Slugs slugs slugs !!!!

[old tree man]

I have never been under attack so much in my entire life, i have spent two days in the garden after these pesky slugs and snails have decimated my salad crops, i have to re sow everything after two nights of covert slime busting i have collected at least 150 slugs and snails per night ......................................... so with very sharp gravel,sea salt and beer i have made another barrier lets hope this work otherwise i may have to bite the bullet and actually buy some salad , well fingers crossed

[chickenchargrill]

I've tried gravel, salt, beer, bran... there's just too many of the damnable things though bran does seem to have helped. The only things they aren't chomping on are my brussels. I've given up on most of what is growing in the garden, I'm going out to dig most of the stuff up and restart the veggie patch with some new growth later in the week.

[chickenchargrill]

Just introduced the eldest to chopping up slugs, she wasn't impressed. It was only when I explained they have a homing instinct and will be back to munch on her broad beans that she overcame being squeamish.

[Thomzo]

I've heard various suggestions including putting a moat made of guttering around your veg patch, sawdust, ferrous sulphate, ducks. Can't say I've tried any of them but I quite like the idea of the guttering moat.

Zoe

[old tree man]

I did'nt realise they had a homing instinct i have thrown most of them on a open area next to our bungalow so that the wildlife can feed on them, i think i'm going to erect century towers along my perimeter

[citizentwiglet]

I'm losing the battle too. They are actually even eating my courgette plants! I would have thought they'd have hated the prickly stems.

[clare]

We are sandy soil here in Norfolk and slugs and snails are not normally much of a problem but in the five years we have been here I have never seen so many of the pesky things,tiny slugs,big frilly ones and huge snails,I have lost lettuces ,carrot seedlings,french beans plants and dhalias.i have heard coffee grounds are good,I am hand picking the big ones and any small ones get given to the chickens as some sort or revenge....
Clare

[chickenchargrill]

Coffee grounds - useless. It needs to be a really high caffeine concentrate to actually have an effect apparently. My coffee attempt did beggar all.

God, the courgettes! I too expected them to be far too prickly for them. But I'm down 5 plants and counting. Like I said, the Brussels are the only thing they've not gone for. They've even munched on the peppers and rocket, both of which they're *supposed* to hate. My slugs also seem to be quite happy being out and about in the middle of the day. I'm worried they're some new super slug... or maybe it was the caffeine from the coffee trial.

Most of veggie patch now weeded, covered, replanted and more bran put down. I will get something harvested this year. Grrr!


Sentry towers and put some on sticks to scare off the others.

[Zech]

I've seen slugs crawling right across brambles (dead, laid around my squashes), across copper wire, eating onions and leeks (yes, I caught them in the act), and making a slime straw to drink the beer out of beer traps without falling in.

I'm protecting some plants with rings cut from plastic bottles with spikes cut in the top, but when one pumpkin leaf drooped over the edge, that was it for the plant - the whole thing was eaten overnight. What's that theory about plants getting big enough to tolerate slug attack? The pumpkin plant was about three feet tall. I've yet to harvest a courgette here.

[citizentwiglet]

I suspect they are the new superpower about to take over the World. I'm sure it must be in Revelations somewhere.

It is so bloody depressing.

[yvette]

I was assuming it was too late to replant after my salad veg were eaten by slugs and snails - but do you think it is worth replanting anything? And if so, what? The only thing I have replanted is salad bowl lettuce...
re: having a homing instinct - didn't someone recently do an experiement with snails marked on their shells with nail polish? She relocated the marked snails and the darned things reappeared in her garden!

[chickenchargrill]

There's lots you can plant at the moment, Yvette. Mostly leafy veg from what I can tell, but if you can hold of some first early varieties of carrots and peas they're good too.

I'm not sure how they'll do, but I am kind of hoping for a late summer, it's got to stop raining at some point, yes?


http://www.wildchicken.com/nature/garde ... august.htm This is the list I'm working from for the new plantings. I'm yet to manage to get hold of some first early potatoes.

[old tree man]

I have re planted lettuce, radish, chinese lettuce and rocket the way the seasons have changed it should be ok

[wulf]

I think one of the most effective ways to keep a slug population down is to often go out hunting with a sharp implement and chop up all the gastropods you see. You won't get them all but you can keep the population (and thus the damage to crops) to a reasonable level. One trick to make this easier is to create some piles of discarded leaves (for example, the outer layers of lettuces, especially ones that have been slug-chewed.

Slugs seem to like that decaying food vibe and thus you have some prime target areas when on the hunt.

Wulf

[citizentwiglet]

I like to decapitate the ba$tards. I put their little dead heads on cocktail sticks as a warning to their friends.