Given the scale of the problem I think I'm with David K and Geoff on this one. Sometimes you have to use chemicals to get things back in balance. The most effective stuff I ever used was a drench called "Slug It" many years ago - don't know whether it is still available.
The best long term solution is the encourage wildlife one, but that takes a lot of time.
i have used nematodes for the past few years to protect hostas, delphiniums and other 'slug favourites' with great success - applied via a watering can only around the vulnerable plants
More expensive than slug pellets and repeat applications are necessary every 6-8 weeks or so.
Available only online i believe from places like Unwins, Garden Naturally, Green Gradener - they are not stocked in garden centres because they are a living organism with a 'use by' date
The ivy is probably a place that snails will 'snooze' in during the day. Regular searches & stamping on any found is one option I suppose.
Nemaslug, nematodes, only tend to work on slugs I thought.
Growing treasures in pots, on pot feet & with copper tape around the pot rim does help. You can also get copper rings- supplied as strips- to put around vunerable plants when they are young & planted in the ground. Yes quite expensive to purchase initially, but can be reused every year.
Cheap porridge oats or bran regularly placed around vunerable plants also helps- but it does need replacing after rain!
Indirectly have discovered that crusts of Burgen soya & linseed loaf is a slug magnet! Put some out for the birds & they didnt get a look in- I did a lot of stamping on the slugs! J.
I have a similar problem, having recently moved into a new house built on ground uncultivated for about 100 years! I do a morning hunt with a plant pot lined with kitchen roll and salt, they don't like that!!! I've also started keeping my coffee grounds and egg shells which I place around vulnerable plants (in my case mostly veg at the mo), along with beer traps laced with salt, a sprinkling of slug pellets and a dosing of Nemaslug!!! As you can guess, I'm going for total, all out, nucleur attack! Apparently, growing alliums around vulnerable plants also puts them off which is probably why my beetroot and kale are doing well, whilst my french beans are being decimated.
When we moved here here last year the garden was completely surrounded by ivy about 8'high and the same across - it had obviously been even more rampant in the past as the remains of it are on the eaves of the house! We'd been here a week when the weight of the ivy brought the fences crashing down in heavy rain. Although we had been loathe to remove it because of its value to wildlife we were left with no alternative; we dug it out and had the garden refenced. While digging it out we found thousands of snails and got to know our resident hedgehog. Most of the snails disappeared (birds, toads and hedgehogs) and we have dug out the ivy roots and are replanting the beds and borders with other wildlife friendly plants and shrubs (but not ivy - we promised the neighbours we would not plant ivy - it had invaded their garden too!). I've planted hostas (Sum & Substance and Blue Angel - fairly tough leaves and not as attractive to slugs, apparently) and delphiniums amongst other plants, and so far we've not had any slug damage - I'm hopeful that the fact that we've got a slightly gritty soil means that they'll survive. We feed our hedgehog a little hedgehog food every evening in the hope that he'll stay around even if there are fewer snails.
There are plants that are less attractive to the marauding snails that live in your ivy - but all plants will need protecting from them when they're young and tender- if I were you I'd get a bag of grit and surround new plants with a mulch of it - we've got a bag of builder's coarse sand waiting for the builder to return, if a slug so much as looks at my hostas I'll be sprinkling a layer of that around them - good luck.
Gardening in Central Norfolk on improved gritty moraine over chalk ... free-draining.
Hi for the first time ever slugs and snails are demolishing a large ivy plant in my garden?? I thought they didnt eat the ivy before?? Why is this happening all of a sudden????
There are lots of different types pf slugs etc, it might be one that is new tp your garden, it could be worth identifying it. Sorry for the stupid question but are ypu sure its slugs and snails?
Posts
'no weird solutions'....I suppose it's down to what suits the individual.
Given the scale of the problem I think I'm with David K and Geoff on this one. Sometimes you have to use chemicals to get things back in balance. The most effective stuff I ever used was a drench called "Slug It" many years ago - don't know whether it is still available.
The best long term solution is the encourage wildlife one, but that takes a lot of time.
I've always used slug pellets and also have owned cats with no problem (for the cats).
i too do not like or have ever used slug pellets, i must admit a few of my plants have holes and some types of plants i carnt grow.
i had some sandstones at the back of the border and this is where they used to hide.
find out where they hide usally somwhere dry and get em. i still carnt crush them so i put them in my bin, they quite like it in there.
i have used nematodes for the past few years to protect hostas, delphiniums and other 'slug favourites' with great success - applied via a watering can only around the vulnerable plants
More expensive than slug pellets and repeat applications are necessary every 6-8 weeks or so.
Available only online i believe from places like Unwins, Garden Naturally, Green Gradener - they are not stocked in garden centres because they are a living organism with a 'use by' date
The ivy is probably a place that snails will 'snooze' in during the day. Regular searches & stamping on any found is one option I suppose.
Nemaslug, nematodes, only tend to work on slugs I thought.
Growing treasures in pots, on pot feet & with copper tape around the pot rim does help. You can also get copper rings- supplied as strips- to put around vunerable plants when they are young & planted in the ground. Yes quite expensive to purchase initially, but can be reused every year.
Cheap porridge oats or bran regularly placed around vunerable plants also helps- but it does need replacing after rain!
Indirectly have discovered that crusts of Burgen soya & linseed loaf is a slug magnet! Put some out for the birds & they didnt get a look in- I did a lot of stamping on the slugs! J.
I have a similar problem, having recently moved into a new house built on ground uncultivated for about 100 years! I do a morning hunt with a plant pot lined with kitchen roll and salt, they don't like that!!! I've also started keeping my coffee grounds and egg shells which I place around vulnerable plants (in my case mostly veg at the mo), along with beer traps laced with salt, a sprinkling of slug pellets and a dosing of Nemaslug!!! As you can guess, I'm going for total, all out, nucleur attack! Apparently, growing alliums around vulnerable plants also puts them off which is probably why my beetroot and kale are doing well, whilst my french beans are being decimated.
When we moved here here last year the garden was completely surrounded by ivy about 8'high and the same across - it had obviously been even more rampant in the past as the remains of it are on the eaves of the house! We'd been here a week when the weight of the ivy brought the fences crashing down in heavy rain. Although we had been loathe to remove it because of its value to wildlife we were left with no alternative; we dug it out and had the garden refenced. While digging it out we found thousands of snails and got to know our resident hedgehog. Most of the snails disappeared (birds, toads and hedgehogs) and we have dug out the ivy roots and are replanting the beds and borders with other wildlife friendly plants and shrubs (but not ivy - we promised the neighbours we would not plant ivy - it had invaded their garden too!). I've planted hostas (Sum & Substance and Blue Angel - fairly tough leaves and not as attractive to slugs, apparently) and delphiniums amongst other plants, and so far we've not had any slug damage - I'm hopeful that the fact that we've got a slightly gritty soil means that they'll survive. We feed our hedgehog a little hedgehog food every evening in the hope that he'll stay around even if there are fewer snails.
There are plants that are less attractive to the marauding snails that live in your ivy - but all plants will need protecting from them when they're young and tender- if I were you I'd get a bag of grit and surround new plants with a mulch of it - we've got a bag of builder's coarse sand waiting for the builder to return, if a slug so much as looks at my hostas I'll be sprinkling a layer of that around them - good luck.
Gardening in Central Norfolk on improved gritty moraine over chalk ... free-draining.
Hi for the first time ever slugs and snails are demolishing a large ivy plant in my garden?? I thought they didnt eat the ivy before?? Why is this happening all of a sudden????