What can I do about slugs?

[Madratlady]

Slugs are eating some of my plants and I can't use slug pellets in case they are harmful to my cats. Is there any other way to keep the slugs off?

I used to have strawberry plants and I know that putting dry straw around the base keeps them off.

Dig a pond, and design it to be attractive to frogs.

Frogs help, as do hedgehogs. Make sure there's a space for hedgehogs to get in and out of the garden, and a pond helps attract all kinds of garden-friendly wildlife.

You can use beer traps around your plants, or nematodes for small areas. I've tried copper tape on containers but it did bugger all.

Dig over the soil regularly to expose slug eggs to birds.

Or you can do it the old-fashioned way, go out at night with a torch and a bucket of hot soapy water, pick up the slugs and sling them in.

Ds and I are going to make some traps tonight. I have no idea if it will work but he is excited and it will give him an incentive to get dressed quickly tomorrow morning.

What we're planning to do...

Take a melon. Cut in half, scoop out insides and eat the melon ourselves. Then this evening, take empty melon and prop on a cocktail stick so it is shady inside the skin. Then wait until morning.

Nice and early in the morning we will go and collect our melon halves and hopefully lots of juicy slugs and snails will be inside having a high old time. Then we will kill them. Mwahahahahah!

Method of death is undecided. We have no beer so it will either be dropping in a bucket of salt or stomping under a brick. Snails get lobbed over the wall where they get smashed for the blackbirds.

Richard Jackson slug pellets - environmentally friendly (made of ferrous phosphate) - fine around k

Kids/pets - and bio degrade .

You get them from www.qvcuk.com

Nematodes are your best bet if you want something effective that wont harm other animals.

Create slug resorts (eg cool saucer of water on ground) for them to hide in during the day, and conduct regular massacres. Saves the torchlit hunt.

Yes to nematodes - did that early in the season and have seen much less slugs.

But you don't do it this time of year.

What's a nematode?

I would dig a pond but we rent our house so that's not the sort of thing we can do without permission. We sometimes get visiting frogs from next door.

I'm guessing that salting the edges of the flower beds will just kill my plants?

I will have a look for those slug pellets that someone recommended as well.

nematodes though you have to treat every 6 weeks or so. They are meant to be very good though. Iirc they attack the slugs from inside or something... Grim but effective and natural.

Even a large washing up bowl filled with water and sunk into the ground, with a bit of slate to hide underneath will attract frogs, it doesn't have to be massive.

IME, apart from nematodes, the most effective way to manage slugs is to go out in the dark and manually remove and destroy. It is worth taking the time. I have never seen much improvement with slug traps.

Last year the slugs were so bad I was removing upwards of forty slugs from each potato plant. It was revolting, but I saved the potatoes.

Update on melon slug trap:

Hugely successful at getting stubborn 4yo dressed and ready to go outside. Sadly it caught no slugs or snails but is teeming with ants. Sigh. Maybe the nemotodes weren't quite as rubbish as I thought although I have seen recent trails and munching?

K8 my understanding is that you have to use the nematodes regularly during the season to really brutally reduce your slug rate and should hopefully help with the next season too.

We are hoping to get some next year and I CANNOT WAIT! I hate the damn things and they break in to my house regularly

I've used them before and they were good but this year the slugs are indestructible - probably due to the wet weather. I even put some in the compost heap because I had extra (tiny garden) and there were still enormous great slugs in there.

I am hoping the hot weather and garden birds will see them off a bit.

Yep nematodes or buy some ducks

slug pellets mostly fine with cats now

I control slugs with a sharp seashell