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Gardening

Find tips and tricks to make your garden or allotment flourish on our Gardening forum.

Original poster

How do you dispose of live slugs and snails?

105 replies

RaffertyFair · 20/05/2019 19:32

If you go out in the evening and collect the little blighters - how do you dispatch what you collect? Bearing in mind I like my neighbours, so hurling them over the fence is not an option Smile

I currently add them to the slug pubs that I also have in situ but snails slither out ...

I have just watered in nematodes so have a longer term strategy but there are still lots to pick off .

OP posts:
Singlenotsingle · 20/05/2019 20:39

I used to feed the snails to the chickens, but we haven't got chickens now. My dsd went out with a bucket and collected 75 one evening. The slugs get a pinch of salt. Not very nice I know, but they aren't very nice!

bobstersmum · 20/05/2019 20:48

All these people slaughtering! The stabbing one is just odd! They're horrible little fuckers but I just can't kill anything I feel bad! I just put them in the green garden waste bin!

TheSpottedZebra · 20/05/2019 20:51

We back on to a meadow also, so I put them on the end of a trowel and see how far I can twang them.
Ducks and geese patrol the meadow, so I hope they're having a nice snack.

JaneJeffer · 20/05/2019 21:01

This thread is horrible. Why not leave them where they are?

Original poster
RaffertyFair · 20/05/2019 21:40

Are you a vegan, Buddhist JaneJeffer? If yes I can understand your objection and assume you don't de-nit your DC's hair, don't, de-flea your pets etc.?

OP posts:
MountainDweller · 20/05/2019 21:58

This thread is horrible. Why not leave them where they are?

Because I do not labour over my lettuces and toil over my tomatoes to make a tasty meal for slugs and snails Angry

I've been lobbing mine over the wall into a neighbouring field but after reading here that they have homing instincts I don't think I'm lobbing them far enough. Might try burying them in the compost heap... surely they'll take a while to eat through all my garden rubbish? I can't bear the thought of squishing them because of the squelchy-ness 🤢

MountainDweller · 20/05/2019 22:00

Actually I got carried away with my alliteration there, they don't seem to like my tomatoes. However they love my beans so much that I can only grow them in pots!

IrenetheQuaint · 20/05/2019 22:02

I cut slugs in half with scissors. Snails I let be, I don't think they're quite as damaging plus they are very cute.

BummyKnocker · 20/05/2019 22:04

Pour salt on them, they dissolve.

cwg1 · 20/05/2019 22:07

Jux fab story Grin I might have mentioned it before, but Flora Thompson relates that, when she was a child, she and her siblings would regularly trawl the garden for slugs and snails, which were relished as a tasty treat by the family pig Grin

My own views about the cuteness of snails changed very radically when I caught the gardening bug...

GrumpyOldMare · 20/05/2019 22:08

I leave them alone.They don't do me any harm.

Hotterthanahotthing · 20/05/2019 22:08

I collect them and take them to the council dump when I have stuff I ant compost.They can have niceunch there until it heats up.

CrumpetandSausage · 20/05/2019 22:09

Don’t they climb out of your garden waste bin? I collected 20 snails and slugs the other morning in a nappy bag, tied up really tight to prevent escape and put in waste bin. Possibly the cruelest death of all...

CrumpetandSausage · 20/05/2019 22:09

I am impressed by the tiger stripe slugs. Slugs are also excellent for eating fox poo.

Jux · 21/05/2019 07:22

cwg1, no I don't, dh and dd won't touch them and there's a limited number of snails one person can eat!

I grow fennel which attracts lots of flying things thus distracting them from picnics etc, and I put slugs and snails on a massive sorrel plant I have, which distracts them. I also find snails mating way up the fennel bush. They stay motionless for hours, perhaps days.

NicoAndTheNiners · 21/05/2019 07:32

Throw them in the chicken run.

Siameasy · 21/05/2019 11:09

Put them in the garden waste bin. They can’t get out

AutumnColours9 · 21/05/2019 11:17

I leave them. Dont understand how people can just dispose of them.

floramcdougal · 21/05/2019 11:50

Don’t give slugs to chickens gape worm is really unpleasant

Original poster
RaffertyFair · 21/05/2019 12:22

Do you dispose of nits, fleas, bluebottles, woodworm, threadworms ... AutumnColours9?
If you do then you must be able to understand disposing of slugs and snails

OP posts:
newgarden722 · 21/05/2019 12:23

I don't come across many slugs in my garden thankfully, but I do get LOADS of snails.

beanaseireann · 21/05/2019 19:04

I put them in the brown compost bin.
They'll die happy feeding on what's in there.

Cyberworrier · 21/05/2019 19:12

I am building up to carrying a bucket of them to the local park as my mum told me about the homing instinct thing!
I apologise every time I accidentally squish one but equally am fed up with them eating up the garden. Also trying a variety of pet friendly slug pellets.

senua · 21/05/2019 21:49

I've started doing something that I heard on the radio. Apparently they don't like water so if you maroon them on a rock in the middle of a pond then they can't escape. The birds then find them and do your dirty work for you.
I don't know if it works or not - I'm nor prepared to sit for hours watching a rock! - but mine disappear by some means or other.

Mum2jenny · 21/05/2019 21:52

I'd chuck them over the fence, depends on my neighbours which fence though!