Slug Proof/Resistant plants

As a Novice this has been a wealth of info to me so for doing this. I noticed my Marjoram has not been touched either. Have gone to town with slug pellets round the courgettes and squash plants though (not that I take it personally of course )

 

Yay for my penstemons and aqualegia's - they are safe!
My lilly has had a nibble though..

I bought a big leafy plant with some "red Lady" or similar flowers?
That seems untouched thus far.

Also.. My fuchsia's seem fine? I would presume slugs&snails aren't a fan?

 

Don't seem to have ever noticed slug damage on garlic plants, but last autumn/winter I was shocked to fing slugs had climbed up the stems of my pot grown grafted apples and had eaten every single bud off the stems! After seeing all my work destroyed I felt devastated and was thinking of chucking the lot out and not bothering grafting again, but I kept them and loads of new shoots have appeared - phew.

 

Someone told me that courgette plants aren't attractive to slugs and snails. They lied.

 

I've noticed that the slugs and snails don't seem to touch fuchsias, which is great as I love them. They also don't seem interested in the viburnums I planted a couple of months back and the toadflax is most definitely slug free.

The little beggers have, however, ransacked the petunias and all but destroyed the lobelia I put in the borders - can't get at the baskets, hahahahahaa!.

They've also had a go at the gypsophila and, I think, the astrantia I put in a few days ago. Certainly something's had a munch at it anyway.

I have for the first time deployed some slug traps. Never done this before and even though I know the slugs and snails are horrible I still can't help but feel a bit of guilt. They don't act out of a sense of maliciousness after all. I just wish the hedgehog that visited last year would come back with a few of his mates. They could have a great time and I could feel the slugs had not given their lives in vain.

PS Hmm, have just read that astrantias are supposed to repel slugs. So something else has been eating that then. Huff.

 

What kind of slug traps have you set, Chiaroscuro?

Chucking them out my garden seems to have lessened the amount dramatically.
I try not to think about what happened to them.. squished or eaten by birds. Least they are not munching my plants!

 

They've gone for my common garden sage but as it is indestructible it survived. They went mad for the thyme but left the oregano alone. They've nibbled on the mint I grew from cuttings but without much conviction. Viola, probably because they were young plants, didn't last the night. They shear off chives and spring onions.

Things that did work: applemint and sweet woodruff are untroubled. Snakeshead fritillerie didn't seem to interest them. And my strawberry plants were pretty untouched compared to how much everything else gets eaten.

 

I bought a couple of the Growing Success plastic traps, they're like a little bowl that you put in the ground, fill it up with beer (and the instructions say two teaspoons of salt) and put the lid on. The gap between the ground and lid is just enough for the slugs to get in. There must have been at least 20 slugs in the traps this morning and a couple of snails too. I thought it wasn't too bad when I emptied the first one, but the second one had got quite slimey and was pretty revolting to empty.

I thought you could just use beer, but the salt is to ensure death I suppose. The instructions also say you can just use salt water but at least the beer might send them into an alcoholic haze first.

I quite often send the snails for a flight over the back of the fence into the pathway behind the house. They probably just climb back over again!

The wife of one of my work colleagues goes out at night with a pair of scissors and disposes of them with a quck snip. Don't think I could do that, but really it's probably quicker and kinder than the traps.

 

I've had a few dates that reminded me of a slug with onion breath.

It's my strawberries they go for rather than the plants.

 

Carnations and Bleeding Heart,fuchsia roses and clematis are the only things untouched,I have had them in the hanging baskets you can even see the slime trails up the walls of the house (yuk)They have been found and some despatched in the greenhouse on the tomatoes and the peppers (chilli and sweet)they have eaten 100's of bedding plants including Marigolds and nasturtium.
Starting to find some very tiny ones now so this is only the start 1000's more to come yet, it really is a war I am never going to win.Just hope we have a very dry "summer"to kill em or a very cold winter nature has got to take the balance back or we will end up using chemicals which arn't nice to regain control.

 

one naughty slug who didn't read your post , climbed up one of my hollyhocks almost to the top and munched halfway through the stem so it tipped over

 

Thanks for mentioning that the New Guinea impatiens are resistant, I went out and bought three a week or so back, put one in one of my borders and it's looking very happy and unslugged. So I went and bought three more yesterday.

Also, regading astrantia I've read that slugs actually don't like the taste and won't cross a line of them. I'm still waiting to see that particular result since planting mine though!

 

I went out the other night with scissors. It's pretty grim. So that's what slugs are made of...

 

great thread i have now got a list of 30 plants to google
i still seem to have loads of slugs n snails even thou ive got a frog pond x

 

I don't like using slug pellets and generally manage without them, but this year I just had to give some of my plants a helping hand. The 'Growing Success' brand are supposed to be safe for wildlife and work very well. I've only had to use them sparingly. Often, once a plant is established slug and snail attacks are not so bad - it's those new, juicy little shoots they like!