Slugs and toddlers

[PrettyCandles]

Any tips for controlling one without harming the other?

[Chaotica]

No -- I know of no way to stop DD rampaging around without letting her spend a quiet few minutes eating slugs and snails...

(Sorry -- but you did ask... Actually, I'd like an answer to the question too as I spent some of yesterday evening ambushing slugs with a salt pot in hand.)

[CatIsSleepy]

well our singularly crap strategy is just to go around picking them off the plants and flinging them over the fence

dd likes 'playing' with snails-the results of this can be pretty gross though

[PrettyCandles]

The thing is that they're rarely visible during the day, unless I lift the membrane, yet they devour the garden at night.

I don't have the heart to chuck them into my neighbours' gardens - we're on good terms with them and don't want to spoil it!

Does the salt thing really work? Is the salt not poisonous for the ground?

[solo]

Beer in a shallow dish.

Dry porridge oats I think, but not sure, I think they eat them and then the oats swell up and...YUK!

[blousy]

I go out every night armed with torch to pick the feckers off everything but still they have eaten all of my lupins, lettuce, parsley and some other stuff that I don't know the names of.
I have been out and bought slug pellets in a fit of pique. Never used them before and now feel guilty.

[PrettyCandles]

Oh, beer, that's an idea! I could put it out in the evening, and hide it in the toolshed before I let the LOs out of their cage again.

[CatIsSleepy]

well just in case you think I'm chucking them into my neighbours' garden-I'm not
they go over the back fence into the lane behind our garden

my dad used to sink jamjars of home-made wine into the ground to catch slugs and snails
worked a treat, only problem was you then had a jar of the pickled beasties to dispose of

[PrettyCandles]

Look what I found.

[ChirpyGirl]

My mum told me to put garlic water around the area you want them to stay away from (I only have containers in my garden)
I have ajar with a couple of cloves of garlic and water in and put a small amount in the can and water the ground at night. it works on the nights I remember to do it

Cant deal with any method that involves intentionally looking for them or touching them

[PrettyCandles]

Your mum may have something there...I planted quite a lot of garlics last year, and the slugs seem to have left them alone.

[ChirpyGirl]

You are supposed to plant onions or garlic around plants you want saving, but as I only have a load of pots it wasn't practical, so that's where she got it from.
Stinks to high heaven though, I keep the jar outside as if you open it inside it smells like something has died!

[fishie]

i pick them up and take them far away, or execute by stomping (snail) cutting in half (slug). i think they may have homing abilities, over the back fence not be enough.

don't use slug pellets they are really awful and my guinea pigs got poisoned by them

[PrettyCandles]

Some of the plants that the slugs are chomping are planted between the garlics. I must have Superslugs!

[Takver]

If you have the space, time and inclination then the only dead cert solution to slugs that I know of is a team of Khaki Campbell ducks. I have never seen them try to eat a toddler although they will steal sandwiches from tinies given half a chance.
They need be pure bred KCs as other types of ducks will eat your veggies. The KCs will eat peas (they go for protein - hence the slugs), but easily solved by growing climbing vars that they can't reach.
They are good layers - slugs turned into eggs, what more could you want. It really does work, we are in wet west wales, and I can sow lettuce et al direct in the garden without any problems at all.

[PrettyCandles]

Wow!

However, I lack all three of the requirements.

[fruitstick]

I have often been seen skulking round the garden at night with a jar of salt.

I tried mixing a hefty dose of salt in with some vaseline and then smearing the lot round the top of my pots. It seems to have done the trick so far.

Beer also works well but I'm sure some of the buggers are teetotal. Someone told me to put some oats down in a pile and then sneak out at midnight to pick them all up.

Up to you where you fling them.

[BurpyErnie]

We had slug pellets that were crystals so when you put them down you couldn't see them. they were bloody useless! Now I'm all for big massive blue slug pellets and yelling constantly about poison at my DD. seems to be working my flowers look great and my DD hasn't eaten any slug pellets. I do feel bad about killing the snails though.

[BurpyErnie]

What I want to know is how to stop the cats next door from shitting in my garden and digging up my sweet peas?

[snotbuster]

My Dad says that my grandad used to bring hedgehogs home to live in the garden as a slug control measure. Not sure where you'd get a hedgehog from or whether it would be legal to rehome it - but would be very toddler proof! (Though toddlers probably arn't very hedgehog proof)
My DS has recently outgrown his fascination with what he used to call "lugs and nails" but we still have plenty of them, unfortunately.

[Mojomummy]

hedgehogs eat slugs, but if you put down slug pellets & the hedgehogs eat the slugs, all die a horrible death

We put copper tape round our pots & that's working a treat.

[PrettyCandles]

We built a hedgehog house last winter, but, although I'm fairly sure that I have found hedgehog poo in the garden from time to time, it doesn't appear to have been colonised. Despite the plentiful supply of slugs! Hedgehogs do like slugs pickled in beer, though, so once I've got a few slug pubs up and running maybe they'll come flocking to feast.

To get rid of cats in your garden, or at least to stop them pooing there, get a regular supply of Silent Roar.