Slugs, slugs and guess what.....more slugs!!

You have some lovely philosophys Hornbeam,
All of your theories are sound,Exept the fact that we dont get slugs in East Anglia.
It is mostly snails.......... infestations of them,they climb into the greenhouse and all around the fences,in pots,under pots,true they do target certain plants and yes there are many things we can do to deter them,its a constant struggle.......Never to be beaten though.
One poster earlier did suggest that if your neighbours have lushious or unruly gardens that would increase the problem.........I have one of each...............


This is my old friend.

 

Sorry for this but I usually chop slugs in half

And chuck snails into next doors garden (they don't bother with it anyway!) and don't live there for any length of time..

 

Stingo, just laughed out loud at your last post mate, funny as hell.

Just wish i wasn't a squeemish as i am and i'd do the same.

Lovin the throwin' snails thing over next door...class!

 

Look here for a slug quiz. :eek:

I only got 5/8, it's amazing how much you can learn about slugs!
(Still hate 'em though :rolleyes: )

 

Ahhem - throwing snails next door is not the most neighbourly thing to do without consent. And if they don't meet the snails requirments, they will be back with you in very short time.

Then there is always the thought of what your neighbours would throw back in revenge!!

If you must throw snails, throw them at the fence, or down onto concrete to kill them. Or if squemish, pick them off into a plastic bag, add some salt, and chuck em in the wheelie bin. Salt kills slubs is in very short time too but I prefer my garden frogs who seem to keep them under control - not the snails though.

 

I have to admit to throwing both slugs and snails over into the garden next door. Much preferred the snails in Cambs. as they're easier to pick up. Loads more slugs here as Hornbeam says, they're horrid to pick up. I had to wrap the leopard slug in a bit of cardboard to pick it up.
In Cambs. whenever it rained at night we would be crunching down the garden path, in spite of having hedgehogs, frogs and thrushes in abundance in the garden. The thrushes had a disgusting looking tapping stone for breaking the snail shells on.

 

A thrushes' anvil is something you don't often see now as both song and mistle thrushes are in steep decline due to loss of habitat and poisoning of snails. I have a resident pair and I'd rather do without hostas and delphs than put down pellets and lose the thrushes. As it is - I can grow hostas with my hardy geraniums to protect them.

Can I just ask those of you with slug problems - how many and what types of birds do you have as residents or regular visitors?

 

we have a lot of Robins and Coal tits, they dont seem to eat ewt apart from the food i put out for them!

 

Hi hornbeam, whats that about hostas and hardy geranium, dont the blighters like geraniums ????

 

Fran, my neighbours' grass is about knee high as she doesn't live there yet [she's been doing the cottage up for about a year] I will have to stop when she moves in- oh dear what then? :(

OK, here's the birds I recognise:
Regular- pigeons, collar doves, jackdaws, blackbird, thrush, sparrow, robin, wren, chaffinch, bull finch, greenfinch, blue tit, coal tit, great tit, wagtail, swallows, housemartin.
Occasional- yellow wagtail, magpie, goldfinch, crow, starling, nuthatch [in trees at top of gardens], larks and kestrel overhead but not in garden. Oddly few rooks.
I've no idea how many live in the big trees, as opposed to visiting for food, but it's a pleasure to hear a small dawn chorus, as opposed to the odd twitter in Cambs. where the arable farmers held sway.

 

Slugs don't seem to like hardy geraniums at all. They are never eaten, but perhaps more importantly - they seem to be a deterrent. Some have quite strong smelling leaves and like all members of the buttercup family, they carry toxins. I collect them and have many varieties including some which make great ground cover. In recent years, they spread to where my hostas were struggling and surrounded them. The hostas grew through them and now have very little slug damage. I can only assume that the geraniums are keeping the slugs at a distance.

 

Further to my suggestion that hardy geraniums might deter slugs - perhaps I should offer some evidence. I took the first photo this morning after a damp night. The hosta is growing in a permanently damp part of the garden, heavily planted with ground cover, trees and shrubs - see second photo. There is a little slug damage, but in such a place and unprotected by pellets, egg shells, gravel or anything other than the geraniums - you might expect far more damage. I never see slugs so never remove or salt them.

The second photo shows part of the bottom of the garden where the hostas are. Many birds live and visit here as well as frogs and hedgehogs. They help keep the slugs under control. Beyond the fence is a large and noisy industrial estate, at the front of the house is a busy main road taking traffic to the M11 and Stansted Airport. The point I'm making is that you can attract natural predators even in an urban environment. As gardeners we should - even the house sparrow is now a threatened species!

 

Thanks, that is very useful information! My hostas are in pots because I haven't sorted out the shade area yet, I have protected them with copper bands, alpine grit in their containers and applications of aluminium sulphate- geraniums would be much prettier! Will the geraniums tolerate permanent dappled shade?
I have a tray of geranium grown from seed collected from the many and varied soft-leaved perennial ones in my daughters' previous garden, which was quite shady.

 

You can get hardy geraniums for any and every location. Most like some lime in the soil, but they are very easy going. I've got them in beds, borders, under deep shade, on gravel and in alpine troughs. The one by the hostas is Claridge Druce. She is as tough as they come and spreads well as ground cover. Gorgeous large pink flowers with dark veins. Flowers in shade and even better in half shade. If she spreads to areas where she is not wanted, just pull her up. She has shallow roots and they will readily take again. Last year, my non-gardening neighbours put up a solid fence in the front which has created permanent dry shade. I poked bits of Claridge Druce in the dry soil and never even watered them in. Now we have a shiny green border where nothing else will grow.
For information on hardy geraniums, go to:
http://www.hardygeraniums.com/

 

Berry. I liked your quiz - I didn't know that slugs have shells!