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Big orange spanish slugs

benSQcAt4vRbenSQcAt4vR Posts: 3
in Tools and techniques
I Am getting a few large orange slugs in my garden. Looked them up and they say no know preditors and slug pellets do not touch them. They can lay up to 400 eggs per year and do untold damage to all sorts of plants. 
Anyone else had these and how do you get rid of them. At the moment it is every night with a torch and put them in  A bag of soapy water. 
Should these be reported as a pest to any where? 
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  • DovefromaboveDovefromabove Posts: 88,147
    We used to have the native large red slug Arion rufus which I quite liked … they were handsome beasts, they ate small slugs and did little damage … now we seem to have the slightly smaller and totally voracious Spanish x Arion rufus hybrid. They get ‘dealt with’ whenever seen in whichever way is expedient at the time. Usually squished with boots or snipped with secateurs.  
    I think the time for reporting them has past. They’re everywhere. 😡 

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





  • SkandiSkandi Posts: 1,723
    Pellets do work but only in the spring when the slugs are smaller, now collecting them is your best bet.
  • DovefromaboveDovefromabove Posts: 88,147
    If anyone is wondering where their Spanish slugs are hiding, take a look under your hardy geraniums ... I've just chopped back the sprawling Rozannes and there were thousands ....... well, ok, scores then.  Grrrrr!   I just happened to have my secateurs in my hand .......... 

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





  • Mrs_MigginsMrs_Miggins Posts: 60
    edited August 2021
    Revolting creatures. I've found a few whoppers late at night, sliming along en route to kill my plants. Or already on the poor plants. I'll have a look under my geraniums for them and then it's the snip for them. And into a bag. Will they be there in the day or do they burrow down? 

    But I'd like to feed them to birds if I can. Will birds eat freshly killed slugs if put on a plate? No hedgehogs in London zone 2 (this part) sadly. Seems a shame to waste what could be tasty food for birds. 
  • B3B3 Posts: 27,505
    Snip them in half. They tend to congregate on the grass after rain or heavy dew. Then's the time to go out with the secateurs. I don't see so many now so maybe I'm winning😒
    In London. Keen but lazy.
  • benSQcAt4vRbenSQcAt4vR Posts: 3
    The problem is, as I have read, that birds and hedgehogs will not eat them. They do not need to mate so they lay their own fertilised eggs. I put them in a bag of soapy water for a day or 2 then put them in the bin. I wonder, if cutting them up, will their eggs survive if they have any ready to lay?
    I find a torch at night is a good way to hunt them as the slime shines in the torch light.
  • DovefromaboveDovefromabove Posts: 88,147
    Any eggs I see get a sprinkle of salt. 

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





  • PosyPosy Posts: 3,601
    No, they have no natural predators in this country. Birds and hedgehogs will not touch them. Picking them off is your best bet.
  • WoodgreenWoodgreen Posts: 1,273
    Snipped slugs left on paths or grass are a magnet for other slugs. If you can do a second patrol later in the night you can find two or three feeding on the remains.
  • PosyPosy Posts: 3,601
    Yuck yuck yuck!
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