I've recently tried slug pubs and I think I must have tee-total slugs here because it didn't work, not one little slimy horror was tempted. I remember my mum using them and it was really successful with my dad's home brew, so I guess John Smiths isn't good enough!
I've now gone back to using copper tape around a few pots and slug pellets in some of the pots themselves. I only bother on plants the slugs love to eat, and going out at night with a big bag of value salt I bought from sainsbury's for 20p! Last night they were going for my newly replanted salpiglossis seedlings so I put a ring of salt around it as a quick measure and it's stopped them being munched any further.
I also found trying to find where they live in the day useful. A lot of ours live under the shed and a few loose paving slabs (garden is a work in progress!) and putting slug pellets under the shed & stones really cut down the amount. They couldn't get out without being poisoned.
I hate, hate hate the little blighters, they are recking everything in my garden. Trouble is and I get very annoyed with myself I cant bring myself to kill them so I to will be out with the torch! Just how far away will I have to dump them though, I mean am I looking at a car journey!
Oh, how you have my sympathy, they are like a plague of locusts, eating everYthing they find and leaving the mess and devastation for you to clean up. My hubby finally lost the plot with the little blighters and now uses them for tennis practice into a large wild field next to our house. But the little blighters are like homing pigeons they just keep COMING BACK!!!!!!!
Slugs and snails are the main reason I have so many pots and containers now,and they are close to the house on concrete.This enables me to sprinkle a ring of salt between the house and the edge of the lawn.However,if just one escapes my snail hunt then the damage is done,hence the chewed cornflowers. I've now had to re-sow that tub and place it on my garden table.Now unless they can parachute onto the table,the latest seedlings should be safe.But the lengths we have to go to?
I've just planted three young Foxgloves down the garden but will have to come up with a plan. The salt method seems a bit risky on soil as if it rains,the very plants I'm trying to protect will be drinking salt water.There was an article in the daily mail the other day about the snail/slug epidemic this year and its blamed on such a mild winter.And where are the Song Thrushes I ask? There is a banquet waiting for them but no takers it seems...
Thanks for all the super replies. I loved idea of killing them in salt water. Rather sadistic I know but that's possibly because I've taken KT53 advice and drunk the beer instead of giving it to the slugs. I made a start in the boggy and shadiest part of the garden and spend some time training the boys (7 & 3) in the art of killing snails and slugs. Gosh! we did find some big ones particularly nestled comfortably on the underside of the primula candelabra leaves. Another 4 'slug pubs' have gone around the lupins, and I've rejuvenated the ones already in place with milk in case some of my slugs are also tee total.
Tonight watching Jack Bauer will have to wait, as I intend to be armed with a torch and a trug of salt water! The slugs will not win this time, they may have beaten me with hostas, but they are not having my lupins!
And where are the Song Thrushes I ask? There is a banquet waiting for them but no takers it seems...
Oh Fishy, I found a dead song thrush behind the compost bin. My guilt complex about sometimes using pellets set in immediately, but of course I then noticed the injuries and realised that our unwelcome feline visitor from next door had been at work - the thrush was in the area where he comes in and out. The slug pellets were in a netted area a long way away.
We don't have many slugs here, but snails in abundance. I sometimes wonder if I should find a French cookbook, some garlic, butter and parsley, and take my revenge that way! Obviously not a good idea to use any pellets if I ever did that.....
I'm sorry to hear about your Song Thrush Bee At least you're blameless though.There are few sounds more remarkable than a Song Thrush tapping a snail on a stone to crack the shell (unless you're a snail of course).
Yes try cooking the little blighters!! I wonder if the French have slug and snail problems.And weren't the big brown snails introduced to Britain by the Romans for food?
Has anyone tried Slug gone Wool Pellets? I thought they were absolutely brilliant until I saw a snail walk straight across it but 99% of the snails didnt like it at all and turned back. Think the lure of my sunflowers was enough for that brave soul to venture across!! I have also put some copper tape around my sunflowers. Fingers crossed
Posts
I've recently tried slug pubs and I think I must have tee-total slugs here because it didn't work, not one little slimy horror was tempted. I remember my mum using them and it was really successful with my dad's home brew, so I guess John Smiths isn't good enough!
I've now gone back to using copper tape around a few pots and slug pellets in some of the pots themselves. I only bother on plants the slugs love to eat, and going out at night with a big bag of value salt I bought from sainsbury's for 20p! Last night they were going for my newly replanted salpiglossis seedlings so I put a ring of salt around it as a quick measure and it's stopped them being munched any further.
I also found trying to find where they live in the day useful. A lot of ours live under the shed and a few loose paving slabs (garden is a work in progress!) and putting slug pellets under the shed & stones really cut down the amount. They couldn't get out without being poisoned.
Good luck with your fight! Horrible things.
I hate, hate hate the little blighters, they are recking everything in my garden. Trouble is and I get very annoyed with myself I cant bring myself to kill them so I to will be out with the torch! Just how far away will I have to dump them though, I mean am I looking at a car journey!
Oh, how you have my sympathy, they are like a plague of locusts, eating everYthing they find and leaving the mess and devastation for you to clean up. My hubby finally lost the plot with the little blighters and now uses them for tennis practice into a large wild field next to our house. But the little blighters are like homing pigeons they just keep COMING BACK!!!!!!!
I've just planted three young Foxgloves down the garden but will have to come up with a plan. The salt method seems a bit risky on soil as if it rains,the very plants I'm trying to protect will be drinking salt water.There was an article in the daily mail the other day about the snail/slug epidemic this year and its blamed on such a mild winter.And where are the Song Thrushes I ask? There is a banquet waiting for them but no takers it seems...
Horticultural grit around plants in the borders may help. Mix in some slug pellets as well and hopefully you'll get most of them.
Thanks for all the super replies. I loved idea of killing them in salt water. Rather sadistic I know but that's possibly because I've taken KT53 advice and drunk the beer instead of giving it to the slugs. I made a start in the boggy and shadiest part of the garden and spend some time training the boys (7 & 3) in the art of killing snails and slugs. Gosh! we did find some big ones particularly nestled comfortably on the underside of the primula candelabra leaves. Another 4 'slug pubs' have gone around the lupins, and I've rejuvenated the ones already in place with milk in case some of my slugs are also tee total.
Tonight watching Jack Bauer will have to wait, as I intend to be armed with a torch and a trug of salt water! The slugs will not win this time, they may have beaten me with hostas, but they are not having my lupins!
Yes try cooking the little blighters!! I wonder if the French have slug and snail problems.And weren't the big brown snails introduced to Britain by the Romans for food?
Has anyone tried Slug gone Wool Pellets? I thought they were absolutely brilliant until I saw a snail walk straight across it but 99% of the snails didnt like it at all and turned back. Think the lure of my sunflowers was enough for that brave soul to venture across!! I have also put some copper tape around my sunflowers. Fingers crossed