101 ways to get rid of slugs

[marshlander]

Hello helianthus! I favour the scissor method nowadays but many moons ago I wrapped them up and put them in the kitchen bin. They all escaped of course - nuf said

[mrsflibble]

I went in the garden this morning after some nice drizzle and managed to get 50 slugs and 20 snails into a jar which had 4tbsps salt and about 1/4 pint boiling water in it.
I normally hate killing things like that but it's them or my chillis.

[theabsinthefairy]

I burn wood and coal in my Rayburn, and pass the cinders through a soil sieve - everything that goes through gets chucked around the potatoes, everything that gets caught on the top - mostly bits of coal, edges the borders of my growing beds - slugs don't seem to like to cross it too much, and any that do get through - beer traps with nettle beer - I'm sorry it's just to ick to drink but they love it, jump in the tin cans, drown in the beer, and get chucked to the chickens who love everything generally.

No idea what number we're at.

[MKG]

Coal ash??? Not a good idea, I think ..... going to check ...


EDIT ... Thought so ... coal ash is MUCH more caustic than wood ash and can contain phenols, sulphur compounds and various undesirable heavy metal compounds. In very small amounts, your plants might like it - but it's going to do you no good at all.

[Peggy Sue]

I have used wirewool around the plants/ under the pots. Not much good for the allotment but it has saved enough seedlings this year to actually put some down the allotment!

[sleepyowl]

trap em between your door & doorframe

[Peggy Sue]

I found the biggest slug I've ever seen on the weekend- I really doubted it was a slug at first glance, and I've seen some big ones It was 3" long so I stabbed it with the garden fork- everything oozed out- the dog suddenly took great interest and rolled it around getting all the oozy stuff on her nose which stuck like glue

[Peggy Sue]

I accidentally discovered a slug trap method.

Every day I pick carrots on the allotment and other veg. The unwanted tops and ends are put back in my bucket with other veggie waste to feed my horse at breakfast time as a treat. One night we had apple crumble so I put the cores and peel in the bucket too. There was quite alot of veggie tops and tails in there and I forgot to leave the bucket inside the house. In the morning I took the bucket of bits to my four-legged friend and out came three enourmous slugs!

I've been leaving the bucket out ever since and getting 2-3 whoppers a day. No wonder I never have any lettuce in the garden

Anyway, my recommendation is a bucket with a few veg/fruit bits and some leafy leftovers. Then transport them a few miles away.

Either that or slice them in half with the hoe

[chardyboy]

Slug Kebabs?

I take a wooden skewer and skew as many slugs as I can, before the weight gets too much, then plant them in the border.
The flies love them, and within a couple of days, the slugs have disintegrated and you can reuse the skewer.

If you skewer a snail before a slug, the liquid a snail emits dissolves the slugs at an alarming rate - better than salt

[Peggy Sue]

You know it's quite frighteing how many huge slugs there are- I have been 'catching' one or two a day for MONTHS and I only have a tiny garden. It truely is a losing battle!

[siriusdove]

[Henwoman]

Ducks were the answer for me when I lived in Cornwall. They were loose in the garden and I never seemed to see a slug. The ducks were good too because, unlike loose hens, they leave the flower plants alone. Not sure how it would be in a veggie plot with ducks though.

[greenorelse]

Ducks will eat most food plants, Henwoman. The key is to let them in to your growing beds when you're not growing there - say, when you're letting soil rest or whatever. They love rooting out slug eggs and the like.

Anyway, they love strawberries. Oh, and young cabbage plants. Etc etc etc.

Letting them roam most other places definitely brings down the overall population of slugs. Any slugs you find in your growing areas, you have a friendly disposal unit.

[stargazer]

Get a toad, I have had no problems with slugs since Aretha the toad arrived.

[niknik]

They dont like lemon juice.......... smear round pots etc,
trouble is , it does need re-applying regularly, expensive.unless you have a lemon tree in garden! so a good way for me to use up surplus lemons

My chickens won´t touch them.... I did see a video on you tube, about training your chooks to like them, by chopping the little blighters in half first ( the slugs.....not the chickens!),
but that doesnt appeal!

Now as and when I find some, I collect them and put them into the bin of nettle ( and other weeds) fertlizer!

Gonna try the copper idea, as I have some plastic covered washing line, which has broken.which is copper wire...... just need to strip the plastic off it all