The war on slugs

Hi,

I thought it might be useful to share our experience of steps taken against slugs, what's worked and to what extent, and what didn't.

Personally I have not tried anything that is even remotely toxic to pets, and I decided not to bother with barriers that need to be replaced when wet, considering how often it rains.

I have tried:

• Copper rings: I haven't found them to be effective for hostas in the ground unfortunately, because the slugs can still get to the plant by going under the rings or by jumping to the leaves from other neighbouring plants.
• Nematodes: I tried once in the past using an alternative to the main brand, and it didn't work. I have just applied again, this time using the product by Nemaslug. It will take a few days to know if it's had an effect. I hope it does, as in theory it's the perfect solution.
• Beer traps: I was finding lots of dead slugs within the beer trap but also finding live slugs on my hostas, next to it, when inspecting with a torch at night. I read an article that said that beer attracts slugs from a pretty big area, and because not all of them end up going all the way to the beer trap itself, the beer trap might have the opposite effect and you might be ending up with more slugs overall. Last night was the first night in a while that I didn't use a beer trap and when I went to check on the plants, there was a smaller number of slugs than normal. It could have been a coincidence, but it's made me decide to drop the beer trap.
• Murder: I have been going outside late at night with a torch, and killing the slugs. This works, but it's not a nice routine before bedtime, it's gross and cruel.. I would like to stop the night time massacre (please work nematodes..)

Have you tried anything else that has worked?

 

Growing plants they don't eat works pretty well for me.
Just step away from the fight - unless you're trying to grow edibles - then good luck.

 

As a minor point, nematodes and beer traps are also forms of murder, with averted eyes. I very selectively kill slugs and snails (with secateurs), namely those that attack the very little veg that we grow; non-produce plants have to be able to withstand the slug onslaught. I've only recently learned that leopard slugs eat the other types of slug, so I'm keeping an eye out for them and definitely not culling them.

 

Copper mesh is pretty good for plants in pots, but, as you say with the rings, in the ground there is too often a bridge past them via an overhanging leaf or nearby fence panel.

 

@BB3 I love my giant hosta too much to give up the fight! And my smaller ones, but most of the slugs & snails seem to he targeting the giant one.

@micearguers fair point. As long as I don't have to squish them myself though, I can live with that (especially regarding the nematodes). Great tip about leopard slugs, thank you. If I am going to be killing slugs, it makes perfect sense to avoid casualties and only target the ones that do the damage!

 

I suspect snipping them in half is probably less cruel than introducing a disease or parasite or however nematodes work

 

Seeing as the blue pellets of death have been severely frowned upon and my four pot trials didn't get a chance to get off the ground, the only sure fire way is the night time murder. I've tried scissors, but too messy for my taste. Bucket of soapy, salty water dispatches these snot producing, plant munching, nightmare inducing....cuddly blighters from hell pretty quickly. my conscience is clear and after a vigilant month or so, so are my plants.
I've gone from over two hundred slugs and snails a night, to just eleven last night

 

Leopard slugs like living under the plastic pull-off tops of my tall plastic water butts. They also somehow manage to park themselves just under the top rim of the waterbutt opening. I found five of them today under just one of the tops when I went to check on the water level of the butt.

 

If a plant is known to attract slugs, I don’t grow it, ruling out most annuals, edibles and anything with tender, juicy stems. I like Hostas though but only grow them in pots placed in areas away from my borders and elevated, putting the pots either on a garden bench, another upturned pot or a raised bed filled with limestone chips. There is some occasional damage but usually only a leaf or two which I just remove.

 

You are probably right, but my issue isn't of a moral nature, I just don't want to be doing the deed myself if possible

 

I find the nematodes work, they are part of the natural cycle all you do is increase the concentration and so the chance of infection.
Alternatively get some knitting needles and kebab the slugs, push the pointy ends into the soil, go to bed and scrape off in the morning.
Also remember slugs and snails are part of natures recycling team and so beneficial.

 

Nematodes [for anything] are largely useless here because, by the time the soil heats up enough for them to work, it's too late.

 

I’ve used copper tape around pots in the past. It worked reasonably well but not if any leaves touched tape free pots or the ground. It also lost its effectiveness over time. I also tried beer traps, when growing some veg but it didn’t seem to make any difference and was revolting. I’ve never used slug pellets

I don’t do anything now, everything takes its chance. My borders are very full so any slug or snail damage is not immediately obvious. I do curse a lot sometimes in the greenhouse, such as when all my baby
Lupins were munched one night

If I find any slugs or snails on my seed trays or pots, I throw them onto the lawn, into the compost or our wild patch.

We get a lot of very pretty small striped snails. I quite enjoy seeing the variety of colours and stripes and just leave them wherever they might be. Interestingly, these all seem to be in the garden, I just get the big boring ones in the GH

Quite a lot (possibly all) of slugs are beneficial in some way to the lifecycle of the garden and I don’t like them enough to work out which are which so just give them all the benefit of the doubt

 

I would love to grow lupins and other snail delicacies but it would be pointless.
For some reason, I have seen very few slugs this year, but the snails are - abundant! Not much for them to eat, though. If only we could train them to keep the grass trimmed overnight and disappear in the morning.

 

Are leopard green-yellow ones good too? I know brown leopard coloured are considered good.