Slugs

[ColaOlaLa]

Are slug pellets really that bad? Heard they are not good to use but I am sick of how many slugs and snails I have in the garden there is literally loads. Does anyone use slug pellets?

Posted too soon: coffee grounds around the base of plants are supposed to deter slugs, also crushed egg shells.

Oooh, I can really recommend the beer traps!

I bought two bloody expensive Sarah Raven combos for my stone troughs and something has been munching them to bits. The culprits are now floating in my mini beer traps (evil laugh).

Egg shells did nothing for my slugs, nor did coffee. Can't stomach the idea of chucking out drunk slug carcasses so I just bought some pellets and used on the base of my veg and already the damage to the leaves has decreased. Hope it lasts long enough for the plants to recoup and actually flower

If you have cats then there probably aren't many birds or hedgehogs so the pellets might not be a danger, in fact that is prob why you have so many slugs, you've chased the predators away.
Beer traps do work though.

As mentioned, I have also found beer traps worked a charm. A much safer alternative to poison.

I use a garlic wash on my plants, especially my delphiniums which the little blighters seem to adore. Boil up some garlic then mix a couple of spoonfuls in your watering can. I also have the copper strips round my pots which does seem to help. I would never waste beer on the slugs

That's interesting @TheoMeo. My garden is rampant with snails and slugs and always has been since I moved in. There are also 4 wild cats that live in an abandoned annex in the garden so birds don't dare come to the garden. Never connected that to the snail/slug issue

I go out with gloves and a trowel after dark. I look for them with a torch and cut them in half. Revolting, and I look like a crazy woman

Used nematodes last year and they were fab but this year didn't seem to work - I think it was too dry for them. We might now have a toad so hoping that s/he eats them all.

I wouldn’t. Weve set up an outside camera recently, trained on the rear garden, and we have a resident hedgehog and fox we would never have known we had otherwise. In one of the video clips you could see it hobbling up a massive slug on the path. Thank god we don’t use slug pellets!!

This sums it up perfectly.

We can't use slug pellets because we get a lot of birds/wildlife/visiting cats, we just collect them up when it rains and use beer traps.

I collect mine up after dark then the next day take them on a long walk with the dog and deposit them in a nearby wood.
They'll be back in two years saying 'what did you do that for?' Joking aside, I think that's a great idea!

i dont have many slugs - even hostas look fine - but have a small natural pond and frogs and toads. so a pond is a good idea.

I made yeast flour and sugar mix traps and the slugs love them. You just tip the dead slugs out every few days onto the soil and birds will eat the bodies or they will just decompose.
I got the recipient off you tube and I keep a mother mix in a plastic pop bottle with a small hole in to let the gas out and top it up with flour sugar and water and then use it to top up the traps.
I was amazed by the numbers of slugs these traps caught.
I also make the traps you just need some plastic pots like cream custard or yoghurt or the washing capsule boxes or bottles but they need lids to keep the rain out. Just cut out some slits about an inch or 2 from the bottom, bury in the soil up to the level of the slits, pop in the yeasty mix, put the lid back on and bobs your uncle. Pour out the contents every few days and top up.

@lightlypoached

This sums it up perfectly.

🤣

Argh that’s interesting, my garden always gets loads of cats, which I weirdly don’t mind as the kids love the visits and we have sooo many slugs, literally everywhere, now I know why!

My garden is absolutely full of snails at the moment and they are destroying my plants. I can't bare to kill them, it makes me feel sick, so I've been putting them in the brown garden waste bin . They've got plenty to munch on in there until the council comes to collect them!

I've tried everything (except pellets) but yet they still make their way to my beloved hostas. I decided to take drastic action this year and lightly rubbed chilliest sauce I could find on each leaf. It's been about a month and they've not touched it since.