I've been researching and, apparently, adding cider vinegar - 15ml to one litre - to their water helps and adding an infusion of crushed garlic and thyme also helps. I do the vinegar bit they also drink water in puddles. I put thyme in their rice but will now add it to their water.
Vendée - 20kms from Atlantic coast.
"The price good men (and women) pay for indifference to public affairs is to be ruled by evil men (and women)."
Ah yes that's what they give medicated chick feed against in the US an illegal practice here. I'm afraid I'm VERY skeptical that putting vinegar in water will do anything I've never found any evidence just a lot of belief in an almost religious form the USA that cider vinegar has magical properties, good marketing I suspect.
I rather think the use of cider vinegar was one piece of advice given by the BHWT years ago when I kept chickens. I don't know whether that has changed at all ?
It has to be organic cider vinegar @Skandi. That way it still has the active ingredient that does the trick. Something about altering the PH in the chicken's gut and killing off parasites before they take hold.
Another bit of advice I've found is to make sure that any grass in their pen is kept cut short so the sun can get to the soil and kill off any parasite eggs and to sprinkle lime on any bare soil they may go pecking in.
Adding diatomaceous earth to the area where they have their dust bath helps with both internal and external parasites and mites and a teaspoon of it added to each cup of their food helps too.
Now to find out what that is in French and go and get some.
Vendée - 20kms from Atlantic coast.
"The price good men (and women) pay for indifference to public affairs is to be ruled by evil men (and women)."
Just read this thread and completely agree with the RHS. gardeners are to blame for the problem by continuously using slug pellets often wrongly . Metaldahide is now banned but it's use has contributed to the loss of song birds and hedgehogs. We have all killed a slug or snail without a thought, was it actually doing any damage or just a knee jerk reaction on our behalf. If we have holes in the leaves of our ornamental plants we should live and let live or don't grow them at all. We are so lucky in the UK we can grow so many different plants. Think outside the box and change your plans. A good gardener works with what they have and cares for their eco system before anything else. When you buy a new plant consider where it comes from, was it grown in the UK or even better purchased from a local garden such as at an NGS opening. If it grows well locally it will probably do well in your garden too.
I have worked as a Gardener for 24 years. My latest garden is a new build garden on heavy clay.
No preaching please. Most of us know right plant right place and don't grow slug and snail fodder where we have infestations of slimesters. Even so, when we do plant a treasure and it gets levelled to the ground overnight it is hugely dispiriting and they're eaten by the kinds of slug and snail that do not contribute much to ecology.
I haven't used metaldehyde since the ferrous sulphate pellets cam available a couple of decades ago. I don't use pesticides and am selective with herbicides, used only in extremis. I feed the birds and provide shelter plus plants for pollinators so they have insects to eat too. Many more on these boards do the same.
As of now I'll be putting down yeast balls in my veg and dahlia beds to attract the blighters and then happily drowning them in our pond. I don't want them poisoning my chooks with their parasites.
Vendée - 20kms from Atlantic coast.
"The price good men (and women) pay for indifference to public affairs is to be ruled by evil men (and women)."
I'm not sure I have directly killed a slug or snail, and not 'without a thought' for sure. I do chuck them onto the shed roof for the blackbird/thrush and I have used nematodes on my veg patch 3 or 4 times over the last 12 years or so. Never without careful consideration, though. We have a lot of toads, even if we're quite short on hedgehogs
Gardening on the edge of Exmoor, in Devon
“It's still magic even if you know how it's done.”
Sorry, @GardenerSuze, you clearly don't understand the problem. I haven't used slug pellets in donkeys' years, badgers killed off the hedgehogs, not pellets.
Slugs do not nibble a hole, they eat the whole plant from top to bottom. And they were NOT encouraged by me. There are NO plants slugs do not eat.
When I have had to kill the little grey slugs ( a quick stamp and scrape ), I do always say "sorry". It obviously doesn't make the victim feel any better but at least I am aware of what I am doing. Many more escape my attention and live to see another day.
Slugs and Snails are part of our eco system and will be living in our gardens - probably long after we're gone. I think it's fair that some measures are taken to protect certain areas of a garden - I imagine most gardeners do this.
Far more worryingly IMO are those who indiscriminately use "Bug sprays" without the least idea of what they are dealing with.
Posts
I've been researching and, apparently, adding cider vinegar - 15ml to one litre - to their water helps and adding an infusion of crushed garlic and thyme also helps. I do the vinegar bit they also drink water in puddles. I put thyme in their rice but will now add it to their water.
Another bit of advice I've found is to make sure that any grass in their pen is kept cut short so the sun can get to the soil and kill off any parasite eggs and to sprinkle lime on any bare soil they may go pecking in.
Adding diatomaceous earth to the area where they have their dust bath helps with both internal and external parasites and mites and a teaspoon of it added to each cup of their food helps too.
Now to find out what that is in French and go and get some.
Metaldahide is now banned but it's use has contributed to the loss of song birds and hedgehogs. We have all killed a slug or snail without a thought, was it actually doing any damage or just a knee jerk reaction on our behalf. If we have holes in the leaves of our ornamental plants we should live and let live or don't grow them at all.
We are so lucky in the UK we can grow so many different plants. Think outside the box and change your plans.
A good gardener works with what they have and cares for their eco system before anything else. When you buy a new plant consider where it comes from, was it grown in the UK or even better purchased from a local garden such as at an NGS opening. If it grows well locally it will probably do well in your garden too.
I haven't used metaldehyde since the ferrous sulphate pellets cam available a couple of decades ago. I don't use pesticides and am selective with herbicides, used only in extremis. I feed the birds and provide shelter plus plants for pollinators so they have insects to eat too. Many more on these boards do the same.
As of now I'll be putting down yeast balls in my veg and dahlia beds to attract the blighters and then happily drowning them in our pond. I don't want them poisoning my chooks with their parasites.
“It's still magic even if you know how it's done.”
Slugs do not nibble a hole, they eat the whole plant from top to bottom. And they were NOT encouraged by me. There are NO plants slugs do not eat.
You shouldn't lecture till you know the facts.
Slugs and Snails are part of our eco system and will be living in our gardens - probably long after we're gone. I think it's fair that some measures are taken to protect certain areas of a garden - I imagine most gardeners do this.
Far more worryingly IMO are those who indiscriminately use "Bug sprays" without the least idea of what they are dealing with.