@Fire I see what you mean! The only difference here is that I use glass and sink the jars further into the soil.
I do a nightly hunt at the back too. I am trialling various beer traps there. Some are sunk in the ground, some are not. None are having much efffect. I am catching approx 30 slugs a night by hand, and one or two in the beer traps - though, as you can see from the pic, if it seems that a few slugs are interested, just not drowning. The glass jars sunk in the ground are proving just as useless.
@Woodgreen Here is a picture of the slugs drinking my beer happily in my back garden (not the test bed). Life on the edge. I can confirm that there were no dead bodies floating in the pool next morning. Nor can I see why there would be. Are they supposed to slip and fall?
The slugs that didn't drown in the nightime.
They drown when they fall in. But this container has a nice grippy side to hold onto and they can safely drink away. Then slink off. Maybe there should be less beer so the level is lower and they fall trying to get to it? Also glass jars apparently are best. Or drink the beer (not that one obvs) and then go out with scissors/a skewer? Then it's the big ones that you get first!
There's an online video showing a fast-speed 6 hours or something beer trap. You could see most of the slugs/snails had a happy drink and then just slinked off. Only less than 1/4 fell inside. So I didn't bother with it much.
If that’s the case, it appears copper tape on my raised bed is working. I’ve just checked and the melon seedling planted about 3 weeks ago is still there. It’s rained for most of the week here.
Not sure if it’s because it’s better quality copper for guitars, the width or due to the razor sharp edge. I cut myself a few times when I was applying the copper tape.
Ps - I know everything is planted too close. I always do this and just hope for the best.
Copper tape works, only with big slugs. Small ones can glide through without much electrical shock.
Beer traps seem to work really well for some people and hardly at all for others. I'm trialling Boddingtons bitter with added peanuts next week. They say the beer needs to be very yeasty, so I don't think Fosters etc is a good choice. Bruce likes this method.
One wet summer I was very diligent with the nightly patrol, especially if there had been rain. Started out at around 120 per evening/night and decreased gradually to around 10. Surrounded by farmland so there will always be more to come in and replace them, but to help my plants in the growing season I find it worthwhile. We've had dry sunny weather here for weeks so there are very few to be found just now, but they'll emerge when we eventually get some rain. I have lost one or two new purchases over the years because the slugs just decimated them as soon as I planted them (leucojum, salvia....) Beer traps help near vulnerable plants, it's strange how they work for some but not others.
Sorry, not leucojum, leucanthemum. I've tried these for years, as divisions from friends, and bought a couple of short varieties but the damage was so relentless they just died.
I still believe that the easiest and cheapest way to deal with slugs, especially the Spanish ones, is to pick them off and terminate them. It's unpleasant and, at first, time consuming, but it works. Nothing else I have tried does the trick. All this stuff about allowing a little damage is nonsense: a Spanish slug will eat almost everything and has no natural enemies. We shouldn't have let them in in the first place, but now they are here, they're a menace.
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This year I applied nematodes on 16th June. See above. I followed the exact guidance on temperature, moisture levels, watering etc.
There's an online video showing a fast-speed 6 hours or something beer trap. You could see most of the slugs/snails had a happy drink and then just slinked off. Only less than 1/4 fell inside. So I didn't bother with it much.
Copper tape works, only with big slugs. Small ones can glide through without much electrical shock.
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Started out at around 120 per evening/night and decreased gradually to around 10. Surrounded by farmland so there will always be more to come in and replace them, but to help my plants in the growing season I find it worthwhile.
We've had dry sunny weather here for weeks so there are very few to be found just now, but they'll emerge when we eventually get some rain.
I have lost one or two new purchases over the years because the slugs just decimated them as soon as I planted them (leucojum, salvia....) Beer traps help near vulnerable plants, it's strange how they work for some but not others.
I've tried these for years, as divisions from friends, and bought a couple of short varieties but the damage was so relentless they just died.