It's good stuff but has some drawbacks. It only works in warm soil. Many slugs are out and about now, eating up your emerging plants, but it's much too cold for nematodes. It is also punishingly expensive.
Thanks for that @Posy...yes, the expense is an issue, that's why I thought I would try and get someone with first hand experience in using it first. I have no knowledge of the life cycle of a slug, but is there any evidence of it disrupting the egg laying process by killing them off during the summer and thus reducing the numbers next year.
We used it on the veg patch some 5 or 6 years ago ... it seemed to work ... we’ve not needed to repeat it ... we get a little slug damage on lettuces etc, but not much.
Gardening in Central Norfolk on improved gritty moraine over chalk ... free-draining.
I had a really bad slug problem, especially Spanish slugs and nothing I tried helped. They were everywhere. I started,very unwillingly, picking them up at night and putting them into a bucket with a couple of inches of very salty water. At first I would get 400 - 600 in an hour. But it works. I no longer have a problem, it's cheap and I have learned to enjoy my night garden.
I haven't found nematodes to be at all useful. I know others have. I am going to give it one more go on my front garden. It's worth following the instructions very carefully if you are going to try. Night temps are still too cold to use it now. Drench all the soil fully before using, use then and soak again afterwards.
I think Nemaslug was behind the set up of the National Slug Week Count as @wild edges had guessed. I can imagine that it would not be cheap and whether it works or not would remain to be seen. I have not yet encountered one slug to date but early days yet.
I had a really bad slug problem, especially Spanish slugs and nothing I tried helped. They were everywhere. I started,very unwillingly, picking them up at night and putting them into a bucket with a couple of inches of very salty water. At first I would get 400 - 600 in an hour. But it works. I no longer have a problem, it's cheap and I have learned to enjoy my night garden.
400-600 slugs!? Wow. I thought we had a lot in the old garden. Well done on curbing that lot.
Growing old is mandatory but growing up is optional.
Also, remove dead and dying leaves, whether attached to the plant or not. Slugs prefer rotting leaves and will seek them out, but will then move on to your nice green leaves. I also find it helpful to never plant seed directly if I can avoid it. Slugs love the first new shoots and can destroy countless numbers of them very quickly.
I went outside at night a few years ago and was staggered to find thousands of the blighters, several for every square foot as far as the eye could see. Conditions must have been perfect for a mass-mating season or something. I’ve never seen anything like that since, but it shows you how many there are lurking out there.
I tried nematodes once. I think they worked for a while, but obviously, your garden will repopulate gradually.
If you have a pond that gets frogspawn, keep an eye on them as the tadpoles grow. They turn from vegetarians to meat-eaters at some point, and if nothing else is available, they eat each other. As I want a maximum frog population to combat slugs, I chuck in a couple of slugs every now and then. The tadpoles love them.
Carmarthenshire (mild, wet, windy). Loam over shale, very slightly sloping, so free draining. Mildly acidic or neutral.
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I have no knowledge of the life cycle of a slug, but is there any evidence of it disrupting the egg laying process by killing them off during the summer and thus reducing the numbers next year.
Gardening in Central Norfolk on improved gritty moraine over chalk ... free-draining.
If you have a pond that gets frogspawn, keep an eye on them as the tadpoles grow. They turn from vegetarians to meat-eaters at some point, and if nothing else is available, they eat each other. As I want a maximum frog population to combat slugs, I chuck in a couple of slugs every now and then. The tadpoles love them.