Anyone else feel guilty killing slugs?

[Mirroredas198]

I mean it’s ridiculous isn’t it!

I was in the garden last night, waiting for the dog to do her business. Loads of massive slugs crawling about, I had a poo bag in hand and picked them all up and threw them in the big. I’m now imagining the horrible death they’re going to have. Do slugs have feelings?!

They are my direct competitors for my veg.

They can feck the feck off, and keep fecking off some more until they are in the weeds where they are more than welcome to help themselves.

If they can’t do that they deserve to get stomped on my my welly.

No way do I feel bad about a bloody thug that steals my plants! Slugs are lucky anyway as they taste so gross other animals dont want to eat them! I put down poison pellets for slugs and snails. If I didn't I would have absolutely nothing left!

I put them in a bucket and then rehome them in the field at the end of the lane.

Someone told me they home like pigeons and will come back, but I figure it will take them a while and hope they won't be arsed.

Many animals including hedgehogs, badgers, foxes and birds do eat slugs.

If those slugs have eaten your poison pellets then the poison is passed up the food chain and other animals will be harmed. You are probably killing wildlife with those pellets.

www.shropshirewildlifetrust.org.uk/sites/default/files/2021-02/Pesticides%20and%20Slug%20Pellets.pdf

I hope not. They are the sluggo ones.
But how else can I stop them? I don't really want to use poison!

Tell that to my cat who regularly brings them in the house and chews and discards (maybe they are gross after all if he doesn’t swallow them) then walks around with slug residue around his mouth 🤢🤢🤢 I absolutely despise the disgusting creatures they make me feel physically sick I have a phobia of them (slugs not cats).

Yes and snails even more so. I struggle to use the strimmer because I know the areas I need to strim are whee snails live.

In the past I've got my husband to collect up all the visible snails in a bucket and taken them down to a local neglected nature area.

I read something years ago snails will travel back up to 25 metres so throwing them over the fence won't help!

I do the same with snails.
Snails home up to 25 metres, not sure about slugs but 'd assume similar to be sure.

@DiscoBob From what I understand the chemicals in Sluggo can accumulate and cause harm if eaten. Have you tried Nemaslug? That really works and does no harm.

I'm a gardener by trade and I have found the best methods are to grow things slugs don't like and to go around at dusk picking the slugs and snails off.

Yes. I use beer traps (horribly effective) and natural sheep's wool pellets to keep them at bay.

I also water first thing in the morning once the slugs are in bed. I try really hard to not make my plants a slug target. Would never use poison as it messes up the food chain and I have a hedgehog. I saw the magpies picking the dead slugs out of the beer traps last year 🤢. This could explain our thriving, and noisy, magpie population.

Haha. My cats wouldn't go near a slug! I guess that's good if I've been poisoning them! I have to say I haven't really seen any this year so far. Only snails. Long may it last!

Thank you. Yeah I don't want to use really bad poison but sluggo was recommended as the most effective. I'll try the brand you mentioned. Presumably works on snails also?

Yes and that's why I don't do it, they're living creatures who play a part in our environment. Plenty of natural, uncruel ways to deal with them .

www.bbcwildlife.org.uk/gardeners-guide-slugs-snails#:~:text=Slugs%20and%20snails%20are%20very,in%20particular%20thrive%20on%20them!

@BeamMeUpCountMeIn I'd give you the laughs emoji but we can't be trusted with it appropriately

It must be horrible to have to go through your life basically looking exactly like a slithering slimy turd.

I'm surprised that Thrushes apparently thrive on slugs. I've seen them eat snails often but ignore slugs. Even hedgehogs only eat them as a last resort, their favourite being beetles.
No one seems to want them, dead or alive.

The beers traps do work reallly well, DH not happy with the wasted beer though 😄

Maybe my slow death by asphyxiation isn’t so bad after all! I’ll go out again tonight and try and catch a few more.

I have no guilt whatsoever about the slimy, plant murdering bastards. Nematodes work.

I put any slugs and snails in a small bucket then pour boiling water on them. I empty the bucket in the border for the other wildlife to enjoy.

I loathe them with a white heat, but, yes, i don’t like killing them.

I had a couple of occasions where they came up through the plug hole in the kitchen sink. 😫

The garden is fair game, but if they cross the threshold into this house, then, I have to take matters into my own hands.

Jesus! Mind you I did hear years ago people cut them in half with scissors or putting salt on them

I saw a you tube where they used a fermented flour and water and yeast mix instead of beer.

ETA linK:

I’m sure that’s not necessary. That seems an incredibly cruel and a painful way to go.

I grow commercially (on a tiny scale) in a field that crawls with slugs at night. It's also full of other amazing creatures so I'd never use synthetic chemical controls.

After lots of trials I've found the best combination is bordering beds with strulch and spraying lower leaves with garlic spray (boil a bulb per litre of water until you can squash the garlic with a masher, drain, dilute and spray. You have to reapply after it rains but it works really well. I use it directly on young plants until they establish and then just around the bases after that. Seems like faff but compared to paying out for chemicals and the plastic/ environmental footprint involved it makes sense to me.

If you're growing food I think it's worth thinking about what you're adding to the soil and the impact that can have.. plus we really need to be looking after wildlife after all the damage we've done..

A neighbouring grower has no slug burden at all after being chemical free for thirty years and attributes it to the army of beetles thriving in his wild edges. He even grows hostas out in the open and they are pristine.

I have a real phobia of them. They make me physically sick. I really cannot cope with them 🤮