Slug ate my zinnias!

[edgeware]

A bastard slug has eaten all the leaves off my beautifully healthy zinnia seedlings overnight. Are they now doomed, or is there a chance they might revive? :(

They will revive if they still have a growing point, but you’ll need to keep them away from the slugs, who now know where they are and who love tender new growth

They have been nibbled down to the stem. I have never grown zinnias before. Would laying the same spikey sheets I have as a cat repellant over the pots be any use, or do I need to surround the pot with slug pellets?

I feel your pain, slugs have eaten my Larkspur, even though I thought they were large enough to plant out and survive!

Grrr slugs and snails 🐌 eaten my broccoli and kale. Tried nematodes last year but they were useless.

I noticed this morning that the pot with my zinnias in has had a visit from one of the slime bags. I've now stood the pot on a metal plant stand and moved it away from the wall where I think it got in.

Mine are salvageable as it's just nibbled a couple of leaves. I've also grown them from seed, so I would be really disappointed if I lost them after getting them this far.

Also, one of my dahlias is only just beginning to recover after being almost eaten to the ground. Blasted things!!

I will try a pot stand and maybe some slug pellets. Little bastards.

I put slug pellets in my pots, not on the ground anymore because of hedgehogs.

Slug pellets just seem to attract extra slugs and then you have to clear up the bodies. It's grim.
Slugs ate all my lupins. I've put sharp stones around my hollyhocks and that seems to have saved them.

I feel like I say this a lot on here and I honestly don't work for them but Strulch straw mulch works amazingly well and it improves things for your plants and the soil too without needing to kill anything and risk affecting your birds and hedgehogs. I use it on my allotment and planted out a row of lettuces, pumpkins and dwarf beans a few weeks ago, surrounded them in a thick Strulch layer, I use one bag per bed, and nothing has been touched by slugs. Before finding it I used to despair of ever getting a pumpkin as slugs would decimate the plants. It's also worked well on dahlias in containers at home too although some industrious snails have managed to climb up the container and reach the overhanging leaves for one plant but they didn't cross the Strulch.

Poor you OP.
Some black bug has eaten my lillies. I am well cross.

Beer traps are your friend, OP.

Most slug pellets contain yeast, which does attract slugs, in order to make sure they consume the poison!

@GlisteningGoldGrasses - I've always avoided mulch as I've found it just gives slugs places to hide. But sounds like Strulch might be different? Can you get it in garden centres?

@StrawberryPot I buy it from Crocus online because it tends to be on offer is cheaper for 6 bag's but you can get it other places. Strulch has something in it to repel slugs and it really does work. I agree other mulches I've tried do the opposite, cardboard is the worst.

All of my zinnias were munched - but one of them was left with half a leaf and produced this beauty 😍.

I have some new seedlings sown a few weeks ago - not sure if it’s too late, but I’m going to try some strulch and see if they survive.