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Excellent crop of Slugs

1945crewood1945crewood Posts: 170
in Problem solving
I've had an excellent crop of slugs this years, especially the big red ones. Can I ask how do people dispose of the slugs in their gardens please?
Mother Nature don't straight lines, Broken moulds in a grand design, We look a mess but we're doing fine, We're card carrying lifelong members of the Union Of Different Kinds.
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  • bcpathomebcpathome Posts: 1,313
    I put them on the bird table for them to eat first thing in the morning.
  • amancalledgeorgeamancalledgeorge Posts: 2,736
    Snipped in half during evening raids...the only cheap way to reduce populations. And then the pressure does way down and makes for a relaxing summer 🤣
    To Plant a Garden is to Believe in Tomorrow
  • NormandyLizNormandyLiz Posts: 788
    I'm lucky to have a biggish garden surrounded by fields, so I can collect them all up in a pot of water, swirl to stop them clinging to the pot, and hurl into the field next door, either that or over the road into woodland. The theory is that they can't find their way back over more than 20m, but even if they can it should take them a while! Mind you, they'll probably then be very hungry...
  • 1945crewood1945crewood Posts: 170
    amancalledgeorge said:
    Snipped in half during evening raids...the only cheap way to reduce populations. And then the pressure does way down and makes for a relaxing summer 🤣
    Thanks for the reply. Does snipping them in half actually kill them and do you just drop the two halves back on the ground?
    Mother Nature don't straight lines, Broken moulds in a grand design, We look a mess but we're doing fine, We're card carrying lifelong members of the Union Of Different Kinds.
  • amancalledgeorgeamancalledgeorge Posts: 2,736
    Yes it kills them and I tend to leave them for the birds to pick the remains but you can also throw them away. It's a bit of work but I find if you do binightly raids for a couple of weeks they clear off for ages...until the next wave. 
    To Plant a Garden is to Believe in Tomorrow
  • amancalledgeorgeamancalledgeorge Posts: 2,736
    It's probably wishful thinking @NormandyLiz they do have a homing instinct as it was established in 2010
    https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-10856523.amp
    To Plant a Garden is to Believe in Tomorrow
  • ViewAheadViewAhead Posts: 866
    NormandyLiz said:
    ... The theory is that they can't find their way back over more than 20m, but even if they can it should take them a while! 
    I read somewhere they can travel half a mile in a night so you might just be inconveniencing them a tickle!  ;)
  • SkandiSkandi Posts: 1,723
    The last I read was 100m  I've personally moved a leopard slug over 20m and then watched it make it's way back home, it's a good experiment, you can put barriers in the way as well and it will move around them to get home.
    After the wettest July on record here (records started in 1870) we have an exceptional crop of weeds and slugs. I find them when I am weeding and stab them with my garden fork, I then just leave them. ones left on the surface attract their kin who can be similarly dispatched.
    We have the large Spanish slugs and when they are full grown they are immune to pellets so no point trying that this late in the year. Nothing eats them either so physical methods are the only ones available.
  • diggersjodiggersjo Posts: 172
    I've seen the hedgehog clearing the bits up after my nightly curtails ... 
    Yorkshire, ex Italy and North East coast. Growing too old for it!
  • fidgetbonesfidgetbones Posts: 17,618
    Empty plastic milk container, inch of common salt in bottom, plastic gloves.  Head torch would be useful. At least I am finally getting some runner beans now.
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