Getting rid of slugs/snails

I would be interested to know people's favourite way of keeping slugs/snails away. My new garden is full of the dratted things and I daren't plant my babies out until I can get rid of them. I did threaten to saute them in garlic butter but they have remained defiantly on my walls, clematis, and anything else they can climb. My favourite gardening mag (Grow your Own) did an article comparing poison, copper tape and beer, but I would like to hear from more than one source!

 

My Favourite way involves no chemicals & has the bonus of a few eggs! Chickens! we had a major problem with slugs when we moved in we bought a couple of bantams & haven't seen any since! not sure how practical it is for you? but they do eat lots of nasties in the garden & if you stick to the feathered leg variety they do less damage to your garden mine has the full run of the garden veggy patch & all, very little damage!
Helen

 

Yes, my mum keeps hens and did offer to lend me one, but the garden is too small really to be fair to the poor chicken unfortunately, otherwise I'd already have half a dozen!

 

Hi
With a name like slugbug you must have guessed I too have them everywhere in my garden and the slugs do bug me.
Each year I dispose of the frog sporn put in my pond but I have been told frogs love to eat slugs.
So this year i am going to let nature take its course and have lots of frogs to eat them hopefully.
We used to have a Jack russel dog who caught frogs & toads & attack hedgehogs at bedtime
She passed away at age16 so we now have a rescue dog that seems to be friendly to all species.
PS hedgehogs also eat slugs so all may improve now

 

Hannah, If you have enough space to call it a garden then its big enough for a chuck!!!!! seriously though how about one of the bantams there are a couple of breeds not much bigger than a pigeon!
Helen

 

Hi Hannah
I use cheap coffee sprayed on susceptible plants, copper tape round pots & nematodes watered into the soil + slug pubs & the old favourite of collecting them & disposing of them! Slug ban granules are ok, but they look so much like cat litter, & only work if you have gaps between plants (& mine are all cheek by jowl). I'm experimenting with copper matting round veggies this year, will let you know how it goes. I never use pellets as they get into the food chain, as birds & hedgehogs eat poisoned molluscs (the slimy critters don't die straight away). Forget oat bran - slugs eat it, swell up, have a big poo then off they go again!!! :eek: Would love some chucks, but I think my cat & the neighbourhood foxes would love them more!!!
http://www.organiccatalog.com/catalog/index.php?cPath=61_179

[ May 06, 2005, 01:05 PM: Message edited by: Bayleaf ]

 

Hi bayleaf, where would i get nematodes from and copper tape? hav'nt tried matting as my garden is a bit on the large side. I got some snail gel from the g. centre, didn,t think much of that as the snail just plodded straight through it, but it was worth a try.

 

Hi GG Click on the link to Organic Gardening catalogue in my last reply in this thread for both tape & Nemaslug. My Snails did the same with vaseline as with your snail gel! What ARE they like!!! :rolleyes:

 

Bayleaf, what are they like, cant answer that politely, my snails drive me nuts. On the funny side, the homeing instinct, it is true or my son is taking the p*** , put a splodge of paint on one, threw it as far as i could, sure enought it came back,now my son is only 7, asked if he did it to another snail to fool me, said no with a straight face. Guess what i did to that snail, all that creeping back for a close up on my size 5's. Thanks for the info GG.

 

LOL!

Thanks for your ideas. I'm thinking I'll probably sink some cheap lager cans into the borders and copper tape around my containers. My poor toms really do need to be put into something larger and I want to get some veggies planted too. I wouldn't use pellets by choice either, and we're wanting to get a cat once we've finished renovating the house so ickle bantams probably aren't a fabulous idea, much as I'd love some.

 

A popular pastime of mine and my family is to "wheeee!" snails over the garden fence into the neighbouring field where the horses tend to trample them underfoot!!

Wheeeeing is a nifty art of projecting the snail either overarm or underarm with adequate height and velocity to clear the fence accompanied by a exultant cry of "wheeee"

 

Yeah, but when they slink back, if you listen really carefully, you can hear them whisper "heh, heh, heh...."

 

Hi, Hannah, Been watching Springwatch with Bill Oddie Just Now , Big Slug Thing On There,
Apparently Slugs Have one foot they move around on It's A great Long Yucky Thing, I Think Im Gonna Be Sick? You Could Try As You Said The Beer,or the Copper Ring Which i personaly think looks okay,or a strip of vaseline arond the pots they don't like the smell, Egg shells, or a grapefruit halved and the inside taken out you the put it upside down wherever you have the problem they crawl underneath and the acid kills them, i found the beer works for me, trouble was by the time i emptied the contents into my stomache by sunday morning i could'nt remember why i'd bought so many cans? LOL.