DEAD SLUGS

[Lentil]

What should I do with my dead slugs?
I can collect 2lb of slugs and snails in one night! I either cut them in half with scissors (very quick death) or collect a bagfull (using two layers of old bread wrappers) and stand on them to crush, which is easier with snails. This leaves a very smelly and sometimes leaky bag of goo, I keep it outside till bin day and then overwrap it with newspaper and another old bag or two. I then put it into the landfill bin: It still smells!
It might be OK to put them into the garden waste bin but they smell terrible and would stick to the bin for ever.

My worms might eat them but I fear the smell. Wish I kept chickens!

Just thought! Could they be dried and given to chicken keepers for winter food? Seems cruel to dry them alive though.
Think I need a hedgehog or several!

From: Walsall, West Mids. UK

[Green Aura]

Can't help - we usually chuck them in next doors garden - although recent research by Radio 4 suggests snails can travel huge distances and have homing instincts

However, assuming you only wanted to start this thread once, I've deleted the other two!

[Lentil]

Thank You!

[pelmetman]

Don't know about slugs but we've eaten snails when we go to in France

Not sure if you can eat the common snail in this country
Sue

[greenorelse]

What about starting a small compost heap? Your garden waste bin would be empty then!

[Odsox]

My chicken love snails but won't touch slugs for some reason.
I was very impressed with my cockerel when he first arrived, he would break open the snail shells and then step back for his ladies to snack on. Now though he's just as likely to wolf them down himself, so I don't know if he doesn't need to "woo" his ladies any more or if he's just a starved chauvinist.

[mollypea]

Here you go - http://www.channel4.com/4food/recipes/c ... cook-slugs - though even Hugh wasn't too impressed with the taste!

[Flo]

Ducks love them. Also if drowned in beer, why not leave them where the carrion (rooks, crows, jackdaws ...) can clear them for you?

[Dr.Syn]

Yes similar to Flo Why not the bird table

[Lentil]

Yes! Snails were called Wall Fruit in this country, but no way am I going to eat slugs or snails: Yuk!

I meant to say compost heap, not waste bin, but they stink in the compost bin & encourage more to come: I am talking pounds of them at a time here.

Thanks for snails but not slugs for chickens (funny cockeral: Males!)

They crawl off B4 birds get them & disgusting when cut up (eggs ooze out too).

*Think it is going to have to be a rescued hedgehog as garden is quite secure.

[pelmetman]

Hi Lentil

Hedgehogs are good for eating snails but only as long as you don't have badgers around as they will kill them. We didn't realise this until we went to a talk held by the local hedgehog rescue and because we have loads of badgers here we weren't allowed a hedgehog

Another good idea would be to make a wild life pond, this will encourage frogs and toads. Also feed the birds, blackbirds and thrushes love snails.

In previous years we have been unindated with slugs and snails but for some reason haven't seen many at all this year.

Sue

[Thomzo]

Can't help - we usually chuck them in next doors garden - although recent research by Radio 4 suggests snails can travel huge distances and have homing instincts

They sure can/do. My mum once carried out an experiment. She painted nail varnish on the shells of some snails, then threw them into the neighbouring field. A few days later she had a garden full of brightly coloured snails.

Zoe

[greenorelse]

I meant to say compost heap, not waste bin

Right, I didn't get your set-up there, sorry.

but they stink in the compost bin & encourage more to come: I am talking pounds of them at a time here.

Maybe you need something to absorb the smell - we use straw and sawdust. The sawdust works well but you need a lot of moisture to keep the heap working.

That said, I have to admit to having ducks, who adore slugs.

Are there any nematode-type thingys that eat slug eggs, does anyone know?

[Lentil]

I would love a pond, Sue, but arthritis makes it hard to clean out! Maybe I could have a raised one?
I have my Petit Pond for the birds (just a big recycled pate dish).

Zoe, I love your homing snails story, LOL.

greenorelse, I would love a duck or two (are they happy if only one?) but friend said neighbours would complain.
A slug egg eater would be fantastic, I will try googling it: Nemotodes to eat slugs from the inside out are too cruel & expensive too I have looked into those a while back.
Can I put them in the outside wormery, I wonder? I will try a few in both types of compost maker, I think.
Phew! This is getting complicated: But fun!

[Lost-in-the-Day]

Apparently centipedes like eating slugs, though I have no idea how you'd go about encouraging them into your garden beyond having some logs for them to live in. Other slug eaters I've heard of are ground beetles, black birds, slow worms, newts, frogs, toads and of course hedgehogs.

I'd suggest you double check with your neighbours first to see how they feel about ducks before ruling them out completely.