes it impossible for a dog or a cat to drink from them.
By co-incidence, as i opened this thread, I heard the sound of the best snail killer of the lot - just outside the window I'm sitting at, there was an insistent *tap tap tap* - it's a thrush clobbering one of slugs' closest cousins - a snail - on the path. Bliss!