Making Nematode Soup from Slugs
Trial-and-Error
Posts: 19
As I live next to a large, unkempt field, I have a heavy influx of slugs and snails into my garden. I have used slug pellets for very susceptible plants, but want to get away from pellets as they are not good for wildlife.
I've tried to find any info here on making your own nematode soup by collecting slugs/ snails and drowning them in a water bucket, but only found someone saying the nematode products on sale are quite pricey, which I agree with. I seem to remember someone (not necessarily on this website) saying that as the slugs and snails are infested with nematodes anyway, you could use them to make a nematode-rich soup that you can then water your patch with. The nematodes will kill the slugs (apparently because their concentration has increased in the soup).
Has anybody tried this? Do you only use slugs, or also snails for the soup?
I hate thinking of drowning the poor creatures, but also want to save my veg and plants from premature death.
Looking forward to your knowledgeable answers!
Posts
I've actually found the answer in this article by Toby Buckland:
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/gardening/gardeningequipment/8675592/The-war-on-slugs-starts-at-home.html
Hope this helps anybody with similar problems of slug infestation!
Edd posted that link some time back and I considered doing it, but managed to pretend I hadn't read it
Listen Again to today's Radio 2 Jeremy Vine gardening feature - there was a section on this very subject.
Gardening in Central Norfolk on improved gritty moraine over chalk ... free-draining.
Thank you all for your comments. Will check out the radio feature, Dove.
Pansyface, for 6 years, I have been doing exactly what you are suggesting: throwing the slugs and snails back into the field. But as I live on benefits (NOT enough to live on!) I cannot afford to have my veg plants being reduced to shreds before they have even had a chance at life. That's why I am now considering more extreme measures.
And if you have read the article by Toby Buckland, you will realise that the slugs are actually not meant to drown (as I assumed before reading the article). They live on a "floating island" of green leaves and just release the nematodes into the water. Once you use the water (diluted) for your garden, you can "recycle" the slugs and the greenery by using them as starters for the next soup - wildlife friendly!
I do make sure that every leopard slug I find stays where it is or gets a suitable new home, but can you really farm them? What do you do?
Looking forward to your reply.
Hahaha, Pansyface, I love the slug speed dating arrangement on the compost heap
! Might see if I can give my leopard slugs a hand in transporting them to their speed dating venue... Thanks for the tip!
Edd, it's great news that you have had so much success with the slug soup that you are actually running out of slugs! Very impressive. I will try that out, definitely! Thanks for sharing your experience.
I looked up our thread, Edd, but found there aren't any results of your trial! Have people not taken part enough or what was the outcome?
You could also dry fry the slugs and powder them spreading the resulting powder around beds stops other slugs from coming. A biodynamic recipe I obtained in Germany but you need a dedicated pan! Doesn't smell and does work.
Recipe collect slugs in jar with lid and leave for two days. Tip out into egg carton and burn them over wood fire in garden grill pan. Sieve ash and grind down then scatter around plants or border edges in square potagers. Acts as a deterrent and whilst pepper ash does not go far, a solution using 1part slug ash to nine parts diluting substance (ash or water) can then be ground and poured around plants.Kept in an airtight tin this dilution can be kept for several years.
burn them over wood fire in garden grill pan.
That will teach the little buggers to scoff our veg