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!

Just been out in the garden with a torch and a bucket. 27 of the buggers are now in my garden waste bin ready fir collection on Friday. Most of them were fat and over 6 cm

Blimey! 27 You could open slug shop! The fr. eat snails I wonder if slugs taste ok with garlic and butter?

may be i could. not sure that i could serve them with fresh herbs though. the buggers have eaten most of them

They are thriving here too - we have got an outside loo (have inside one as well ). Outside loo is near back door and when I went out to close up my cold frame last night there were 4 inside in the utility room and seven of the buggers in the outside loo (very rustic one wall is lined with drying logs!).

What is odd is that I haven't seen one this year , just a few snails, Maybe it's the birds who are very active this summer, my organic garden is finally working (I'm not being smug honest!).

ppeatfruit - are you me neighbour as i think i have their share aswell

I don't think so unless you live in mid france !

Grrr slugs, I sat in the rain watching an army of slugs to see if they would dare tread over my copper tape and yes the buggers did, obviously I need to make it wider. Do nematodes really work and how, do you have an infected slug arrive in the post then the nematodes explode out like Alien to infect the masses? Whats to stop them wandering over next door and clearing their garden of slugs and do ant nematodes work to, I have a field full of nests.

Stanleys - I haven't used mine yet because we were away but I was thinking of just watering it onto my veg beds (garden is huge, more than an acre) thinking that the nematodes will just see off anything that makes it onto the vegetables.

But I am sort of thinking that my logic is flawed because a very hungry slug who hasn't met a nematode yet could still feast on my veg before he meets one.

I planted tons of new vegetables last week and they are all through in my cold frames - seems wrong not to get them in the ground but I am not sure what to do with them at the minute.

If this lot gets eaten I am giving up this year. The swines even ate strawberries yesterday.

Mines a big garden too and surrounded by crops, I don't understand why they're not munching on sugar beet. I've also seen quite a few squashed hedgehogs recently I think they've lost the appetite for slugs and had enough. Good luck with the nematodes I may have to try them too, clean cat litter I heard of too, but I've got cats so that wouldn't work.

ppeatfruit same here. For years I battled slugs with 'wildlife friendly' pellets, picking after dark, but after having a serious illness that kept me from gardening for 3 or 4 years, gave up the fight.

This year we have very few slugs, the only deterrent we are using is coffee grounds around the at risk plants. My only explaination is we have for the past 2 years encourage birds by winter feeding and our cat passed away last Autumn, so assume we now have a more healthy natural balance in the garden.

Loving the banner advert at the top of my MN page advertising Whittard's coffeemakers. Now that is creative linked advertising.

I wish mine was that simple Silver. I live a mile and a half from my nearest neighbour, we have blackbird, thrush, robin, wren, swallow, lapwing, chaffinch, collared dove and more nesting in our garden/outbuildings, a visiting cock and hen pheasant, barn owl and heron. As of last week a family of four hedgehogs in the orchard ...... and I am absolutely overrun with them.

I really am considering giving up vegetable growing right now, I am defeated.

I'm feeling a bit guilty reading your posts because I don't grow veg. (I tried but we are away a lot so there's no way we can water in the summer) and we are lucky with our local organic producers who do it much better than we ever could!

Silverbirch We feed 3 semi feral cats and we still have a good number and selection of birds. I feed the birds in winter.

Many coffee shops give away thier used coffee grounds in massive bags. i just spread it liberally over the beds, makes the garden smell lovely when it rains and acts as a fertiliser too. I don't think it's a miracle solution though, slugs have still managed to to eat most of my delphiniums this year, I do have an almost perfect hosta for the 1st time ever.

I use coffee grounds, mixed with water and left over tea and coffee dregs for the roses it works well for acidifying the earth, my garden is quite alkali. But banana skins are best for black spot on roses.

I love delphiniums but haven't got the courage to grow them! I tried hellebores last year but something is eating them. I'll try the coffee grounds round them.

I am lucky I have a sandy garden so the slugs seem restricted to the lawn. But I pick slugs and snails every damp evening (I find it quite therapeutic - strange I know!) And I've now enlisted the help of my DD who insists we take bags of them to the woods and let them go free... But its definitely working - there are less every night... (My husband thinks I'm mad to be rummaging in the undergrowth in the rain with rubber gloves and a dog poo bag collecting them. )
If anyone wants coffee grounds (UK) Waitrose keep a silver dustbin outside full of them for customers to take

Yes me too Martha But I've not seen any on my lawn either! (plenty of bloody moles hills though) Maybe it's just having a sandy garden which keeps the slugs down.

I am marching buckets of slugs up to the woods on a daily basis. 40 or 50 at a time. Bastards.

I am going to order nematodes imminently, but does anyone know, do you water them into the lawn, or only the exposed earth?

I noticed today that Waitrose are giving away their coffee grounds.

I'm in Starbucks three times a week, my garden smells like a coffee shop but still, this morning, my peas are covered in slime and most of the leaves gone, and my strawberry patch is decimated.
Used slug pellets in the flower beds with great success but had to stop when we had an emergency rush to A&E with our 3 year old after he picked them out of the soul and ate them thinking they were 'sprinkles'
The war continues, egg shells next.....

Wow- I had completely forgotten I started this thread. Loads of ideas to try. Do all Waitroses have a coffee granule bin?
I'm finding less slugs on my veg as the plants get bigger. Still removing about 5-6 slugs most days.
Given up on the strawberries. They are covered in horrible little slugs, earwigs. It's too late to save them. I've sprayed some nasty chemicals on them but isn't making any difference.
Impressed by everyone who mentioned walking slugs to woods. Makes me feel slightly guilty for just dropping them in the bin. :-(.

MrsBert I just watered the plants that I wanted to save from the slugs. As far as I can tell, they don't like grass / lavender / rosemary. Just expensive new plants and my seedlings.

My next lot of slug fodder is coming on well, this is seriously my last stab at veg growing this year. I am going to plant some of it out today as it needs thinning out anyway .. nematodes do your stuff.

Catherine They look lovely good luck