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Nematode test bed

FireFire Posts: 19,096
edited June 2019 in Problem solving

I have a small raised bed at the front of my house which I am using as a test bed for nematodes. They have, to date, not worked very well for me in the past. But the garden at the back at the back of the house is hard to test as wild gardens flank mine on all sides, havens for slugs and it's big enough to miss certain areas.

The weather was perfect when the test began - the area entirely soaked by rain and soaked again after the application (for days). I followed the instructions to the letter. I applied on June 10th. It says the todes should take a week to work.

Today the whole bed was covered in fat slugs. I think it will be a good test as there are no gardens near me on the street for at least ten houses either way. It was easy to water on the whole area - about two square metres. There's not really anywhere they can travel from close by. I want to put in newly sprouted sunflowers and I'm not going to risk it while the area is inundated. 

Nothing, except the salt table for seedlings, has worked for me in combating slugs. Science here. Night hunts are doing my back in and don't really seem to be making a dent. Any thoughts?

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  • PosyPosy Posts: 3,601
    The nematodes will start working quickly but you won't see a result for some time - think about what is involved, it is slow, gruesome work! The main problems with nematodes are that they don't affect snails, they can't cope with cold weather and they are very expensive. I have back problems, too, but picking the slugs is worth the pain for me. It works, it's as simple as that. My garden is too big for nematodes and no other method has made a significant impact.
  • HelixHelix Posts: 631
    I’ve not tried nematodes for slugs as they’re not a major problem for us, but have for mole crickets and was really pleased with the result.  We now only have to treat every two or three years when the population builds up again.   But with slugs I guess you will have to retreat fairly regularly which could require a second mortgage! 

    Why do you have so many slugs?  Is there something about your garden that attracts them?   And have you tried planting things they don’t like, like astrantia and geranium?

    (I disagree with the RHS trial by the way, as a physical barrier, coffee grounds and grit works fine for me)
  • FireFire Posts: 19,096
    All the gardens in the area are over run by slugs. At the front, hardly any snails. If the nematodes do work well at the front bed, it would only need £10 a year for a small packet to treat them, which isn't too bad, considering how much I spend on plants. :s

    I expect my slugs have had a long lineage of undisturbed sovereignty in the front gardens going back thirty years, perhaps, building up large populations, with no predators.

    I'm finding that slugs love most to feast on other scissored slugs. This has the upside of creating a site to pick off ever more slugs, as I will know where to find them. But it might attract more slugs into the garden - tempted by the easy meal. I wonder if nematodes live on in dead slugs and if eaten by living slugs, would transfer to them.

    We have so many cats prowling about the street that it puts off birds.
  • HelixHelix Posts: 631
    edited June 2019
    Did you see the piece on GW last night about the hosta nursery that relies on a garlic infusion/tea/concoction for slug & snail control? And says it works!
  • FireFire Posts: 19,096
    Not yet, but garlic spray has been mentioned on GW before.
  • FireFire Posts: 19,096

    The count tonight was twenty large slugs visible on the full-grown raised bed (two square metres). As it's covered in tall vegetation, I would think I might have seen a quarter or so of what might might be there, above ground. As the gardens near by are gravelled or paved, I would imagine new slugs would have to come pretty far. It might be so.

    I am confident that if nematodes don't work in such a small, stand-alone bed, there is no chance for my larger, wilder back garden.

    I'll update over the coming weeks.
    ..................
    Out of interest, I keep reading that there are many more slugs under the earth than on the surface. In my seven years of gardening my plots, I have never encountered visible slugs in the earth. When I dig or plant I've never found one buried.  Does anyone else find them as a matter of course in the earth?

    Thanks
  • PosyPosy Posts: 3,601
    I have found them nestled into the ground but not under the soil. I don't know why the nematodes didn't work bit perhaps it has been cold or they were washed out by torrential rain. I find picking slugs off is most effective. 
  • FireFire Posts: 19,096
    The night temp has been consistently above 8oC since the 10th of June. Nematodes are activated by rain.
  • PosyPosy Posts: 3,601
    It's a mystery,  then. I still suggest picking them off.
  • FireFire Posts: 19,096
    I would,  but my idea is to run the test bed to see what happens. I have spent a lot of money in the past on putting nematodes on the back garden with little seeming effect. The front raised bed is easier to test.

    I want to put in new plants at the front that will be demolished overnight at the moment, if I tried it.
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