This Forum will close on Wednesday 27 March, 2024. Please refer to the announcement on the Discussions page for further detail.
Help! Slugs on my organic veg!
Lion 2
Posts: 3
in Fruit & veg
So, growing a complete organic system from seeds to soil in a raised bed. I have tried the following to keep the slugs and snails off: cooper tape ( worked well but now they just go up and over)
finely crushed shell: no effect
a stinky soup of garlic sprayed on everything (nope)
coffee grounds ( bingo...but only on squirrels...slugs are just 'meh')
going out late night and early morning to pick them off then banish them to the sin bin ( my neighbours think I'm nuts)
So, the kale and beetroot are disappearing, carrots and courgettes long gone.
any help or ideas great fully received, thanks in advance 
0
Posts
Nematodes?
Wildlife friendly slug pellets based on ferrous phosphate and not metaldehyde.
However, have to say that it hasn't saved my kohl rabi and half the salads and pak choi have been chomped too and they're all over the strawberries. Just too wet to keep up this year.
Last edited: 27 June 2016 20:14:28
Right, thanks for both suggestions, nematodes and organic pellets.
i think the weather is an issue, also my potatoes have flopped on to them. Ill give the ideas a bash; many thanks
Beer traps?
Lion 2
Have you got anything that's over hanging so they climb onto the veg? You could try clean cat litter, it does it for me most of the time,but the wet weather does not help
Last edited: 28 June 2016 08:03:49
small trays of beer placed in the raised bed. No more snails!
Wool pellets and copper rings have worked well for me. OH cut up strips of copper from an old water tank for the rings. Make sure they are quite wide - about 1.5 cm. The narrow ones he cut were useless.
Someone suggested sprinkling porrage oats around your precious plants, it seems they scoff it and the oats swells up inside themand they pop. Yuk Well it is organic...
id still say use slug pellets but away from your crop, you find it attracts the slugs and they die before get to your patch
working wonders away from my strawberries
In a raised bed make sure none are able to rest around the bottom as it makes for a shorter distance to your bed.
You can keep them off a raised bed by putting a 'lip' around the top as slugs aren't able to pull themselves over such a thing. So for example put tarpaulin along the top of your bed so it hangs out of bed by around 3/4 inches, they'll have no choice but to turn around.