Slugs and snails needing new homes - no reasonable offer refused

[Fragglewump]

I'm a fledgling gardener - literally planting random stuff and hoping it works. So far when my teenagers 'helped' me to transplant some seedlings (preferable to hiding in their bedrooms) they crushed several butternut squash stems and the plants withered and died. Then I snapped the stem of one of my beans and once I'd planted out my pumpkin it started blowing a hooley and broke the stem clean in half (I shoved it back in the soil in the vain hope that it might root and grow??)
Yesterday we noticed that one of our plants had 6 snails on it.........so we went out and collected as many as we could see - around 20 + and put them in the bin. It was a grim job and I'm livid that they are eating my new veg but also I don't like the idea of killing them. So if anyone would like to receive a bumper pack of snails and slugs just pm me your address and they will be on their way! or just tell me the best way to get rid of the blighters! oh and slugs......they are even worse - slimey, squishy, soil coloured creatures that are hard to spot and don't have a convenient hard shell to pick them up by.....bleurgh!

[shovetheholly]

Nematodes may be the invisible microorganism friends you are looking for!

They are little buggers this time of year. The average garden apparently has something like 20,000 of them . So there may be a few left to put in the bin.

[Fragglewump]

What??? 20,000 slugs and snails? double and triple bluergh! Where do I buy these nematodes you speak of?

[CMOTDibbler]

Bring them round to mine - the chickens will be delighted! They've eaten all the ones in our garden.

But nematodes do work - my parents used to get them from Green Gardener and swore by them

[Fragglewump]

CMOTDibbler - I'm happy to put some in the post - wouldn't want to see the chickens go hungry!

[longdiling]

Blegh, we have more than enough thanks! Nematodes have been ordered. Last year when we first moved in to this house the slug population was out of control, they were coming in the house through every nook and cranny and everything I planted got eaten. My dh went out for a couple of weeks and collected them and one night he got 200 of the buggers!!

[shovetheholly]

I've got some I can send to you too CMOT!!

Imagine describing to the post office what was in the parcel!!

You can also buy nematodes on ebay I think. Worth checking that they are the right kind for slugs, as I believe there are many species.

[longdiling]

Apparently collecting them like this can help.get the population under control though. Go out in the evening with a bucket and a head torch and show them who's boss!!

[Lunar1]

I was going to offer the use of my chickens too! Only problem is they also like the plants the creatures are attached to!

[CMOTDibbler]

Yes, we don't have plants since the chickens moved in. But I love seeing them freeranging, and am not a keen gardener! Its funny to see them fighting over a juicy slug

[Scone1nSixtySeconds]

CMOT, could i borrow your chickens to teach mine that slugs and snails are yummy?!

[Fragglewump]

Can anyone offer suggestions about the best way to get the slugs into the bucket? I tried to pick one up yesterday and was nearly sick. Shaking the plant or trying to flick it didn't work either - those grim beggars must have slime made out of superglue! I have considered chickens - but there is a very cocky fox that ambles across the field at the back of our house everyday so I think he would be as happy about me keeping chickens as the slugs and snails are about me growing vegetables!

[longdiling]

Thick gardening gloves are what my dad and dh used. I would need some kind of barge pool to poke them in with

[CMOTDibbler]

Scone, they'd be delighted! They like mice too - the cat brings them dead ones. Where shall I post them?

[Scone1nSixtySeconds]

Ah, we have the cat/mouse/shrew/chicken carnivorous circle too!

Its just bloody snails (we have the big roman ones) and slugs they don't like!

[Scone1nSixtySeconds]

Beer traps are the best thing for catching them (being serious now) make a hole to bury a cup or bowl, fill with v.cheap beer - not lager - and retreat.

Then tip the boozed up drownees into the green bin while trying not to throw up

[Fragglewump]

Oh crap - so if I want my veg to survive I have to touch them whilst wearing a head torch.......are they nocturnal? Maybe a plant label could act as a device to flick them into something? or drown them in beer to create a slimy frothy slug soup......can I call in the professionals?

[Scone1nSixtySeconds]

Honestly the slug soup isn't totally awful, especially if you bury something deep and not top wide. At least you dont have to touch them - just pour it all out!

My dc love this job and i pay them 10p a time to empty and refill. Bargain!

[Lighteningirll]

I have slug traps in my veg beds I buy the cheapest ale in Lidl they love it. I also use nematodes you can get a six week repeating order so you don't need to remember it does kill them quite horribly so best not to read up on that. I also do dawn patrol so it's a three pronged attack at Lightening Towers. I scoop email up with a trowel and put them in a pot with slug pellets then bag and bin got about 200 this morning but far far less in the half of the garden I had used the nematodes in.

[Fragglewump]

Okay I'm going in.......well more accurately out to find any slimey critters in the garden. Gadzooks the idea of putting a sealed bag of mixed slugs and snails in the freezer is revolting! I'll report back with the toll.

[MadSprocker]

No delphiniums here due to slugs, sob.

[Lighteningirll]

Told dh about this thread (and complained that I had lost a baby courgette plant to slugs) and he has cut an old copper water cylinder into strips and created a barrier around the new baby corvette, apparently slugs won't cross copper? So I now have a fourfold attack plan probably not that useful unless you've just had a new water cylinder fitted........

[shovetheholly]

There are BATALLIONS of slugs in my garden after the rain. I have never seen so many. It is a bit like a very slow moving Hitchcock film.

[RomComPhooey]

I'm a crap gardener so my 'share' is something I heard on radio 4, which is that snails can find their way home. It was an interview with an academic biologist who had been lobbing hers over a garden wall onto a neighbouring public footpath, but had become suspicious about returnees & started putting coloured paint on them befor lobbing - and sure enough, they were coming back. So kill, kill, kill.