bastard slugs are eating EVERYTHING this year! what won't they eat?

[cormsilkye]

bastard slugs and I suspect the snails are having a go as well
what plants do slugs not like to eat? I like cottage garden flowery types if that helps

[AlmostAHipster]

Salt :)

[cormsilkye]

I know but it seems so cruel - my mum always used to use it! Although I did plonk a few in a bucket of water earlier on....

[LadySybildeChocolate]

Have you tried putting a layer of straw under the plants/veg? This works really well for keeping them away from strawberries, so should work for other things. It's the damp weather, I'm afraid.

[Kveta]

they don't eat any slug bait apparently. or weeds. the bastards

[bigTillyMint]

Slug pellets Or collect them up after the rain and take them to the park!

[cormsilkye]

I've given up on the strawberries - they are all munched
I'll try putting straw around the plants they munch on most though - thanks for that

[sadnoonie]

Stupid question - where do you get the straw from? Going to do this next year as I would like some strawberries for us, not for the evil slimy munching bastards!

[cormsilkye]

I've got straw in already from pets at home - I'll use that

[LadySybildeChocolate]

The pet shop or garden centre. Snails and slugs hate it because the edges are sharp. I currently have a bird stealing the cherries off my tree. I'm going to string up some old cd's.

[sadnoonie]

Of course a pet shop!



Used to have a guinea pig and needed straw all the time. Damn you, baby brain!

[Cremolafoam]

Dahlias - gone
Sunflowers - munched now black stump
Gooseberries - eaten by vine weevils
Red currents - same
Found 17 slugs in a window box today- am teaching them to fly later

[GrimmaTheNome]

I don't think they eat lilies.

They leave those for the lily beetles... just started getting those this year.

[AdventuresWithVoles]

Beer traps. War over the strawberries is nearly done, for this year.
We've had a plummet in frog + toad numbers since DH moved the pond in 2009, I think they kept the slugs down previously. :(

[Aquelven]

There's not much they son't eat but they never touch aquelegias, lady's mantle, foxgloves. There are others but my mind's gone blank at the moment!

[Aquelven]

Won't not son't, sorry, rubbish typing.

[HumphreyCobbler]

bloody bastard slugs.

They are really getting on my nerves this year. There are thousands and thousands.

[Meglet]

Beer traps. Sink margarine tubs into the ground and pour a can in.

I use Sainsburys basics beer as it's dead cheap. It means I look like I have an alcohol problem when I buy it but it wipes the slugs out so I don't care.

[bettythebuilder]

they're a nightmare this year, I lost so many plants when we were on holiday in June and I couldn't go on snail patrol that I've resorted to the pellets. Garden was like the Land of the Living Dead Slug the next day yet still the plants are being eaten.
The garden is now so wet I even have a couple of frogs moved in, despite not having a pond, but they seem to be vegetarians- all they do is hop out on me unexpectedly when I'm weeding, but they are not being useful and eating the bloody slugs and snails!

[Willemdefoeismine]

Coffee grounds!

[NickyNackyNooNoo]

French marigolds are the answer, slugs hate them as do greenfly and aphids (is that spelt right?!) they also brighten things up

[bettythebuilder]

really, Willem? Just scatter them around the plants, or dig them into the soil? How often?

[Willemdefoeismine]

Well we always drink proper coffee and tip the cold grounds onto the soil around our cherished plants and it totally seems to work - you need to leave them lying on the soil though rather than digging them in....they don't like to slime over the grounds because they are rough!

Try it and see - quite an expensive solution though unless you drink real coffee anyway!

[AdventuresWithVoles]

Coffee tip is great, DH hates me putting it in compost anyway.

[Beamur]

We have severe slug/snail predation, so trial and error has shown they don't eat too much of - poppies, lobelia, geraniums and pelargoniums, lavender (although they will eat the flowers if they are allowed to) and verbena seem to do reasonably well in our garden. We have some other spreading perennials - heuchera? that they ignore too.
Slug traps work just as well with a bit of yeast, with a pinch of sugar and a large spoon of salt - it's the fermenting yeast smell they home in on.
I'm getting tough this year and kill on sight. I go hunting with secateurs in hand and snip them in half - they sometimes recover from salt.

[TheMysteryCat]

i posted this on a previous bastard slugs thread...

porridge!

i'm on one week of a slug free veg patch now, after having lost courgettes, marigolds, french beans, peas, tons of herbs and other flowers to the fuckers.

i've also salted, slung 'em over the fence (there is a slug splat on my neighbours wall and i'm not owning up!)

but, porridge is by far the best.