I'm Losing My Will To Plant

Slugs and snails everywhere eating everything quicker than I can reseed.

Whats the best thing I can use to stop them eating all my veg, fruits and herbs? I have no pets but do have a 3 yr old running around. I at least need to slow these down or I am just not going to bother planting anything else. The last straw was to find 5 out of 8 of my melon stalks and leaves totally chewed off. Not sure who the main culprit is but it is so disheartening

 

It's hard when everything you've nurtured gets destroyed, but don't give up!

If you have any plants in pots, there is now a a sticky backed copper tape you can buy to put round them and if it'll stick to pavement (which I think it will) you could surround several pots with it. The copper repels the slugs and snails.

The only way you are going to save the plants in the ground is by using slug pellets I think. Seeing that you have a youngster, could you fence off the area where these would be put down.

 

Just put slug pellets down on the evenings just as the slugs are waking up, and your 3 year is getting ready for bed. By morning when your youngster is up and about again, most of the pellets will have been munched by the slugs and snails, or will have just merged into the ground.

Oh, and this reminds me. I heard somewhere that if you put a snail on a penny or 2 pence coin, it actually sparks. So excuse me while I nip out to see if that's true.

EDIT. No, I don't think it is. The snail didn't seem to care.

 

Try a Slug Pub instead [or pellets]?

Are Slug Pellets likely to harm a toddler? (I don't know the answer to that, but they might specifically "target" Slugs and Snails)

 

Hello Ashes
Slug pellets , reputably safe ? , well I still have a dog and 6 grand kids , slug pubs , copper tape around containers , and also spray the bottom 6" with WD40 . There are also nematodes but have never tried these , I am sure someone on here has though .

 

I would consider pellets as they will do the job reliably. You will only need to use them for a few days or weeks to get the seedlings/young plants established to a size where a few mollusc-munches won't cause terminal damage. You will need them less if the weather stays dry. You could keep your child out of the garden for that time (not always practicable, I know) or fence off the area. At the age of three you could start teaching your child not to eat the blue pellets but I certainly wouldn't want to rely on that - maybe next year? Most children are sensible enough not to eat poisons by the age of 5/6!

Meanwhile, get a load more melon seeeds in, they'll probably catch up.

 

I felt like you do 30-40 years ago, so much against you, but I have been a born again gardener and I beleive the answer is raised beds, I don't mean a garden plot with some wood around it or some bricks, I mean a purpose built unit with membrane underneath the soil, good quality soil and adatives, high treated boards will deter the slugs, micro mesh over the top.
You will get a greater yield for the size of the plot and near perfect conditioned veg.

If you have less to look after you can look after it better.

 

I have been using slug pellets since feb in a garden that has several large leaved hostas

there is not one hole on any of the hostas

I work there once a week and apply the pellets once a week

miss a few weeks and the hostas will be munched

 

I've dutifully nurtured and protected all my plants, only for the latest bout of strong winds to batter half of them down. I'm not best pleased, but we live and learn. I guess the trick is to keep adapting the garden to make the most of what works well. I guess that takes time. Its probably why the best gardens are usually held by old people

 

Nearly all the flower seedlings have gone,they eat the dahlias as fast as they show a few leaves, and I don`t grow much veg but the 3 courgettes I planted ,devoured I do use some slug pellets but try to put them where I hope the birds cannot reach them. It`s a losing battle with all this rain

 

I get sacks of oyster shell/chicken grit for my chooks (cheap as chips) and put them round plants i want to keep our slimey friends from....give it a go...i know we are battleing against the elements with this carpy weather but it seems to be working for me up to now.....don't give up

 

I've tried nematodes for the last two years. I certainly think they helped last year - this year, I'm not sure but I think it's just that there are so many slugs. I said on another thread I've just started using the slug traps with beer. Have caught around 50 3 inch plus size slugs since starting on Saturday night and loads (not tried counting!) little slugs. Not so many snails, I think just four, but at least it's four less than before.

 

Been and looked this morning ,2 courgettes last night ,only 1 today completely gone

MORE BEER

 

I suppose you lot know that salt dissolves slugs and snails? If you hate them, especialy those brown Spanish ones, then just put some grains on their head and the results are really quite macabre. You can sprinkle salt on planks laid horisontally around the beds and the slugs will die climbing them. Or put down things they can't traverse, like gravel. To stop slugs getting to our cat's food bowl, I put it on unprinted cardboard which most of the time is too absorbant for them to slither on.

Can Sammy the slug escape the salt maze?

 

NO!!! But he can slime around and try!!