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Nematode test bed

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  • FireFire Posts: 19,096
    edited July 2021
    Sat 17th July 21
    Nematode test bed. (Front raised bed 2x2 metres)
    5 min night hunt 
    Earth is drying out

    10 assorted slugs including yellow and big Spanish slugs.
  • DovefromaboveDovefromabove Posts: 88,147
    You want a good rich craft beer or a stout … slugs love the rich molasses taste of stout like Guinness. 

    One year when some molasses rich cattle feed was spilled along our lane the next morning, as I walked the children to school, the lane was heaving with slugs. 

    Gardening in Central Norfolk on improved gritty moraine over chalk ... free-draining.





  • FireFire Posts: 19,096
    edited July 2021
    Sunday 25th 2021 : 37 days since applying nematodes at the front raised bed.
    Five min night hunt with torch, after heavy rain
    15 assorted slugs. A much wider variety of slugs than usual.



  • Lizzie27Lizzie27 Posts: 12,494
    @Fire, this is fascinating stuff, maybe you should send your findings to the RHS.

    I used a litter picking tool to pick up slugs to save my back, works on the bug fat slugs.
    I drowned mine, couldn't cope with snipping them.

    It may be worth an experiment as in my other post on Slug Broth, if you caught only one type of slug and tried that. I'm thinking the nematodes that Leopard slugs may produce might be particular to that breed and therefore will kill them? What do you think?
    North East Somerset - Clay soil over limestone
  • FireFire Posts: 19,096
    That would be interesting - if different nematodes are specific or inclined to various species of slugs.

    I don't know if I mentioned it above, but I have found leopard slugs munching on dahlias.

    I'm not that surpised that the nematodes didn't work in the test bed this time as I have tried there for years on and off - at least five times in the past. What surprised me more was all the caveats now given. Either they are new or I missed them in previous years (not good for Spanish slugs, adults, or for large slugs etc).
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