Rosa the local vet should be able to advice people of where lungworm is a the moment . We have posters all over ours so everyone should be aware. Where we are we aren't in any danger (we check), good reminder though .
I use salt , I pick em all up that I see a salt em
go ukcowgirl i discovered the scissors solution last year ,it's quick they don't suffer long (i make sure I get them in one go) and the birds have their breakfast cut up for them.I have lost so much to slugs,snails and caterpillers it's unreal, so i don't feel guilty any more .Over the years I have spent a fortune on socalled anti slug and pest gadgets and repelants but no more it's scissors for me from now on.Sometimes it's the simplest thing that work best.
No mercy for slugs around here. I use nasty metaldehyde pellets in places wildlife can't get to, organic pellets, beer traps, snipping with secateurs, slug nematodes, garlic spray, salt and any other inventive ideas folk come up with. I tried leaving it to nature for a couple of years and I'm not going back to having a devastated garden, or spending 3 months raising plants only to have them destroyed in a single night!
Even with the above full-blown assault, I still can't grow hostas. Good job I don't find them particularly attractive!
Copper rings, vaseline, eggshells, sharp grit (even tried crushed glass once) and a myriad of other 'slug deterrents', including expensive commercial ones have absolutely no detectable effect for me, unfortunately.
Do we 'clay gardeners' have more of a problem with slugs than other soil types? There's anecdotal evidence for this which I've read on various forums over the years, but I'd love to see an actual poll done.
A trowel in the hand is worth a thousand lost under a bush.
Has anyone tried ' copper tape round the containers 'method. I was thinking of growing some lettuces this year with said method and also using them for tomato growing, as last year it was the first time ever, that the little blighters successfully nibbled through about 12 plants that had been replaced three times!!. Is it a tried and tested method.
My soil is very heavy and wet and yes, they are absolutely massive and there was alot of them last year, the like of which I have not seen before.. My parents soil is much lighter (they live a mile away at the top of the hill in our town, we live at the bottom in the Waveney valley) and they have hardly any.
My parents are nearer the coast , lower plain good soil to be honest, I'm very jealous when I dig something up for her , I'm high ground clay peat area, forest drains down through back field into mine and onto beck at the front. We have a lot of huge black ones .
My slugs were huge (clay soil) until I obliterated them with nematodes - they worked really well - no more slugs AT ALL - only snails now and nothing short of stamping on them or chucking them over the wall into a disused garden works...
Posts
I use salt , I pick em all up that I see a salt em
go ukcowgirl i discovered the scissors solution last year ,it's quick they don't suffer long (i make sure I get them in one go) and the birds have their breakfast cut up for them.I have lost so much to slugs,snails and caterpillers it's unreal, so i don't feel guilty any more .Over the years I have spent a fortune on socalled anti slug and pest gadgets and repelants but no more it's scissors for me from now on.Sometimes it's the simplest thing that work best.
No mercy for slugs around here. I use nasty metaldehyde pellets in places wildlife can't get to, organic pellets, beer traps, snipping with secateurs, slug nematodes, garlic spray, salt and any other inventive ideas folk come up with. I tried leaving it to nature for a couple of years and I'm not going back to having a devastated garden, or spending 3 months raising plants only to have them destroyed in a single night!
Even with the above full-blown assault, I still can't grow hostas. Good job I don't find them particularly attractive!
Copper rings, vaseline, eggshells, sharp grit (even tried crushed glass once) and a myriad of other 'slug deterrents', including expensive commercial ones have absolutely no detectable effect for me, unfortunately.
Do we 'clay gardeners' have more of a problem with slugs than other soil types? There's anecdotal evidence for this which I've read on various forums over the years, but I'd love to see an actual poll done.
Has anyone tried ' copper tape round the containers 'method. I was thinking of growing some lettuces this year with said method and also using them for tomato growing, as last year it was the first time ever, that the little blighters successfully nibbled through about 12 plants that had been replaced three times!!. Is it a tried and tested method.
My soil is very heavy and wet and yes, they are absolutely massive and there was alot of them last year, the like of which I have not seen before.. My parents soil is much lighter (they live a mile away at the top of the hill in our town, we live at the bottom in the Waveney valley) and they have hardly any.
My slugs were huge (clay soil) until I obliterated them with nematodes - they worked really well - no more slugs AT ALL - only snails now
and nothing short of stamping on them or chucking them over the wall into a disused garden works...
Huge slugs could be the Spanish slug, from which we are suffering an invasion:
http://www.independent.co.uk/environment/nature/plague-of-giant-spanish-superslugs-invade-britain-8139877.html
I've pre-ordered a nemaslug 'planned programme', so will be sent 6 lots of live nematodes at 6 week intervals. It's expensive but this is war!