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

Just had a thought, don't know if this will work or not but as i said it's just an idea. We bought a water feature recently which has quite a large bowl at the bottom for all the water to collect. If i put some folliage into it, do you think it would attract some frogs? as surely they would look after the slug problem?

What d'ya think guys?

 

P of S - has your neighbour got a pond. I have no pond in my garden yet it is alive with frogs of all ages - because not only has my neighbour a pond, but the conditions are right for them in my garden

Frogs like shady places amongst foliage, where the slugs and other things they feed on lurk. My garden is very dense planted with lots of cover from plants, and leaf litter - I just have to be careful when using a fork :eek:

Unfortunately they don't tend to eat the snails - and I haven't seen the thrushes I've had nesting in my garden the last couple of years - though evidence of their presence. So a little post rain, or early evening picking - keeps them in control

 

I'm up there with a torch and an old screwdriver most nights doing their job for them MF :D
Seriously though I'm not convinced about this, I have a couple of resident hedgehogs, hundreds of frogs, robins, thrushes, blackbirds and millions of slugs.

 

So Pete - ask yourself what the slugs are eating. Can you grow more plants that they won't eat and less that they do? If you can make such a change you might find that you have less of a problem because your garden will be less attractive to them. Do we really want our gardens to be battlegrounds and poisoned deserts?

As regards seeing birds and animals actually eating slugs - Apart from thrushes hammering and gobbling snails I have seen robins tackle small slugs. Don't think they could fly very far with a leopard slug though. A good tip is to dig over the soil and let the birdies get at the slug eggs. You'll see them I'm sure - the eggs look like little pearls.

 

As I too have never seen anything other than birds eating snails, I did a bit of googling and found this fascinating site:
http://www.bbc.co.uk/nature/animals/features/291feature1.shtml

I find it hard to kill anything myself [it was me who used to cart bucket loads of snails up the road to get rid of them] so I suppose I shall just have to carry on with the repellent methods. I also found this, which really made me laugh:
http://arachnophiliac.co.uk/burrow/news/good_housekeeping.htm
:D

 

Great links, Liz - especially the first one. First rule of warfare - know your enemy!

 

Well, judging by the size of the slugs I had last year, the frogs needed to eat them would have to be at leat small cat size!!!!
Now, I have been very severely told off by my boys, who, after seeing a Bill Oddy thing, have informed me that there are two types of slugs. Ones that eat dead stuff only, and the ones who eat live plants. One of these are brown, one black. Can't remember for the life of me which one is which, so I'll check and report back later.... 'coz we only need to rid of the one who like the nice juicy, tender shoots.....

 

Yes and there is even a slug that eats the harmful slugs.. Those little blue pellets will kill them all - friend and foe. Have you read the warning on the packets about how it will kill pets and children too?

 

I know what your saying about growing plants that are less attractive to slugs Hornbeam, but surely gardening is about growing plants that you like, not just the ones the pests dont.

 

Yes, but surely we have to compromise sometimes. We might want to grow all sorts of plants, but we can only grow what our climate allows us to. We can only grow what our soil allows us to. Sure, some folk spend a fortune trying to change their soil and grow rhodos on chalk. End of the day, you go with the flow or get into a conflict with nature. Nature always wins in the end.

Seems like guerilla warfare to me. The chemical gardener has his superior weapons of mass destruction. He kills a lot of the opposition, but also kills many allies with "friendly fire". The guerilla slugs keep on hiding and coming out to ambush his soft targets. They just keep on keeping on. Eventually, the gardener gets fed up with wasting his money and gives up - beaten.

Honey Bee's boys are right. Which slugs do the damage? Know that and you may be able to tell friend from foe. Or just kill everything regardless. Shouldn't gardens be about life rather than death? Look at the dust bowl agri-chemical prairie farms of today. Do we want our gardens to be like that too?

Better get off my soap box now

 

Hornbeam I admire your great crusade.
You certainly are a believer and I think you have made us all think a little and have raised our awareness.
Cheers Mate..............................

 

You can get on your soap box any time you like Hornbeam, as far as I'm concerned thats what we want. If we all thought the same way things would be really boring.
I'm only trying to change my little patch to what I want, If I had a larger garden then I would have to think differently. I would love to have enough space to allow a wild garden where nature could take its course and perhaps a bit of woodland to walk through that was my own.
But I would still want my bit, that I can control and grow the plants that I like.

[ 16. May 2006, 09:20 PM: Message edited by: pete ]

 

OK Pete. It's about personal choice isn't? That's why we garden. I'm not really a crusader, but it's about what works. I read through the anguish of people here and know that they cannot beat the problem with poisons. I know because I tried it for 20 years.

Well return to this again a bit later, I'm sure, because I grow lots of roses and don't spray them for greenfly, blackspot or any other problem.