Just a thought: do slugs and snails feel pain? I know I'm two-faced - I use blue slug pellets regularly. But the "pain issue" does bother me......I certainly couldn 't cut them up with scissors and I couldn't crush a snail with my foot.
if you have issues "removing" them just think of the situation like this for the pain, of them like a dog been given the "sleep" injection and go to sleep all naturally and pain free (obviously this is fictional and not fact based and only a way to help you deal with your problem)
Think I'll stick to pellets, egg shells, gravel and a few other lazy gardening idea's to keep the slug/sanil population down rather than trying to launch them into orbit in the hope they'll land 300ft away
I'd have thought being cut in two, or quickly despatched with a big boot would be less painful than being poisoned by pellets. Not sure whether there's any research on how long it takes a slug to die after ingesting pellets. Anybody know? Happily I have frogs, newts, hedgehogs, birds and beetles that take care of any visiting slugs and snails......one very canny frog has taken up residence under a large hosta....happy frog, healthy hosta
I'm pretty sure slugs and snails don't feel pain. They don't have a central nervous system, and I think probably all they experience is existing or not exisiting (if that). If I find live snails I stamp on them, which means it's all over in a spit second. Slugs I either drown in salt water or throw into the compost heap or the "brown bin", or take away from the garden altogether.
I do put pellets down near susceptible plants (especially this Spring, as all this dampness encourages them) but I also try to patrol the area and remove dead slugs and snails regularly, just in case a bird decided to eat them.
We do have plenty of "wild" areas in our garden where the birds will still find lots to eat, so I don't think I'm depriving them of a significant food source. There are very few hedgehogs in our area, but I think this has more to do with a heavy badger presence than with the use of slug pellets. That, however, is another issue...
Somewhere on a message board I read that you should start the pellet treatment from mid-February - use Valentine's Day 14 February as a reminder and scatter the pellets every 10 days to two weeks from then onwards. I did it and it seems to have worked - I've had very few slugs and snails this year. I think starting so early catches them before they start breeding.
I would definitely recommend this method. I can't kill them directly - just looking at them makes my stomach heave!
I have just come in from a quick potter in the garden and got so cross I have just collected a bucket load of snails and put them in a bucket of water and drowned them!!!
all 4 cucumber plants have had thier stems chewed through, all my runner beans have gone and I have lot countless sunflowers. My hollyhocks and hosta are shreaded and all my cosmo seedlings have just vanished!!!
When its this wet, its so hard to keep them at bay, pellets what ever type dont last long, beer just dilutes, gravel - I have never had that much success, coffee grounds etc wash away.
I couldn't bring my self to use scissors and the noise of the shell under foot goes right through me.
funny as I have no issue with stamping on vine weevil grubs and lily beetlesmaybe its the added squish factor
I do start early in the year with the pellets - but I think this year we are fighting a loosing battle
please forgive me if iv done this one before as im finding replying difficult on my new pc anyway,for slugs in the midlands we used to get the slops from our local pub and place jam jars or cut down plastic bottles in the ground ,the beer is poured into the jars and the slugs climb in and die very happy ,might not get them all but see how the jars fill up cheers
Posts
Just a thought: do slugs and snails feel pain? I know I'm two-faced - I use blue slug pellets regularly. But the "pain issue" does bother me......I certainly couldn 't cut them up with scissors and I couldn't crush a snail with my foot.
if you have issues "removing" them just think of the situation like this for the pain, of them like a dog been given the "sleep" injection and go to sleep all naturally and pain free (obviously this is fictional and not fact based and only a way to help you deal with your problem)
hope it helps
Think I'll stick to pellets, egg shells, gravel and a few other lazy gardening idea's to keep the slug/sanil population down rather than trying to launch them into orbit in the hope they'll land 300ft away
Garlic Wash. Works wonderfully!
I'd have thought being cut in two, or quickly despatched with a big boot would be less painful than being poisoned by pellets. Not sure whether there's any research on how long it takes a slug to die after ingesting pellets. Anybody know?
Happily I have frogs, newts, hedgehogs, birds and beetles that take care of any visiting slugs and snails......one very canny frog has taken up residence under a large hosta....happy frog, healthy hosta
I'm pretty sure slugs and snails don't feel pain. They don't have a central nervous system, and I think probably all they experience is existing or not exisiting (if that). If I find live snails I stamp on them, which means it's all over in a spit second. Slugs I either drown in salt water or throw into the compost heap or the "brown bin", or take away from the garden altogether.
I do put pellets down near susceptible plants (especially this Spring, as all this dampness encourages them) but I also try to patrol the area and remove dead slugs and snails regularly, just in case a bird decided to eat them.
We do have plenty of "wild" areas in our garden where the birds will still find lots to eat, so I don't think I'm depriving them of a significant food source. There are very few hedgehogs in our area, but I think this has more to do with a heavy badger presence than with the use of slug pellets. That, however, is another issue...
On the danger to hedgehogs-it does say that they have to eat around 5000 poisoned slugs to have any effect
http://www.wildlife-web.org.uk/hedgehog/facts/dangers.html
Somewhere on a message board I read that you should start the pellet treatment from mid-February - use Valentine's Day 14 February as a reminder and scatter the pellets every 10 days to two weeks from then onwards. I did it and it seems to have worked - I've had very few slugs and snails this year. I think starting so early catches them before they start breeding.
I would definitely recommend this method. I can't kill them directly - just looking at them makes my stomach heave!
I have just come in from a quick potter in the garden and got so cross I have just collected a bucket load of snails and put them in a bucket of water and drowned them!!!
all 4 cucumber plants have had thier stems chewed through, all my runner beans have gone and I have lot countless sunflowers.
My hollyhocks and hosta are shreaded and all my cosmo seedlings have just vanished!!!
When its this wet, its so hard to keep them at bay, pellets what ever type dont last long, beer just dilutes, gravel - I have never had that much success, coffee grounds etc wash away.
I couldn't bring my self to use scissors and the noise of the shell under foot goes right through me.
funny as I have no issue with stamping on vine weevil grubs and lily beetlesmaybe its the added squish factor
I do start early in the year with the pellets - but I think this year we are fighting a loosing battle
please forgive me if iv done this one before as im finding replying difficult on my new pc anyway,for slugs in the midlands we used to get the slops from our local pub and place jam jars or cut down plastic bottles in the ground ,the beer is poured into the jars and the slugs climb in and die very happy ,might not get them all but see how the jars fill up cheers