Slugs. Is it possible to hate them any more than I do?

[NKF]

Evil slimy things that are feasting on every delicious plant in the allotment. I hate them. I hate them. I hate them. There! I feel better now.

I snipped two in half last night and then felt very, very bad and ,mentally asked myself if this meant I have killer tendancies.

Yes. It is!

Why why why can't they eat weeds? Or grass? Why only lovely things that I really like and plant every year more in hope than expectation. See I love delphiniums......

yuck - they've been at my basil the bastards...snails are very cute though,for some reason

i can't see smileys, did i type grin there instead of blush

And why do they take one bite out of each strawberry. They could at least just ruin one.

my chickens will soon be munching them for me - hatch day approaching!

You could just throw them on the road like my friend does. Then she reckons it's down to karma whether they die or not.

Everything we plant gets eaten by slugs - busy lizzies, sunflower seedlings, Daisies. I could accept hostas. You can live without hostas, but its everything. I am at a loss to understand how anybody ever grows anything. Some people must get more slugs than others - right?

The slugs in my garden are cunning - they hid in the bottom on pots and didn't actually eat anything so I was thinking, oh slugs aren't that bad, quite nice really, and then this weekend, having obviously not eaten for a while, they went on a total binge - totally destroyed all my delphiniums and have started on my dahlias and busy lizzies. Bastards.

My dad boils up garlic and pours it onto the plants - which they hate

It's OK for Hostas but not great for veggies (garlic flavoured lettuce anyone?)

I once crashed right through a giant glass window in my parent's porch running away from a slug.

A few little cuts and my jacket was slashed a bit but was ok oherwise.

I have one word for you madamep. Geraniums ! I now have a garden full of shrubs, as well as cordyline and phormium, and the only 'soft' stuff are geraniums and nasturtiums. Anything "tastier" goes in pots and wallhangers. Very sad but I've learnt my lesson.

I reduced the number a bit last year by getting rid of a huge honeysuckle that had become a bush and was sheltering hundreds of the slimy little bu*gers right next to the patio.

Ahh honeysuckle - the plot thickens. I will do some investigation later on in the honeysuckle bush (or that clematis thing as DH insists on calling it ?!?)

I have started doing late night patrols with my trowel and killing them. I think there is no other way. They have eaten through tons of things I have tried to grow.

they sneak into my conservatory leaving trails everywhere but I can never find the buggers.
When I do I circle them with salt I leave them alone out side but all over my rug drives me crazy

I pick them up with a trowel, dump them in a plastic carrier and if I feel kind I chuck a few slug pellets after them, so they die happy. Then I tie a tight knot in the bag and dump them in the dustbin. Saves me killing them with is very hard to do.

They're a part of nature. I like them.

My only gripe with slug-haters are those who devise means of destroying them in pathological ways in front of their own children. I'm not sure what message that sends out.

If you throw your vegetable peelings into a corner of the garden, the slugs will eat those and leave your plants alone. At least, that's alway worked for me ...

beer in shallow trays works too - what a way to go!

I thought killing them with a quick wack was as humane as I could be other than rehoming them. I have used slug pellets in the past but trying to avoid and also bad for other wildlife. Leave dead slugs out for birds.

DH is currently out in the garden for his half hour snail/slug cull.

He has a special slug picker upper with attached torch... sadly I bought it for him online and it is now is new hobby.

I've given up being "nice" with slugs/snails. Over the years, I've tried moving them to our scrubby/overgrown front garden and tried beer traps last year. I was going down the beer route again this year but the last straw was when our neighbour gave me some Asters, I planted them and the next morning, all that were left were stalks! They've also had my petunias and busy lizzies. I've had to put my lupins in a huge pot after years of trying to grow those. So I've gone down the pellets route for the first time, putting them at the back where it's overgrown and where they children can't get to them.
After years of seeing my beloved bedding plants and sunflowers torn to shreds, I think this will be the first year I'm going to get a decent display!

How does the beer thing work?

Oh - Cece, where did you get the slug picker-upper? I need one of these now!

You put beer/lager (Economy or out-of-date stuff will do-they go for anything!) in small pots (I used those plastic pots that pasta sauce comes in), dig a hole so that the top is fairly level with the soil. Slugs/snails get drunk, fall in and die happy!