You can go a bit mad with random sprinkling of slug pellets but if you place them and then cover with a pot with just a small hole in the side, birds ( and other creatures ) can't easily access them. I could be wrong but I think the idea of the pellets is to attract the slugs to them - tasty meal, scoff and end of. NB if you fancy eating Escargots, just remember you have to keep them on a decent diet for several weeks to clean their systems before they are safe to eat
The use of chemicals to manage slugs is not recommended. However, as a
last resort, slug killers based on ferric phosphate are an option if
used sparingly and stored safely. They contain ferric phosphate or iron
III phosphate, which affects the gut system of snails and slugs causing
them to stop feeding and die within three to six days. Although ferric
phosphate is less toxic than metaldehyde, the other ingredients in the
tablets can also affect earthworms and, if consumed in large quantities,
can poison pets.
If you can keep your head, while those around you are losing theirs, you may not have grasped the seriousness of the situation.
@geordief Who knows the guy at the Garden Centre may be eating bird food next.
When planting out it can help if your plants are strong and healthy. They are less likely to be eaten. Who cares if the hostas are shredded, maybe the gardener who likes to impress others? A gardener who cares shows no vanity.
I have worked as a Gardener for 24 years. My latest garden is a new build garden on heavy clay.
@geordief Who knows the guy at the Garden Centre may be eating bird food next.
When planting out it can help if your plants are strong and healthy. They are less likely to be eaten. Who cares if the hostas are shredded, maybe the gardener who likes to impress others? A gardener who cares shows no vanity.
Sure,I never use them on flowers(well maybe as a once off) but as an example you can have very healthy potatoes ,beans etc and they can be totally destroyed in very short order by being attacked at the base.
I have to cover the carrots with fleece against the carrot fly and if slugs get established in that nice environment it is very bad (you can't take the fleece off all the time or the carrot fly will come in)
The list goes on
I would be tempted to protect the hostas since raggedy hostas are as good as weeds.(mine have barely survived over the years)
I did the same as @GardenerSuze re hostas. They're just slug fodder. I have one which I inherited here and it's pretty resistant but there are better foliage plants which will save your blood pressure @geordief Soil temps have to be high enough for nematodes to work. Again, no use in areas with cold wet soil. Too late for them to be very effective if you have to wait for that, and they multiply very quickly. Becomes very expensive even in a small garden.
It's a place where beautiful isn't enough of a word....
I live in west central Scotland - not where that photo is...
Has anyone found a way to use up the pellets if water gets into the container and turns them to sludge?
I have tried drying them out and using the largish lumps that I break it down to....
They loose their blue colour .Does that matter to the slugs ?Is it just smell for them?
No, I am still using up my old metaldehyde pellets. But drying out the sludge is possibly OK unless the wheat base has rotted. The blue is for the birds; it is supposed tp put them off.
Main thing, only a very few, don't broadcast them.
If the birds and wild animals did actually eat the slugs then we wouldn't get so many. I know thrushes eat snails. Or do they just bash their brains out and leave.
location: Surrey Hills, England, ex-woodland acidic sand. "Have nothing in your garden that you don't know to be useful, or believe to be beautiful."
There are no better foliage plants than hostas. (Or better flowers than Delphiniums.) I grow all mine in clay pots. I would fight to the end before giving up on them. Or box.
How does King Charles protect his Hostas and Delphiniums? I bet he as a team of commis-gardeners who patrol at night with torches.
location: Surrey Hills, England, ex-woodland acidic sand. "Have nothing in your garden that you don't know to be useful, or believe to be beautiful."
Posts
I could be wrong but I think the idea of the pellets is to attract the slugs to them - tasty meal, scoff and end of.
NB if you fancy eating Escargots, just remember you have to keep them on a decent diet for several weeks to clean their systems before they are safe to eat
When planting out it can help if your plants are strong and healthy. They are less likely to be eaten.
Who cares if the hostas are shredded, maybe the gardener who likes to impress others? A gardener who cares shows no vanity.
I have to cover the carrots with fleece against the carrot fly and if slugs get established in that nice environment it is very bad (you can't take the fleece off all the time or the carrot fly will come in)
The list goes on
I would be tempted to protect the hostas since raggedy hostas are as good as weeds.(mine have barely survived over the years)
Basically I got an old 10 litre tub of paint with air holes and filled it with slugs and grass that I gathered from the garden.
After a few weeks the slugs died and I threw the remains around the place.
It seemed to help but it was pretty untargeted.(also disgusting)
Soil temps have to be high enough for nematodes to work. Again, no use in areas with cold wet soil. Too late for them to be very effective if you have to wait for that, and they multiply very quickly. Becomes very expensive even in a small garden.
I live in west central Scotland - not where that photo is...
Main thing, only a very few, don't broadcast them.
If the birds and wild animals did actually eat the slugs then we wouldn't get so many. I know thrushes eat snails. Or do they just bash their brains out and leave.
"Have nothing in your garden that you don't know to be useful, or believe to be beautiful."
How does King Charles protect his Hostas and Delphiniums? I bet he as a team of commis-gardeners who patrol at night with torches.
"Have nothing in your garden that you don't know to be useful, or believe to be beautiful."