There are very few plants they won't eat, unhappily and you would need a plague of frogs to down them all. However, this year I have tried picking them off and disposing of them. I go out about five evenings out of seven for an hour and collect an average of 200, although on warm, damp nights it can be 600.
And it works! I have a whole range of plants that I haven't been able to grow for years. It's hard work but worth every minute. Furthermore, I was gratified to see a scientific piece on Google that says this is the only really effective method!
As a temporary, interim measure, I've found - leaving some lettuce leaves on the soil, in between the plants they normally go for, seems to work well. For a couple of nights, at least. Feed them what they actually want to eat, and they stay away from my rudbeckia early leaves.
But to be honest, they are pretty ferocious here, and so many things get devoured (see my earlier post about poppy flowers...!).
The theory of having enough predators (ducks/frogs/toads etc} only works if you have a larger garden. Until then, hundreds of the damn things! Copper / egg shells / gravel etc are no match for the ones in my garden.
@josusa47 - in truth when I've tried beer traps I've done it with the own brand cheepo stuff from the supermarket that you'd have to have reached the lowest low to contemplate actually drinking. However, even though they caught quite a few slimey types they seemed to attract even more. It was like last orders at the Queen Vic.
I'm currently using a can of Fosters that I found in the woods. Even that terrible excuse for a beer works.
Don't forget that there's a whole ecosystem that eats slugs and their eggs. It's never as simple as get rid of slugs, problem solved. Wipe out all your slugs and in a few years you'll have a plague returning with much fewer pest control allies on your side.
If you can keep your head, while those around you are losing theirs, you may not have grasped the seriousness of the situation.
There are very few plants they won't eat, unhappily and you would need a plague of frogs to down them all. However, this year I have tried picking them off and disposing of them. I go out about five evenings out of seven for an hour and collect an average of 200, although on warm, damp nights it can be 600.
And it works! I have a whole range of plants that I haven't been able to grow for years. It's hard work but worth every minute. Furthermore, I was gratified to see a scientific piece on Google that says this is the only really effective method!
Totally completely agree with you. It is the only thing that really makes a difference. I have done it for several years now and very rarely have slug damages. Best nights to go out are rainy nights. But you have to be persistent (every night) and start early in the season (before the snails/slugs reproduce and lay hundreds of eggs) .
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There are very few plants they won't eat, unhappily and you would need a plague of frogs to down them all. However, this year I have tried picking them off and disposing of them. I go out about five evenings out of seven for an hour and collect an average of 200, although on warm, damp nights it can be 600.
And it works! I have a whole range of plants that I haven't been able to grow for years. It's hard work but worth every minute. Furthermore, I was gratified to see a scientific piece on Google that says this is the only really effective method!
But to be honest, they are pretty ferocious here, and so many things get devoured (see my earlier post about poppy flowers...!).
The theory of having enough predators (ducks/frogs/toads etc} only works if you have a larger garden. Until then, hundreds of the damn things! Copper / egg shells / gravel etc are no match for the ones in my garden.