slugs - pet friendly non toxic - what works?

[BarkingUpTheWrongRoseBush]

Spent this morning picking slugs off everything. What works?

Nematodes!

Buy them as a fresh powder form and you make it up in watering cans and water it on

It’s excellent against slugs but not so much against snails as they spend less time in the soil to be exposed to them.

I second nematodes. I was sceptical but I really do notice the difference.

It is a bit of a hassle, but use the hose applicator if you have a biggish garden. You do have to do it every six weeks to get full advantage.

A wet evening after a dry spell.
A bucket.
A torch.
A trowel.
Some gloves.
A strong stomach.
A convenient field several hundred yards away, and preferably the other side of a river.

I think there’s a market for a subscription service to send you them every 6 weeks! You can’t stock up in advance, all the packets I’ve bought have use by dates within a few weeks so think they’re quite a fresh product, understandably.

Btw I asked Carol Klein this at a talk a few years ago and she said she goes around the garden in the evening with a pair of scissors and chops the buggers in half! 🤢

DH had the “bucket of death”. Look up making your own nematodes. 🤢 Worked though.

Beer trap. At least they die happy

sink a bucket or big plastic box in the ground and put some stones in so wildlife can climb out - you will get frogs which will eat the slugs. I have hardly any at my allotment

Nematodes. Really work. I generally only do a spring application so my seedlings and annuals get a decent start, but I did all my beds in about an hour this morning.

Crush three or more garlic gloves. Put in a saucepan with a litre of water. Bring to boil, cover and simmer for ten minutes.
Cool, then strain the water into an old plastic drink bottle.
In the evening, put a generous splash of stinky garlic water into your watering can and dilute with fresh water.
Now water all the plants susceptible to slugs - particularly hostas.
Slugs and snails hate the taste of garlic on the leaves and stay away.
It’s completely safe and non toxic.
Repeat as required - especially after rain has washed it off.
In prolonged wet weather, if you are getting fed up of this routine, splash some cheap “own brand” garlic oil generously around the base of your plants instead.

Baby bath, tubs, buckets full of water = frogs = no slugs.
Tried and tested and I have hundreds of tadpoles this year.

I have an allotment and won't kill anything, but after a few years slugs are no longer a problem now I've got: a pond with frogs in, birds encouraged, I mulch everything with Strulch mulch, the mulch even keeps them off the squashes and lettuces that they used to destroy, except the odd determined one when the weather's really wet. I leave wild areas at the back and round the pond but I remove all things they could hide under near the veg.

Nematodes! But also had a lot of luck with beer traps - I've got "slug x" beer trap - which works wonders (but you can make your own) and used when we had a patio infestation in our flat - made a noticeable difference. Combination of the two could work well!

Chickens. The feathery bastards do have a penchant for flowers though, so it solves one problem but causes another.

Hedgehogs.

Make your garden hedgehog friendly and leave food out, and water and have a wild bit of garden.

Torch and scissors

Frogs
Hedgehogs
Beer traps, too effective tbh
Slug repellant grit and sheep's wool pellets. Hugely expensive but works if you do it every couple of days.
Coffee grounds from coffee shops.

@megletthesecond

Frogs Hedgehogs Beer traps, too effective tbh Slug repellant grit and sheep's wool pellets. Hugely expensive but works if you do it every couple of days. Coffee grounds from coffee shops.

How can frogs and hedgehogs be too effective? I have a wildlife pond and hedgehog house in my garden but neither frogs nor hedgehogs 😏.

ich it's the beer traps that are too effective. I can't bare to do them anymore. So many dead slug, then nothing as I'd killed them all.

@megletthesecond

ich it's the beer traps that are too effective. I can't bare to do them anymore. So many dead slug, then nothing as I'd killed them all.

That's interesting! I've read that the beer traps work very well indeed but attract other slugs even from neighbouring gardens; so I've never tried them myself. I've just come back from a weekend away to find one of my dahlias completely demolished 😣.

I’ve just gone out and sloshed nematodes everywhere. DIE SLUGS DIE!!!!