I used to kill them by stamping on them, but I stopped doing that years ago, and have instead thrown them in another part of the garden or over the fence. With all this rain there has been way WAY too many and I've had to go out multiple times at night, but still they devour the plants when I've gone to bed.
Starting to wonder if my pacifist approach is a waste of time.
I snip them, but there's far too many here so I tend to mostly grow plants which are able to withstand some damage, or are completely impervious. Can make it difficult though - clematis are becoming almost impossible. Grit etc is a waste of time - they crawl up the house walls which have a crushed shell render. I've seen slugs crawling over the tops of native thistles - it makes no difference to them. The small ones can be the worst offenders, but we have some huge ones too - all shapes, colours and sizes.
That's 20mm gravel For pots of lettuce or a couple of the dahlias this year [dahlias are all potted] I use the 'suspended in a tray of water' method. The improvement in one dahlia in particular, was very speedy. It was being annihilated every night.
It's a place where beautiful isn't enough of a word....
I live in west central Scotland - not where that photo is...
Slugs and snails have no brain, no bone and no nervous system, they are blind and deaf, they don’t feel anything when they walk over stones or chippings, their sense of smell is all that drives them.
Gardening on the wild, windy west side of Dartmoor.
Has it been a particularly bad year? My poor Eupatoriums haven't really managed to get going at all because cutworms kept gnawing off their young shoots earlier in the year, and as soon as they've finally managed to get a few inches of growth, the slugs have come along and skeletonised them. Last year they grew away fine.
"What is hateful to you, do not do to your neighbour".
I remember my mother salting a slug once and it obviously felt some kind of pain as it was in great distress. I think they have some pain receptors and ever since that episode I haven’t wanted to kill them so putting them in the garden waste bin was the only option. That’s not ideal either of course. Letting them drown in a slug pub only seemed to attract them from far and wide.
Here I am. large bottle with handle.( I use laundry cleanser bottle) Pour some cheap salt into bottle. Put on rubber gloves. Go round garden on a dark damp night, pick the blighters up and bottle them. Make sure cap is screwed on tight. Put in council rubbish bin. I've collected around 3litres worth in the last three weeks, and still they come...
Exactly what I’ve always done but with some water added. Head torch essential !
The slug pubs were filled up too. I use Lidl cheapest bitter. Next morning I added about 50 slugs to the bottle containing all the snails. At least the runner beans are starting to grow now.
You do seem to live in a particularly bad area for slugs and snails. The best thing is to live in a 10th storey flat, or grow plants that they are not attracted to - at least, not as a source of food.
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Starting to wonder if my pacifist approach is a waste of time.
The small ones can be the worst offenders, but we have some huge ones too - all shapes, colours and sizes.
That's 20mm gravel
For pots of lettuce or a couple of the dahlias this year [dahlias are all potted] I use the 'suspended in a tray of water' method. The improvement in one dahlia in particular, was very speedy. It was being annihilated every night.
I live in west central Scotland - not where that photo is...
The best thing is to live in a 10th storey flat, or grow plants that they are not attracted to - at least, not as a source of food.