The fight against the slugs.

[sorbetandcream1]

Help!
My strawberries are being eaten by earwigs...how can I protect them? There are zillions of them.

My other veg is being eaten by slugs and snails. I've covered the ground in slug pellets but they don't kill them straight away. The slugs eat a pellet, have a final meal on my veg then die.

What am I doing wrong?

When I'm at home, I'm out 4/5 times a day removing slugs.

Any other way of keeping them away?

Thank you!

Biblical locusts have nothing on the slugs here in Surrey. It was like this in 2014. I ended up abandoning the garden to the slug overlords.
Not this year though. I'm taking back control!

We shall go on to the end. We shall fight in the garden, we shall fight on the plots and the verges, we shall fight with growing confidence and growing strength, we shall defend our plants, whatever the cost may be. We shall fight on the paths, we shall fight on the raised beds, we shall fight in the fields and in the streets, we shall fight in the hills; we shall never surrender!

Someone on the allotment thread recommended this for my slug infestation. It seems to work, though you do have to be diligent at reapplying, which I was not. It is apparently organic and safe for plants grown as food.

Vaseline, coffee grounds and Sainsburys basics beer here I come. Death to the slugs.

Mother Nature heard my cries of woe and has blessed me with a hedgehog, just seen one snuffling around the garden. Have told him to come back with friends.

Didn't get slugs pellets In the end. 7yo dd has form for risky behaviour and I could forsee her deliberately eating them even when told not too.

I have never used pellets before, inherited a garden full of hostas in 2009 and they went after year 1 because the previous owners had obviously used industrial quantities to keep them at bay.

I don't want to harm any wildlife, I have got so many nests and different animals here and I love it.

I did look at the RSPB site today, link here.

I would like something that tells me that these organic, pet/wildlife friendly pellets are absolutely definitely safe, i.e. if something eats the corpse of a slug that has died by eating sluggo or the doff organic one then it won't affect them at all - I can't seem to find that anywhere or is that what they mean by default?

Just been reading Sluggo's blurb. I have got endless birds, thrush, blackbird, robin, pied wagtail, chaffinch, tits, etc., etc., hopping about on my lawn with worms (maybe slugs) hanging out of their beaks.

So, the slug dies in its hiding place and the bird digs it up instead of a worm .... what happens then? Am I being stupid or are they being vague??

Troysslug knife

I'm going to order some nematodes tomorrow. Slightly disappointed they aren't cute Alice in wonderland style little grubs, as their name suggests. They look like threadworms .

It's because we haven't had a proper cold winter. They were probably breeding all year round.

OK, been doing some sleuthing. There is a difference between sluggo and the straight iron phosphate pellets because sluggo contains another agent, EDTA. This makes it more toxic to earthworms (sorry grouchy). I never knew this before. Evidence here: www.biosci.ohio-state.edu/~soilecol/Full%20articles/2008/Crop%20Protection%2028.pdf

I need to check my own Wilko pellets to see if they have EDTA in them.

The pellets without EDTA seem to be as safe for wildlife as you will get according to current evidence in that article. But it's pretty much always better to use nothing if you can get away with it.

Yes, Shove, I read that after posting - here

www.cloudforest.com/cafe/gardening/warning-sluggo-toxic-for-people-and-wildlife-t3846.html

I have never used anything. I bought copper sheet from eBay to make my own rings last week but haven't found the titanium snips I need to cut it straight.

Perhaps four hedgehogs, copper rings and nematodes will do. I wonder if fairly thick copper wire would do (I could plait it).

Argh, shove, more recent things say there's no EDTA in it. But I don't know if I can trust them.

Will have to put up with slugs till I find some froggy friends.

The RSPB webpage mentions aluminium based slug pellets rather than iron phosphate based - does that mean they are safer?

4 dead slugs here, drowned in a tub of beer.

There are worse ways to go loose!

I am going to use coffee too, we drink too much. DH's espresso comes out fairly easily but I drink from a cafetière so I need to scrape it out. I have got a little bin somewhere that was too small for composting - must look for it.

Just seen one of my hedgehogs snuffling about in the orchard , all four of them were in there last night - all good.

I have found my people!
We have decking, which I now know is a slug incubator. This year has been terrible.
Bought and painstakingly applied the nematodes a few weeks ago - it is a rigmarole, and not sure yet of the outcome, but will not use pellets so faintly need it to work!
I have found that buddleia seems to be immune, so planting out more of that. And looking for other stuff they don't like. Would love to woo hedgehogs back, but not seen any for a few years.

loose How do you actually use the beer traps? I have never had success with them , I must be doing something wrong.

I made it up. I bought the cheapest can of beer in the shop and poured it into a large tub (old margarine tub). I left it next to my pot of strawberry plants.

I might write to Sluggish and ask!!

It would be really good to have more clarity on these issues. Why isn't there a straightforward summary of the evidence? We can't be the only concerned gardeners!!

Sluggo not sluggish!! Autocorrect fail!!

Ooh so you didn't dig it into the earth! On the same level ?, Wow so easy! Thanks Loose

Okay, so I bought (and used) Nemaslug. The packet I had was enough to make 40 litres of solution (so 4 full watering cans) which was probably enough.

My God, it smells horrible. I really hope it works.

Well done crucru - agree about the smell.
I think there has been an improvement - I was lucky to put it down just before the endless two weeks of rainfall. Next year will do it earlier, and maybe a few times - eg March, April & May

You should smell my nettle and comfrey feed, blimey but it's great for the plants , if they're strong they withstand attack from slugs and snails better.