101 ways to get rid of slugs

[Andy Hamilton]

Still looks like yours will be a bit of a bad boy. The sort of Poly tunnel (if you could call it that) that I have made is far smaller, it is just a mini shelving unit that was left in the garden with some plastic that came with something posted ages ago over the top, stands about 3ft high and is about 1.5 feet across. I wonder who will get the most produce from theirs

[Millymollymandy]

Here's my pathetic thing - but I do have some Lollo Rosso lettuce seedlings in it!

Those 1000 litre water tanks that Jove mentioned are in the background by the barn wall. Not a very big piccy but I've only got a bit of web site space on my crappy Wanadoo account.

[hedgewizard]

Sign up for a free photobucket account. No problems.

[Millymollymandy]

Yeah but a lot of those sites only host photos for a few months. I get really annoyed looking at sites where the photos has been and gone!

[Tigerhair]

Re photos, use Webshots...

[wulf]

Or try Flickr (my choice). Plenty of pictures of slugs on there!

Anyway, what number were we up to? I don't have time to count up right now, but I'll add:

Photograph your slugs, so that they can give up garden grazing and jet off to become international models.

Wulf

[The Chili Monster]

double-sided sticky tape

[ina]

Photograph your slugs, so that they can give up garden grazing and jet off to become international models.

Most of them aren't thin enough for that!

Btw, Lidl's are selling slugtraps for £1.49...

[The Chili Monster]

I think that the following slug disposal methods are more in keeping with this site:
http://www.bbc.co.uk/radio4/gqt/slugs_snails.shtml

[The Chili Monster]

testacellid carnivorous slugs (I like the idea of slugs eating other slugs).

Of course, there's always this method: Putting boiling water over them to kill them. When cold add to compost heap.

???Eating Roman or common snails. They used to be sold in markets.

An unbroken smear of vaseline around the rim of flower pots or containers.

[eeksypeeksy]

What I do with snails (the decently clothed ancestor of the slug): collect them in a bag, walk them out to the woods, and dump them there. It's a two-minute walk back for me but a long hike for them.

Even if I wanted to kill them, killing a small gardenful every day wouldn't put a dent in the local snail population, which is massive. I hope only to put enough distance between the larger specimens and my garden to make them stop for lunch somewhere else along the way. Also, the woods are full of hungry birds...

[Muddypause]

I'm trying out an experiment. On the basis that slugs don't like copper, I have fixed copper tube round the top edge of my raised bed, to see if it will stop them getting in over the sides.


(click to enlarge)

[glenniedragon]

I've wondered about that Muddy, looks very smart too!- does the copper only work when its new and shiney or does the dull aged, greenish stuff work as well? I've thought about putting a long copper rail around my veg patch but not so far as I did worry that I might be trapping slugs/snails in the veg!

kind thoughts and good luck with the experiment!
Deb

[Muddypause]

Don't know about the difference old copper might make - maybe I'll have to polish the raised bed every day. That'll puzzle the neighbours. I suppose the answer is to catch a slug climbing over, and see if it avoids the shiney areas but not the tarnished areas.

I've also though that I might be trapping slugs inside the bed - so far this year, I've not seen any slugs in there, but I'm reckoning that if I can remove slugs but they can't get in, then eventually, I'll win.

If it doen't work, I suppose I could just wire it up to the mains.

[The Chili Monster]

Copper is supposed to deter slugs and snails by giving them a static shock as they try to cross it. It doesn't kill them, rather stops them in their tracks.

I've applied vaseline to the frame of my growhouse which is proving to make life difficult for the local gastropod population. It's also trapping the odd ant or ten, too. 8)