Slugs

Hi everyone,
I seem to have a lot of slugs in my garden, and I know this because they are eating all of my plants in which I have. I would like to get rid of the slugs however, I can't use slug pellets as I have a cat and two dogs. Could anybody reccomend any methods in which I could use to get rid of the slugs. Any help would be most apprieciated.

 

Hi Matthew..I have had to resort to beer traps and half orange traps,they are full every morning.Where the slugs come from I just don't know!...Mrs Pal is a childminder and I've been bannd from using pellets.

 

Hi matthew, slugs and snails are scoffing everything in sight in my yard. My mother in law obtained some sort of chemical slug/snail killer from her neighbour. The powder is mixed with water and sprinkled around the base of the plant. The little critters pick up the chemical on their foot and the micro organisms eat away at the flesh, it doesn`t take to long to kill them off.
I have seen the effects of it and it is great, dead slugs and empty snail shells everywhere. The solution lasts about 6 weeks before you need to reapply. I want some but mother in laws neighbour is away at the moment and we can`t find out what it is called or where it can be bought(could be some illegal under counter stuff :eek: :eek: :D ). As soon as I find out I will let you know, having said that, somebody on GC is likely to know what it is.

Death to all slimy one footed beasts!!!!!!!!!!

 

Used to think snails were cute little critters but not anymore at our new house we have thousands of the little pests, oh and plenty of slugs too.
I have taken to jumping on them when I see them which my husband thinks is so cruel! Helen.xxx.

 

Snails never used to bother me and I to used to find them cute until my sunflowers were systematically destroyed by two of the blighters,I know it was them because I caught them red handed the other morning.

 

I use slug pellets and I have a dog, she never touches them, and the neighbour has cats and there still alive after all these years of putting pellets down.

 

I use pellets as well and i have 2 cats, and all my neighbours cats who see fit to come use my gravel. Grrrrrrr!

 

We use those samll blue slug pellets and the cats are fine with them.I had a cat years ago that ate some of those Bran based ones that a neighbour had put down and one of my cats was quite ill,like it was drunk and kept falling over.Luckily the vet managed to save her.

Those blue ones I have found attract the slugs and snails to them where they die from dehydration after crawling across them.The live snails I find go in my recycling bin,only thing is I forgot to unattache them from the inside of the lid last time it was emptied,so they will have to go this week along with the load I have found this last two weeks.It is a year for them and lots of our plants have been noshed by both the slugs and snails :(

 

Go out at night when it's wet and collect them.

I usually find loads chomping away!

 

Hi Matthew 1990,

Have a look at the following link for the sort of stuff that Pip is talking about

http://www.harrodhorticultural.com/HarrodSite/product/Pest%20Control_Biological%20Pest%20Control/GPC-265.htm


Haven't used it myself as I'm fairly lucky on the slug front. I saw Monty talking about it on GW several weeks ago. If you have any raised beds or pots he reckoned you should put copper tape around the rim to stop any new ones getting in having cleared it with this stuff. During that feature he said that every square metre of soil represents literally thousands of slugs of varying sizes (from newly hathced up to adults). They mostly live under the surface so you'll never see the vast majoriy of them. The nematodes will apparently kill all of them.

Sounds a bit heavy-handed when you look at it like that doesn't it? Although I'm sure many of you would disagree having lost entire batches of seedlings etc.

Happy genocide

 

Frightening! - I don't think that statistic can be true. I dug up the border where I see most of my slugs hanging out, on Sunday. I only found about 3, unless all the others were too small to see!

[ 09. July 2007, 03:57 PM: Message edited by: elliegreenwellie ]

 

Hi everyone,
Take a look at the post below its about making slug traps

 

I found this on another gardening forum, just wondering whether or not anybody has tried this method before, and if they have was it a good way of getting rid of slugs

The old idea of making slug traps with beer is very effective but can be expensive as the beer either gets rained out or dries up. And when replenishing, you waste quite a bit while retrieving the dead slugs.

Take two yogurt pots (or similar) and one empty margarine tub. Place the 'sieve pot' inside the other yogurt pot. Take the margarine tub, (the roof) turn it upside down and in two sides, cut a 'doorway' large enough for slug or snail to enter. Take the second yogurt pot and in the base pierce about ten small holes. This is the 'sieve pot' Place the sieve pot inside the other pot.'
By your young salads, bury the yogurt pot/s with sieve, up to its neck. Fill with beer! Place roof over the top with a few pebbles on top to stop it blowing away.

Inspect your pots every day or two. Just remove the sieve and the beer stays in the pot. Throw the dead slugs out to give the birds a boozy breakfast. Replace sieve carefully and top up beer when necessary.