Like so many on here, I’ve tried it all! A combo approach can help eg. fine gravel, bit of wool and a beer trap. My main success has been sacrificial decoy plants eg. Marigolds around my tomatoes.
This final idea isn’t something you can do for every single pot and tray but I once made a ‘moat’ of water (seed tray or big saucer) then balanced my pot on an upturned pot in the middle. The slugs and snails couldn’t get to them. I’ve only done that a few times just for precious plants like my hollyhocks or to start off sweet peas etc.
When someone discovers the perfect deterrent… that person can retire to a millionaire lifestyle.
Don't know whether it's legal or even ethical, but thinking out of the box, how difficult would it be to have a 'pet' frog or two in your greenhouse? I'm sure I've read somewhere that frogs have been found living use in greenhouses
Slugs drown in water. At West Green House they have healthy hostas on islands in a pond.
Frogs often visit my greenhouse. They usually live in some Mind-your-own-business balls that I have trained for house decoration. Under the benches, I keep a number that I rotate with the one or two indoors.
I also have a toads of both sexes. One I ofetn find one under a wheelie (I move the wheelie very carefully). I have never found one in the greenhouse, but they are quiet fellows.
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."
Don't know whether it's legal or even ethical, but thinking out of the box, how difficult would it be to have a 'pet' frog or two in your greenhouse? I'm sure I've read somewhere that frogs have been found living use in greenhouses
I've deployed two small children into my greenhouse against the ethics of child labour laws. Very effective at rounding up snails though. Sadly you can end up with a very high concentration of snails elsewhere in the garden, and they all suddenly have names.
If you can keep your head, while those around you are losing theirs, you may not have grasped the seriousness of the situation.
These slug rings are working for me so far. Last year my Deplhiniums were devastated by slugs from early on and struggled to get started. Since I started putting these copper collars around them it’s all stopped. I did the same with a Dahlia Wizard of Oz and it never got touched until a storm blew it over.
One suggestion is to pick them off at night - but then what do you do with them? I can't face stepping on them -ughh.
Take them miles away and release...well away from gardens If taken nearby they will be back home with you pronto.
From Exeter University research.... Quote....
"Exeter scientist helps expose the secret life of snails
A national competition to find the UK’s top amateur scientist has been won by a 69-year-old grandmother from Devon — with a little help from the University of Exeter.
Dr Dave Hodgson, from the University’s School of Biosciences (Cornwall Campus), has spent several months working with Totnes-based amateur scientist Ruth Brooks to find out if snails have an ‘internal sat-nav’.
The research found some startling results about the life of snails — with the study showing helix aspersa, commonly found in UK gardens, can find their way back to their favourite spot from about 30 metres if moved.
Judges at the British Science Festival this week picked the project as the outright winner of the competition run by BBC Radio 4’s Material World programme.
Dr Hodgson said some of the results from the snail research were startling.
He said: “I am amazed… I thought there was no way that these creatures would show a homing instinct in the way that homing pigeons do for example. And yet they do.
“This opens up some interesting new research opportunities that I’d like to follow up. They either have some clever mechanism that helps them get home or it's entirely possible that snails are just moving around the landscape and when they stumble across a place they come from they just stop.”
It’s hoped the research will help gardeners control snails, which can wreak havoc on plants and vegetables.
Many gardeners opt for the humane solution of moving snails away from their prized plants, but it’s now clear they have to be moved a long way before the technique works.
Ms Brooks said: “I would say on the evidence that it would be safe to take your snails away beyond 100m or further and put them somewhere nice with some food and you can be almost certain that they won't come back.”
The research on snails began after Ms Brooks suggested the study as part of the ‘So You Want To Be A Scientist’ feature on BBC Radio 4’s Material World programme.
Her question was one of four picked to become a full-blown science research project from more than a thousand entries. Dr Hodgson from the University of Exeter was drafted in to be her mentor through the evidence gathering process.
Their studies included asking the public to conduct their own research through the great snail swap, with people all over the country taking part.
The four finalists in the BBC competition then presented their evidence at the British Science Festival this week, and Ms Brooks project was picked by judges as the winner — making her this year’s BBC Amateur Scientist of the Year.
Dr Hodgson added: “This has been a great exercise in citizen science. Not only was I able to train an amateur scientist in the tasks of hypothesis testing, data collection and analysis, we also revealed an extraordinary truth about snail behaviour, and engaged children and grown-ups all over the world.
“The story got coverage on BBC Spotlight, BBC National News, ABC Radio Adelaide, and CBC Radio Canada, as well as over the rest of the world. Ruth is over the moon and so am I.”
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This final idea isn’t something you can do for every single pot and tray but I once made a ‘moat’ of water (seed tray or big saucer) then balanced my pot on an upturned pot in the middle. The slugs and snails couldn’t get to them. I’ve only done that a few times just for precious plants like my hollyhocks or to start off sweet peas etc.
When someone discovers the perfect deterrent… that person can retire to a millionaire lifestyle.
Cambridgeshire/Norfolk border.
Frogs often visit my greenhouse. They usually live in some Mind-your-own-business balls that I have trained for house decoration. Under the benches, I keep a number that I rotate with the one or two indoors.
I also have a toads of both sexes. One I ofetn find one under a wheelie (I move the wheelie very carefully). I have never found one in the greenhouse, but they are quiet fellows.
"Have nothing in your garden that you don't know to be useful, or believe to be beautiful."
If taken nearby they will be back home with you pronto.
From Exeter University research....
Quote....
"Exeter scientist helps expose the secret life of snails
A national competition to find the UK’s top amateur scientist has been won by a 69-year-old grandmother from Devon — with a little help from the University of Exeter.
Dr Dave Hodgson, from the University’s School of Biosciences (Cornwall Campus), has spent several months working with Totnes-based amateur scientist Ruth Brooks to find out if snails have an ‘internal sat-nav’.
The research found some startling results about the life of snails — with the study showing helix aspersa, commonly found in UK gardens, can find their way back to their favourite spot from about 30 metres if moved.
Judges at the British Science Festival this week picked the project as the outright winner of the competition run by BBC Radio 4’s Material World programme.
Dr Hodgson said some of the results from the snail research were startling.
He said: “I am amazed… I thought there was no way that these creatures would show a homing instinct in the way that homing pigeons do for example. And yet they do.
“This opens up some interesting new research opportunities that I’d like to follow up. They either have some clever mechanism that helps them get home or it's entirely possible that snails are just moving around the landscape and when they stumble across a place they come from they just stop.”
It’s hoped the research will help gardeners control snails, which can wreak havoc on plants and vegetables.
Many gardeners opt for the humane solution of moving snails away from their prized plants, but it’s now clear they have to be moved a long way before the technique works.
Ms Brooks said: “I would say on the evidence that it would be safe to take your snails away beyond 100m or further and put them somewhere nice with some food and you can be almost certain that they won't come back.”
The research on snails began after Ms Brooks suggested the study as part of the ‘So You Want To Be A Scientist’ feature on BBC Radio 4’s Material World programme.
Her question was one of four picked to become a full-blown science research project from more than a thousand entries. Dr Hodgson from the University of Exeter was drafted in to be her mentor through the evidence gathering process.
Their studies included asking the public to conduct their own research through the great snail swap, with people all over the country taking part.
The four finalists in the BBC competition then presented their evidence at the British Science Festival this week, and Ms Brooks project was picked by judges as the winner — making her this year’s BBC Amateur Scientist of the Year.
Dr Hodgson added: “This has been a great exercise in citizen science. Not only was I able to train an amateur scientist in the tasks of hypothesis testing, data collection and analysis, we also revealed an extraordinary truth about snail behaviour, and engaged children and grown-ups all over the world.
“The story got coverage on BBC Spotlight, BBC National News, ABC Radio Adelaide, and CBC Radio Canada, as well as over the rest of the world. Ruth is over the moon and so am I.”
Date: 17 September 2010"
https://www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencetech/article-4640312/SNAILS-homing-instinct.html