I'm continuing the experiments this year. I have begun (front and back) since early spring, but have not been noting the results here.
At the moment I have beer traps out and used some pellets around a phlox. Right by, there are some ex daffodils. I have read on the forum some people saying that pellets contain a slug attractant. If they do, it's not seducing them 50cm away from the daffodil below.
I counted 53 tonight around one daffodil. They are assorted and little - not the huge Spanish slugs from last year. I don't know if these are different species or if they are juveniles or both. (Some of the tiny slugs are not showing up in the pic. ) They've always shown a great love for allium too - a favourite slug food.
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March, while daffs still blooming
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You can see the difference with the fat slugs of previous years below. They are much easier to spot on night hunts. They cover the paving, steps, gravel and deck. They are much bolder ;whereas the little ones now hide under leaves and are too small to shine clearly under torch light.
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I will keep going with the slug pubs and put out more. I'm really hoping I can get the phlox to grow and my thalictrum to return, though it's seeming very unlikely with this weight of slugs. No foxgloves or hollyhocks seedlings have survived. Growing daffodils seems like a bad idea, though they would probably just target something else in lieu.
As I have often noted, there is probably an equal weight of worms (as it were) so "wildlife gardening" is working on many levels - it's a matter of addressing the slug question. A lot that I'm trying to grow for other "wildlife" is being snaffled before the bees, hoverflies, moths etc get half a chance to benefit.
It's not a matter of "waiting for the garden to balance out". That would be much like waiting for a large rat population in the garden to "balance itself out".
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As I have also noted up thread, I'm doing this partly because I am interested and curious to see how the systems work. I also acknowledge that not all slugs are a problem, and that, as an animal, they are important for the decompostion process in the garden.
I know there was mentions of nematodes being tried out and not working but I think I found the method described in this article might have helped a bit with the slug numbers here when I tried it a few years back. Not kept up the nematode home brew technique more recently but have the benefit of some other slug hunters in the garden that seem to keep the numbers under some sort of control and I still squash a few I find hiding particularly when I have some seedlings sprouting. Maybe it would be worth giving the home produced slug parasite culturing a try.
I realise you said they did not work but it does sound like these where the commercially supplied nematodes where as I experimented with ones that I allowed to brew in my own back garden from whatever parasites were in the wild slugs I collected to try the home brew production option. It did not eliminate the slugs completely and I still find some now but while I had a lot of young plants being put out in a new garden area I think whatever parasites I produced using the system described in the article linked above seemed to help to some extent. Have hedgehogs, thrushes, ground beetles, centipedes, frogs and probably some other wild life that may help with the slug numbers now as the garden has developed and I have tried to provide shelter for these slug predators but when I was just after moving here I thought this home brew experiment was worth trying and think it may have helped. I might just have moved to growing plants that slugs are less attracted to since then but some that you say wont work in your own garden seem to do OK here.
I experimented with ones that I allowed to brew in my own back garden
It is interesting, but I think I may have issues with potentially attracting a constant stream of slugs from other gardens, as nobody else gardens near me - so I om offering a local buffet. By killing off resident slugs, it just offers a vacuum to others coming in. Applying nematodes may assume that you have a captive population of slugs that stays on your plot.
Also, Up thread, I cite research that suggests nemotodes work by targetting slug eggs, rather than adults. This is supposed to work best in the early spring, however the UK is often under frost in the early spring (Feb/March) and nemotodes need the weather to be 5oC+ to work. There seem to be a lot of caveats to the whole process, in the small print.
@Fire I believe those smaller slugs are juvenile Spanish slugs, though I am ready to be corrected. I have read that nematodes don't work on them, anyway, but again, I am prepared to be corrected.
If you keep a lush garden and your neighbours don't, you are bound to attract them in - I have the same problem with rough grazing next to me. It's just a constant fight. Your research is very interesting and I agree that they will go for the plants before turning to pellets, beer or whatever. The murder method is still the one for me, I'm afraid!
When we first moved here 6 years ago there was a slug problem I used nematoids twice a year for the first two years the difference was amazing very few problems with slugs now and grow what I chose ,don’t forget that nematoids kill baby slugs underground and eggs so less grow to adult hood hence less breeding .
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These slugs pile up are pictures of my nightmares haha
If you keep a lush garden and your neighbours don't, you are bound to attract them in - I have the same problem with rough grazing next to me. It's just a constant fight. Your research is very interesting and I agree that they will go for the plants before turning to pellets, beer or whatever. The murder method is still the one for me, I'm afraid!