the best slug traps were those flower pots on the graves with the holes
in to poke flowers. We would empty those out, they would be full, and
we would be almost sick, the smell is awful, and that’s just plain
water.
Interesting. I have a mini pond and never find dead slugs in there. I wonder if the slugs were attracted to the rotting flower stems...
This intrigues me because I do get dead slugs in my mini pond, but only during hot & dry bits of summer, maybe I have a more stupid population of them 🤔
(also! Remind me to harvest you some hollyhock seeds later in the year/dig up a seedling if you fancy it. I've got a bombproof purple one that the bees love and my slugs don't decimate (they have a nibble, but it's a very low priority snack for them) and it's tough as old boots, I think this will be its fourth or fifth year.)
Please excuse the messy garden in the background 🙈
For a special plant I put a beer can on it’s side with the hole uppermost with about half an inch of beer in it. It’s rain proof and lasts about a week and a half before needing emptied which isn’t a pleasant operation. It’s a good idea to cover the can with earth or blacken it with a blowtorch lest your garden look like party town.
Slugs can squeeze through very small holes so I drill a couple of 6mm holes in a transparent plastic container like a shower gel bottle. I then put a couple of inches of beer in and stand one at each side of my greenhouse door. They can get in but lack the skill to get back out. You’ll be surprised how many of the little buggers you catch on their way in to munch your edibles.
I’ve found ale to be the most effective and Guinness the least effective as bait. I try to avoid night patrol as manual removal is totally disgusting but will do it as required.
I had very good results using nematodes a few years ago but I felt the whole ecosystem suffered as a result so I stopped using them. Slugs are bad for gardeners but they’re a vital part of the food chain and a slug free zone is a bad thing. Nematodes don’t kill snails either.
I don't want to upset you, @Fire, knowing that you are hit by a plague. I had a talk with my neighbour the other day and it didn't take long, we talked about slugs and snails. In his garden, he grows mostly veggies. We both saw that part of the GW episode last year with Arit (let slugs/snails alone). My neighbour also hasn't killed any slug/snail since then, and he said, he has hardly any damage. We both agreed that we will continue our observations. I'm now 10 months in the "leave them alone", and I have to say that slugs/snails in my garden had eaten everything that dies back in Autumn/Winter. The only job I had to do was to cut off the old flower stems (like Rudbeckia). I never had so little to do as last Autumn/Winter/Spring. I had started to change the plants in the garden at the same time last year and added gradually plants that are good for pollinators but obviously have less to offer for slugs and snails. For example, one plant that I removed was the hosta, which never grew properly due to slugs/snails invasions. The only exception I did this year was that while giving the Hot Poker a Spring clean, I found around 10 snails, and I separated them into bag with green leftovers so that they can eat, but can't emerge. Next to the Hot Poker are Echinacea plants with some damage, and I wanted to give them a chance to grow first. I will see over the next months how it works, but even the cabbage plants grow happily in the raised bed and I have no protection at all. None one of them has been damaged so far.
I know it sounds heartless, @Fire, what I would do in your case is that I left the slugs/snails, and observe in the following months what exactly happens with your slugs/snails and what plants are affected. You have probably some sort of breeding colonies there with an endless supply on new slugs/snails. But if there is nothing left in your garden, they have nothing to eat. That must do something with them.
Because you mentioned their intelligence, I might be wrong, but I have the impression with my slugs/snails that since I no longer remove them and changed the plants, they are not really interested in my garden. Let's see how it turns out. I'm scientist, I'm not emotional. I analyse everything.
I noticed that snails are magically drawn to the black holes of this windmill. For some reason, they try everything to come in, but can't go out again. I put now between Hot Poker and Echinacea.
That is what I mean, they don't eat the fresh leaves, but only the old one. There are also 2 Calendula plants planted.
I don’t know what kind of slugs I have but if I see them I snip them. I’m lazy and forgetful about using blue pellets so there was a time they decimated my veg seedlings but then again live and let live. I don’t do any time time raids, life’s too short. I would think it’s a good idea to lay a short plant of wood nearby where they might hide and then in the day when they’re resting under there, scrape them all up and dispose of them. Better for your back. I do feel for you looking at those photos @Fire - maybe ignorance is bliss.
like previous poster I also don’t do much to control the slugs and touch wood I don’t have a massive problem with slugs and snails and I plant what I like, lots of daffodils and alliums here and I don’t notice an issue. I think they and birds come feast on my strawberries though so this year I’m thinking of growing them in pots and under nets.
For a while I have wanted to return to this slug project and feedback the results and my conclusions of various strategies to limit slug populations in my gardens.
To recap, my garden was coated in slugs for a few years. I wanted to be able to grow ornamentals like foxgloves, hollyhocks, allium, phlox, poppies etc. This was the goal. The pics sum up the population explosion.
I know the discussion is going to offend some people's sensibilities. I hope that the experiments can be of use to those specifically wanting to reduce slug numbers. That is the point of this thread. It's not for everyone.
My slug ID is not excellent, but the main ones in question seem to be Spanish (Arion vulgaris, not really Spanish). Arion vulgaris often look very like other UK slugs.
Beer traps
I think that these are no good for effecting long term or permanent change in slug populations; certainly not in a medium/large garden. Much like pheromone traps for clothes moths, these are only good for assessing how bad your problem is, not for solving it. My garden is surrounded by wooden fences, I have some wooden planters, a compost area and a wooden deck. Any slug traps I used could only ever make a tiny dent in numbers. There are around 30 species of slug in the UK.
The life span of a slug is between 2-6 years.... A single slug has the potential to produce 90,000 offspring in it’s life
time. The average garden has around 20,000 slugs each year. The average
cubic yard (metre) of garden contains around 200 slugs.
Beer traps are too expensive to use continuously over years and it's a faff.
I made the mistake of splashing beer where the traps were sunk, such that even when the traps were removed the area of earth was Slug-Central for months after, as they were attracted by the smell. So, empty your beer down the drain and don't splash it around.
Barrier methods
As noted upthread, I have found barriers like egg shells, grit, gravel, coffee, copper, wool and the rest to be totally useless. In my view these are more concerned with wishful thinking than efficacy.
Night hunts
As with the traps, hunts with scissors, could never make a dent in the overall situation in my garden. But they can give a measure of the garden's current slug stress. I used a method of five minute searches in full dark, not over-turning pots or looking under plants - just picking and counting the slugs in full visibility. I found that this method shows the changing, rising and falling of garden populations quite clearly. I continue to do night hunts for this reason, not to control numbers.
I don't use pellets. There seems no point in a medium-sized garden. They are not a long term solution, they potentially cause harm to other animals and do not address the root cause of the problem.
-----
So, none of the above was ever going to address the root cause of the slug-overwhelm.
I'm joining this discussion at a late stage, clearly, and you've obviously carried out extensive tests, @Fire but have you tried the hedgehog/slow-worm option? I know that it would probably take a significant number of each, to keep down your slug population.
We, too, have plenty of slugs. But, we do have birds and slow-worms. No hedgehogs here.
You probably don't want to hear this but the only answer is to grow things that slugs don't want to eat. There are many plants that I would love to grow but I accept that I can't without a mosaic of blue pellets. I don't have much of a slug problem because I have a severely restricted variety of plants. I like hostas so I grow a few in a protected environment. I would love to grow lupins and salvias and other slug delights but I accept that it's not possible without serious chemical intervention.
Posts
Please excuse the messy garden in the background 🙈
I’ve found ale to be the most effective and Guinness the least effective as bait. I try to avoid night patrol as manual removal is totally disgusting but will do it as required.
I had a talk with my neighbour the other day and it didn't take long, we talked about slugs and snails. In his garden, he grows mostly veggies. We both saw that part of the GW episode last year with Arit (let slugs/snails alone). My neighbour also hasn't killed any slug/snail since then, and he said, he has hardly any damage. We both agreed that we will continue our observations.
I'm now 10 months in the "leave them alone", and I have to say that slugs/snails in my garden had eaten everything that dies back in Autumn/Winter. The only job I had to do was to cut off the old flower stems (like Rudbeckia). I never had so little to do as last Autumn/Winter/Spring.
I had started to change the plants in the garden at the same time last year and added gradually plants that are good for pollinators but obviously have less to offer for slugs and snails. For example, one plant that I removed was the hosta, which never grew properly due to slugs/snails invasions.
The only exception I did this year was that while giving the Hot Poker a Spring clean, I found around 10 snails, and I separated them into bag with green leftovers so that they can eat, but can't emerge. Next to the Hot Poker are Echinacea plants with some damage, and I wanted to give them a chance to grow first.
I will see over the next months how it works, but even the cabbage plants grow happily in the raised bed and I have no protection at all. None one of them has been damaged so far.
I know it sounds heartless, @Fire, what I would do in your case is that I left the slugs/snails, and observe in the following months what exactly happens with your slugs/snails and what plants are affected. You have probably some sort of breeding colonies there with an endless supply on new slugs/snails. But if there is nothing left in your garden, they have nothing to eat. That must do something with them.
Because you mentioned their intelligence, I might be wrong, but I have the impression with my slugs/snails that since I no longer remove them and changed the plants, they are not really interested in my garden. Let's see how it turns out. I'm scientist, I'm not emotional. I analyse everything.
I noticed that snails are magically drawn to the black holes of this windmill. For some reason, they try everything to come in, but can't go out again. I put now between Hot Poker and Echinacea.
That is what I mean, they don't eat the fresh leaves, but only the old one. There are also 2 Calendula plants planted.
I ♥ my garden.
like previous poster I also don’t do much to control the slugs and touch wood I don’t have a massive problem with slugs and snails and I plant what I like, lots of daffodils and alliums here and I don’t notice an issue. I think they and birds come feast on my strawberries though so this year I’m thinking of growing them in pots and under nets.
We, too, have plenty of slugs. But, we do have birds and slow-worms. No hedgehogs here.
I would love to grow lupins and salvias and other slug delights but I accept that it's not possible without serious chemical intervention.