ARRRGGGHHHHHHHH - SLUGS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I thought I had been keeping on top of the slug and snail problem in the greenhouse - finding them after they had started eating a plant, mainly before they had done too much damage, but... due to a stupidly hectic weekend and a nasty sickness bug yesterday ( ), I had not visited the greenhouse since Friday. Well, anyone would have thought they'd held a 72 hour party and invited all the neighbours, too!!!! The little bug***s have munched their way through two aubergines, two tomatilloes, half a courgette (they obviously didn't like it), a dahlia, a brugmansia, a couple of small perennials and a hosta. I AM NOT A HAPPY BUNNY!!!!!!!! All I found were two teeny-weeny little slugs !!!!! Whilst I try and keep off the slug pellets (froggy-friendly, etc..)and HATE to see good beer go to waste, has anyone got any ideas on how to get rid of the little blighters??? And the myth about them not liking gravel is just that - a myth!!!! Has anyone used nematodes?? I have a feeling I'm just gonna have to go up there late at night with torch and salt......

 

If the plants they are fond of are in pots you could try copper tape.

Something like this but i`d shop around for best prices though.
http://www.greengardener.co.uk/slugextra.htm

It carries an electrical charge which snails and slugs don`t like

You could fix it around the entrances,or even the entire perimeter of the greenhouse to deter them, but that could get a bit pricey.

 

It's a continual battle! I use every method I can. I have copper tape round pots with Hostas in, and fine grit on top between the plants. I use unravelled copper scouring pads [very cheap but fiddly] and wind the wire round pots or legs of greenhouse staging, I spray with Aluminium sulphate [eg Doff slug repellant], and protect little plants with upturned transparent plastic bottles.
I do occasionally use slug pellets , I haven't tried nematodes yet or the new mats with copper woven into them- they sound good, but probably expensive.
When I was more mobile I used to collect buckets full of snails and dump them up the hill. That was in Cambs, where I rarely saw slugs. In Wilts we have horrible great beige slugs with orange keels, and few snails. I need a pet hedgehog, and more frogs!

 

I had two variegated hebe andersoni seedlings come up next to the parent plant. Not any more, before I could lift and pot them they disappeared. :( I found the culprit, a fat juicy slug under some nearby leaves. Neddless to say that was it's last meal! :D

 

I also have a constant battle with slugs and snails,mostly snails.
Here we have hostas in a pot,snails have a moat to cross,a mountain to climb and then slug pellets but I bet some of the leaves will still be perferated.
This evening I physically removed 12 snails from one Hellabore............

 

I occasionally (work permtting) put on a pair of plastic gloves, take a receptacle and go collect a bucket full then take them as far away as I feel like walking to dump them. Happily, I live on the edge of a heathland to I can take them quite a way but I believe their homing instinct is quite profound!

 

I am guilty of using slug pellets..they eat my milk thistle attack my mullein..they have nibbled at the butterbur..and anything else that may take their fancy..they will start on the runner beans next if i let them..I have tried companion planting and plants with strong scent next to the ones that get eaten but it doesnt work..if its a case of using slug pellets or anything i have spent weeks growing well their is no choice..i have loads of frogs and they dont seem to do their job!! My husband has removed them before now at night i sent him out to do it!!..and they just came back..they are vile creatures and really ugly as well..

 

Pick 'n' squish

 

Well........ only the odd one is left sliming in the greenhouse now, I must admit to going somewhat ott with the pellets in there, but it has sorted the problem!!!!! I know this sounds silly, but I have real problem squishing them or salting them.... it just turns my stomach... and I feel really guilty about killing them (goodness knows why!!! :rolleyes: ), but if they are dead when I find them - thats ok (Wierd, I know!!)
Just dreading when I put everything outside.....

 

I send all my many snails to the landfill site in the bin,that way I dont have to squish them and I'm sure they will be much happier there.
Well I know I am..............................

 

did that last year, but as we only get our bins emptied once a fortnight, had quite a colony crawling around the inside of the lid - waiting to pounce as soon as you opened it.....

 

Live and let live and grow what they don't like to eat. Thrushes eat snails and hedgehogs eat slugs. Poison the offenders and you poison those that eat them. I grow a lot of hardy geranium species, both as ground cover and in borders. Wonderful long and repeat flowering plants that slugs will never eat. So I grow my hostas through them!



As regards seedlings - one for the slug, one for the crow, one to wither and one to grow.

 

The theory is good.........
But here in the real world....... :(

 

The theory is good..but i grow milk thistle to drink ..not for slugs to eat..I too have gone mad with pellets..we dont get hedgehogs here ..i cant see the point of spending months growing something for it to get eaten one night...I hate seing slugs squashed on footpaths..its gross!!if the frogs in my garden did their job i wouldnt need to buy so many slug pellets..when the slugs eat peoples vegetables they are growing its heart breaking all their effort wasted..

 

Well we all garden for different reasons and mine is very much in the real world. My garden is a mini wildlife reserve so I value the wildflowers, birds and insects more. I grow mainly natural plants - both native and from other countries. They have a natural resistance to predators. It may sound trite, but nature really is about balance and without poisons, pesticides and any chemicals - a garden can work. Every time you poison a foe you kill a friend that would eat it if you let it.