I went out last night to try and see what was eating my sunflowers and clematis......and will probably start on the Busy Lizzie. I expected to find big slugs but couldn't find any...not one!!
So I looked a little closer, I knew something was somewhere as I could see trail marks. I found a tiny snail, really small, and then about 6 tiny slugs, again really small (babies?) slugs, I've never seen them so small. It just goes to show that we think it's the big ones that do all the damage when in fact it's these tiny little things that have been munching away on my sunflowers etc!!!
That video was horrific those monsters can go anywhere. The weird thing is how they do different things in different gardens. Ighten, my aquilegia leaves are manna for the snails, they are always munching them, although thankfully the damage to the plant overall is minimal.
I think you must be right Philippa......I love my Marestail, hope they don't get that
The lady on GW last Friday said that slugs don't like Aquilegias. Although I'm sure someone also said the other week that they only eat leaves anyway.....but they have been at my clematis flower
Try Nemasys slug & snail nematodes which destroy gastropods from the inside and other animals eating them are not affected. I had an infestation of vine weevil grubs that were destroying all my seedlings when they were about 1.1/2" high by just eating the roots off. One application of Nemasys vine weevil treatment and problem ceased to exist. I'm guessing I will need to do another treatment in a few months time but it is worth it.
I went out last night to check on my slug traps and they were actually writhing with tiny slugs. You couldn't see the plastic pot there were so many. It was like a horror movie. I was tempted to take a photo to put on here, but it was making me feel sick . I bought 3 Aquilegias last year because they were supposedly slug proof. last year they nibbled them to a tiny stump and this year they have eaten any flowering stems, buds and petals.
Gastropods-a-gogo here in coastal Pembs have developed a 'taste' for the new potato crop! I grow my earlies in multiple black buckets and lately the little blighters have been felling the haulms in foot-long lengths!! They are aiming for a balanced diet as they are also sampling the climbing, dwarf French and Runer beans too! What are we to do? At this rate there'll hardly be any substantial crops (& s/naff-all to put into the freezer...). Woe!!
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I went out last night to try and see what was eating my sunflowers and clematis......and will probably start on the Busy Lizzie. I expected to find big slugs but couldn't find any...not one!!
So I looked a little closer, I knew something was somewhere as I could see trail marks. I found a tiny snail, really small, and then about 6 tiny slugs, again really small (babies?) slugs, I've never seen them so small. It just goes to show that we think it's the big ones that do all the damage when in fact it's these tiny little things that have been munching away on my sunflowers etc!!!
By the time they get big they've aleady done most of the damage. Still satisfying to kill them though!
That video was horrific those monsters can go anywhere. The weird thing is how they do different things in different gardens. Ighten, my aquilegia leaves are manna for the snails, they are always munching them, although thankfully the damage to the plant overall is minimal.
My Aquilegias are untouched too and strangely my Delphiniums,I always thought slugs loved Delphs.
I think you must be right Philippa......I love my Marestail, hope they don't get that
The lady on GW last Friday said that slugs don't like Aquilegias. Although I'm sure someone also said the other week that they only eat leaves anyway.....but they have been at my clematis flower
*slither*...*creep*....hacked fishy65's account....*crawl* munch,munch,munch
Try Nemasys slug & snail nematodes which destroy gastropods from the inside and other animals eating them are not affected. I had an infestation of vine weevil grubs that were destroying all my seedlings when they were about 1.1/2" high by just eating the roots off. One application of Nemasys vine weevil treatment and problem ceased to exist. I'm guessing I will need to do another treatment in a few months time but it is worth it.
I went out last night to check on my slug traps and they were actually writhing with tiny slugs. You couldn't see the plastic pot there were so many. It was like a horror movie. I was tempted to take a photo to put on here, but it was making me feel sick
. I bought 3 Aquilegias last year because they were supposedly slug proof. last year they nibbled them to a tiny stump and this year they have eaten any flowering stems, buds and petals. 
Gastropods-a-gogo here in coastal Pembs have developed a 'taste' for the new potato crop! I grow my earlies in multiple black buckets and lately the little blighters have been felling the haulms in foot-long lengths!! They are aiming for a balanced diet as they are also sampling the climbing, dwarf French and Runer beans too! What are we to do? At this rate there'll hardly be any substantial crops (& s/naff-all to put into the freezer...). Woe!!