Promising protection against slugs.

While running my charity plant sale a person who came to buy plants told me about putting Sheep's fleece around vulnerable plants as a deterrent. I had not heard of this but was happy to give it a go.
The person kindly arranged to meet me and hand over a bag of fleece. I put a “ ring” of fleece round some of my many Hostas and waited to see the results. Pretty promising!
Ok it does not look too clever until the Hostas are into leaf when the fleeces is then covered but at least at the early stage of growth, virtually no slug damage. It is the early stage which is the worst as a small hole on emerging leaves becomes a big one. Other Hostas not protected have had the usual onslaught from the dreaded slugs. I have no idea how easy or difficult it is to obtain fleece, easy for me but maybe more difficult for those not living in the countryside but worth a go if you can get some. Fleece is of very little value to farmers so you might get some for nothing. You will not need 3 guesses which of the Hostas in the photos have fleece round them and which don’t!

 

I'm finding garlic spray to be very effective as long as it is used regularly. I reapply after rain and have experienced minimal damage to my hostas. I think most was cause to newly emerging leaves before I started to apply. I have had a few chewed leaves but nothing like the carnage of previous years.

 

That does look to have been effective. With the courser leaf hostas, if they can get past the baby stage, they seem to become less of a draw.

Does the fleece stay put on its own or have you pinned it down in some way?

 

Family have a couple of sheep, used fleece a few years ago around the beans, slugs loved living under it during the day!

 

Cunning wotsits!

 

Hi the fleece just stays put, no need to anchor it down. The first Hosta in the photos is Sum and Substance which by now would have had a fair number of holes but is virtually untouched. This cannot be said for the Ligularia Desdemona close by. The trial would suggest that the fleece works to a certain extent as a deterrent and the slugs will choose something else to demolish a la my flaming Broccolli!

 

No @JWK I put the fleece round the Hostas I was more fussed about as only had a limited supply of fleece. Poor old Ligularia got absolutely slaughtered as the slugs were obviously pis.ed off that their favourites were awkward to destroy and turned their onslaught onto the clump of Ligularia that was close by instead. Swiss cheese doesn’t quite describe the carnage.