A snail ate my courgette

[SunshineCake]

I'm so sad. I only noticed if ten days ago and was so proud. Then today I went to check on it and half of it was gone with a bloody snail sat there other side of the pot. Please help me save the ones that are on their way.

Awaiting advice myself!
I have nibbled courgettes!

I am so sorry. It is a horrific year for snails, I've found. Must be the weather. Or G5 masts. Or something.

RIP SunshineCake's courgette

I'm so sorry. My baby tortoise once ate 18 of my Dad's lettuce seedlings. He was never the same after.

RIP courgette

I had to read your last sentence three times @DinkyDaisy before I understood you! .

Thank you for the flowers @SpindleWhorl. I'm surprisingly upset but then I've been poorly today so maybe a tad emotional. Would it be okay to put the pot in my pretend greenhouse or does it need to be out in the fresh air?

Thank you @SqueakyPeaks. it's such a shame. Ridiculous really when I can go and buy some, but you know... .

I've got slugs and snails devouring everything in my garden as well OP. They've destroyed all my lettuce, kale, sweetcorn, and peppers, as well as my marigolds and lupins. I've got 4 courgette plants that I've been nurturing indoors, putting them out during the day and then bringing back inside over night. Partner keeps laughing at how anxious I am over them. Today I've planted half of them outside finally and I just know that tomorrow the slugs will have had them, I feel gutted about it in advance! What can you do though? Not much unless you want to put down chemicals. I saw someone on another forum recommending people to grow a dedicated slug and snail food patch, something like salad leaves on the other side of the garden so they can have their fill and leave the rest of the veg alone. I might try that next year.

I was upset when my first baby courgette got eaten, and then the second. The third survived long enough for me to pick it and secure it in the bunker fridge.

I can't go full chemical warfare because of the frogs, but it does get tempting.

I'm thinking of building small fortifications around them, in the ancient Roman style, and I like the idea of decoy lettuce patches. Unless it acts as a breeding incentive. Not the miniature Romans, the free lettuce.

Put out some beer traps. Don't let them beat you, drown the buggers after getting them pissed.

God, the slugs and snails this year! Man alive!

I couldn't plant my courgettes out in May as it was torrentially rainy, and when I did they were just destroyed.

Given up on them completely this year.

@gamerchick

Put out some beer traps. Don't let them beat you, drown the buggers after getting them pissed.

What's your best beertrap, Gamerchick? And don't say the Percy Arms.

I use nematodes, and in the past they have been quite successful - they just don't seem to be able to cope this year though.

My courgette plants have always been destroyed by slugs/snails before getting even that far. I now think of them as sacrifices to protect my other plants!

This year I have herbs, yay, hardly any asparagus, boo, and a few tiny tomatoes. Courgettes are a disaster, as were strawberries.

I've got some potatoes to dig up later in the summer. Go me.

Getting any veg to grow this year has been a nightmare and just as they start to, all the slugs and snails have descended like an army. Gardening is a masochistic adventure.

All our veg has been devoured by slugs this year. Although having read Tim Dowling's article on courgette poisoning I'm thinking that might have been a lucky escape! Had honestly never heard of it but it sounds horrific.

www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/2021/jul/17/tim-dowling-homegrown-courgettes-poisoned-us-all

Don't give up

Serrated copper tape around the pot

Go out after 9.30pm (later better) with a torch every night and find the fuckers

Also swearing loudly at them when you find them helps, the others will hear it and be too scared to come out

organic slug pellets if you get desperate

This is war now OP. War.

[quote Thecazelets]All our veg has been devoured by slugs this year. Although having read Tim Dowling's article on courgette poisoning I'm thinking that might have been a lucky escape! Had honestly never heard of it but it sounds horrific.

www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/2021/jul/17/tim-dowling-homegrown-courgettes-poisoned-us-all[/quote]
That's because he used old, 2nd or 3rd generation cross-seeds isn't it? The new ones from out the packet were fine.

It was very dramatic though!

Go out after 9.30pm (later better) with a torch every night and find the fuckers

Also swearing loudly at them when you find them helps, the others will hear it and be too scared to come out

I’m pretty convinced our neighbours must think I’m a lunatic as most nights I can be found wandering around the garden with a headlamp swearing loudly at the slimy bastards

Yes, I think so. It has made me a bit wary though - it's the sort of thing DH might do!

@Thecazelets, rule of thumb is, if they taste bitter, bin them!

Serrated copper tape around the pot

This!

Thank you. I've tasked dh with getting some copper tape.

Slugs are why I grow my courgettes in the greenhouse. And this year I've tried a parthenogenetic variety so I don't have to hand pollinate - a success so far.

Every time I see this thread title I get an image of the hermaphroditic little git sitting there looking smug.

We have copper tape... fuck off with your smugness 🐌