Yuck

[littlemeitslyn]

Am knee deep in slugs 😿 is anyone else !!?
I'm slugs

What on earth is wrong with wood lice?!

Yes earwigs don't cause harm to plants according to the panel on Gardener's Question Time R4. But they eat your strawberries Bob All of them ? I've heard that's it's nice to grow a few extra for the hungry birds etc.

Harm, no- but I can see which dahlias they have been in by the chunks missing off the petals and the fact that they don't fully bloom, so I am definitely irritated by them!

I LOVE to look at dahlias but they're too much faff for me to grow.

Bloody slugs were eating my strawberries alive.

I did beer traps (but water with yeast in it works just as well and it's cheaper). It worked an absolute bloody treat - traps full of slugs, strawberries growing. The satisfaction I had from catching the fuckers was immense!

Have you tried Bishops Children? I have a bunch I grew from seed which look great and come back every year no mulching or anything much.

www.sarahraven.com/flowers/seeds/annuals/dahlia-bishops-children.htm

It has been very wet here the last few days and last night I found a baby frog in the house inside dd's shoe and got up in the night to let the cat out and the slugs seemed to be making a pilgrimage into my kitchen.

Do nemotodes work universally on pests or do slugs and vine weevils need separate ones?

Me too! 😭😭😭

Oooh cardamon frogs eat slugs or their eggs. Bob Yes to sunflowers , the birds loved mine too.

Different nematodes for different prey generally.

A nematode taxonomist once said to me that if if everything in the world except for nematodes were to be made invisible, you wouldn't notice the difference because there are so many nematodes, everywhere, that everything would be outlined in nematodes. I didn't deem it a kindness, to put that thought into my head.

Bishops children Lovely dark foliage, so it doesn't matter too much even if they don't flower.

Frogs eat slugs .. allegedly. It's never made a noticeable difference to my garden, despite having had up to 170 frogs breeding in the pool.

Thanks @MrsBert, I will check those out, they look lovely

They are also fabulous for bees as unlike fancier dahlia the bees can access their pollen.

I found the most magnificent toad in a bed of rampaging mint, years ago. The mint was also home to a herd of gigantic slugs. I reckon the toad was farming them.

Grow extra for the birds. Ha.

We’ve got a beautiful cherry tree in our garden. Every year it’s stripped bare before the cherries are even ripe. It’s too big to net. Bloody greedy birds.

We have lots of frogs (and wee froglets) in our beds and still masses of slugs. I’ve just given up growing anything they go for.

@PigeonofDoom I've bought some spinach seeds - am planning on creating a 'sacrificial bed' for the spring! Hopefully that way me and the frogs and the hedgehog will know where they all are 🤣

The slugs I get are huge bastards.
The big brown ones with an orange line around them.
I might try nematodes.

As I said upthread since we've moved in here, and have an organic garden also we feed the hedgehogs, those huge slugs have disappeared. Just a few snails ( I like them with garlic oil) !! Not the ones from our garden though !!!!

Our cherry tree is weird often the birds get there first (when there aren't many) but 3 or 4 years ago there was a treeful of lovely cherries that the birds ignored !!!