Our chickens love slugs. They go mad for them.I thought the salt disintergrated slugs? If you use a yoghurt pot full of cheap beer they will just fall in and then dispose of the pot?
I put them in an airtight container and then freeze them. Then I put the frozen slugs in the compost bin. My birds aren't particularly interested in slugs and a few times I've left dead snails out to be eaten only to find my dog rolling in it the next day. I also worry about him re lung worm so I put them in my closed bin. I've wondered if I could take the dead slugs down to the river to feed the ducks since they say we shouldn't give them bread but then I look at the container and don't so much feel like dealing with it. (Can't have a duck due to small garden and said dog.)
I probably shouldn't say this but when they are really really numerous, like in a very wet summer, I go around with the salt pot sprinkling salt on them. Otherwise I try to ignore them and grow things that aren't too susceptible. I can't bare to touch them or squash them and the idea of snipping them with scissors turns my stomach. I am not squeamish about many things but slugs...........well they are just totally gross.
I find the birds aren't really keen on them. I used to keep chickens and even they wouldn't touch the big really gross ones. I have heard ducks like them all but I have never had a pond big enough for ducks.
Based in Sussex, I garden to encourage as many birds to my garden as possible.
Some gardens - and mine is one of them - produce far more slugs than nature can deal with and leaving the bodies all over the garden would be too disgusting for words: where would you walk? I put them in salt water, which does not dissolve them, I am afraid, and then pour them down the drain. We have a manhole cover in our garden and I lift this enough to tip in the slugs.
Snails all over the lawn last month. Stomped on the lot, nothing but shells left next day. Same with slugs. We have a large fox population so maybe they're hoovering them up.
Redwing I know someone who uses salt too. But even she is struggling this year with her veg patch and keeps calling me really upset that the salt isn't working. I did try salt once and it didn't work at all.
Me I've been using Eraza pellets from JTF - they claim to be 5 times more effective but I haven't seen anymore dead slugs than with regular pellets TBH. The slime explosion evidence is there but I can hardly ever see the dead slugs. 2 or 3 max each time.
But re disposing if they are dead do you still have to chop them in half with scissors? I went with my scissors once to do this but like Redwing I just ... couldn't do it. I can just about pick up dead ones with gloves on. Or is it the alive ones you are cutting with scissors?
To Watery I'm sorry but do you really bag them up into the freezer? Why not just put them into the bin? Or was this a joke. I wouldn't want to feed ducks with slugs...I'm not sure what their natural food is though...
I do... but not in bags. In watertight containers like ice cream tubs or other things with a snap lid. It's to kill them first so they don't lay eggs in my compost bin or escape and go back into the garden. I read about it online somewhere or other. The slugs never touch anything else in the freezer. I don't use containers with lids that can just slip off. I think currently I'm using baking soda tubes with screw on lids and gum containers with a snap on lid. You could add a bag over that if you were really concerned. I think it is probably a more humane death than salt... and then it adds to compost and makes them useful, which you can't do that with salt on them. Beer works to drown them--collect and drown them. I don't like snipping them because the insides all ooze out.
Watery - so don't they die in the beer traps? Do you collect the alive ones and freeze them to kill them? I don't see the purpose of freezing them if they are already dead as they then wouldn't lay eggs or escape from the bin... ?
My highest count in a couple of hours is 404 got with the knife. Now we have 2 Hedgehogs and 3 tiny Hedgehogs (lets) so hope they can see lots off, along with the couple of Blackbird families in the daytime.
Oh for goodness sake! Chop them in half and leave them for something to eat them! It's organic , eco-friendly , quick and I assume painless. If I had a choice between being slowly dessicated or chopped in half, I would choose instant death by scissors..
Gardening isn't all about touchy feely nurturing, it's also about killing what we consider to be weeds and pests.
'If it were done, when tis done t'were we'll it were done quickly.'
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Our chickens love slugs. They go mad for them.I thought the salt disintergrated slugs? If you use a yoghurt pot full of cheap beer they will just fall in and then dispose of the pot?
Last edited: 31 July 2016 19:06:37
I put them in an airtight container and then freeze them. Then I put the frozen slugs in the compost bin. My birds aren't particularly interested in slugs and a few times I've left dead snails out to be eaten only to find my dog rolling in it the next day. I also worry about him re lung worm so I put them in my closed bin. I've wondered if I could take the dead slugs down to the river to feed the ducks since they say we shouldn't give them bread but then I look at the container and don't so much feel like dealing with it. (Can't have a duck due to small garden and said dog.)
I probably shouldn't say this but when they are really really numerous, like in a very wet summer, I go around with the salt pot sprinkling salt on them. Otherwise I try to ignore them and grow things that aren't too susceptible. I can't bare to touch them or squash them and the idea of snipping them with scissors turns my stomach. I am not squeamish about many things but slugs...........well they are just totally gross.
I find the birds aren't really keen on them. I used to keep chickens and even they wouldn't touch the big really gross ones. I have heard ducks like them all but I have never had a pond big enough for ducks.
Some gardens - and mine is one of them - produce far more slugs than nature can deal with and leaving the bodies all over the garden would be too disgusting for words: where would you walk? I put them in salt water, which does not dissolve them, I am afraid, and then pour them down the drain. We have a manhole cover in our garden and I lift this enough to tip in the slugs.
Snails all over the lawn last month. Stomped on the lot, nothing but shells left next day. Same with slugs. We have a large fox population so maybe they're hoovering them up.
Redwing I know someone who uses salt too. But even she is struggling this year with her veg patch and keeps calling me really upset that the salt isn't working. I did try salt once and it didn't work at all.
Me I've been using Eraza pellets from JTF - they claim to be 5 times more effective but I haven't seen anymore dead slugs than with regular pellets TBH. The slime explosion evidence is there but I can hardly ever see the dead slugs. 2 or 3 max each time.
But re disposing if they are dead do you still have to chop them in half with scissors? I went with my scissors once to do this but like Redwing I just ... couldn't do it. I can just about pick up dead ones with gloves on. Or is it the alive ones you are cutting with scissors?
To Watery I'm sorry but do you really bag them up into the freezer? Why not just put them into the bin? Or was this a joke. I wouldn't want to feed ducks with slugs...I'm not sure what their natural food is though...
Last edited: 01 August 2016 00:16:10
I do... but not in bags. In watertight containers like ice cream tubs or other things with a snap lid. It's to kill them first so they don't lay eggs in my compost bin or escape and go back into the garden. I read about it online somewhere or other. The slugs never touch anything else in the freezer. I don't use containers with lids that can just slip off. I think currently I'm using baking soda tubes with screw on lids and gum containers with a snap on lid. You could add a bag over that if you were really concerned. I think it is probably a more humane death than salt... and then it adds to compost and makes them useful, which you can't do that with salt on them. Beer works to drown them--collect and drown them. I don't like snipping them because the insides all ooze out.
Watery - so don't they die in the beer traps? Do you collect the alive ones and freeze them to kill them? I don't see the purpose of freezing them if they are already dead as they then wouldn't lay eggs or escape from the bin... ?
My highest count in a couple of hours is 404 got with the knife. Now we have 2 Hedgehogs and 3 tiny Hedgehogs (lets)
so hope they can see lots off, along with the couple of Blackbird families in the daytime.
Oh for goodness sake! Chop them in half and leave them for something to eat them! It's organic , eco-friendly , quick and I assume painless. If I had a choice between being slowly dessicated or chopped in half, I would choose instant death by scissors..
Gardening isn't all about touchy feely nurturing, it's also about killing what we consider to be weeds and pests.
'If it were done, when tis done t'were we'll it were done quickly.'
Last edited: 01 August 2016 23:05:16