Why don't slugs eat the weeds?

[Furryscoob]

I'm over run with slugs & snails this year, I've lost most of my plants & vegetables & their now munching my dahlias & lillies as they come up but they don't touch the weeds that are sat next to the plants, why not?

If they ate the weeds as fast as the expensive plants I might feel slightly guilty at the amount I'm killing every night in the beer traps.

I assume because the weeds have evolved to be unattractive to slugs?

Annoying though! I have planted 35 green bean seeds and as soon as they pop up the slugs eat then. I have about 8 which have survived into actual plants

for the same reason we don't eat weeds, they taste bitter.

What we eat - lettuce, beans and so on are tender and juicy and full of water - so also tasty to slugs. The slimy bastards.

If slugs ate weeds they wouldn't be weeds.

The slugs are a menace this year, it was the warm wet winter. We need a nice long freeze to kill them off.

😁 @ slimy bastards.

Because they're dickheads invented to make our lives a misery, that's why.

They're a menace. My DH warned me a week ago before I mowed the lawn that there might be some snails and slugs in the grass because we had so many of them. No slimy snail/slug guts flying in the air while strimming or mowing, happy to report. But we have lost so many plants this year. They're eating our strawberries now! Bloody annoying.

You should have a look out there at night. Our grass is full of black shiny streaks of slugs!

You need a hedgehog!

We have one that bumbles through the garden every night and we have next to no slugs or snails.

I have a big family of hedgehogs, usually the keep on top of the slugs but this year they're are too many.
Hedgehogs are happy & massive but my plants are still eaten nightly by the slimy bastards.
Just discovered my last pumpkin plant is now a stump

This year has been unreal. They have eaten all our peppers, aubergines, peas, and about 175 plantings of lettuce.

And half the plants in my flower bed, including stripping 6 rose bushes down to the stems!

I’ll stick to planting in pots (they are huge pots), particularly for vegetables.

There were two snails in my garden having sex the other day. I'm not standing for that and finding hundreds more of the buggers next year so I dropped them onto the pavement. My neighbour called over for a chat at the fence and she said "there's 2 snails by here". I told her they were having sex and not to watch at them at it. 😂

As others have said, probably because they taste awful to them. They don't eat lots of other plants either - Aquilegia, Agapanthus, Allium, Geum, Tradescantia, Lavender, Rosemary, Cistus, Nasturtium, Pulmonaria etc etc and so these are what i have out in my beds, that are prone to slugs, this year. I've got other less wet beds and have moved the Lupins, Clematis etc to those. It's working so far!
Also, Hedgehogs will often only eat slugs if they're struggling to find other sources of food, they are actually very bad for them as they carry disease like Fluke, which can prove fatal - so be glad your Hedgies are hopefully finding something else to eat.

Because the slimy fuckers are full up on hostas, marigolds and lobelias.

Have you actually seen slugs on the roses? Because that would be very unusual. Usually it will be Rose Slugs, or Slugworm which isn't a slug but a Sawfly - there bet that makes you feel better - ok maybe not....😁

Snails are like homing pigeons. The pavement is no good. They'll be back.

I don't know how they do it but they do. Maybe the can smell their friends.

They’re very sneaky, for decades they’ve made us believe they can only slither slowly which is a bare faced lie.

It would be much better if slugs went for weed wouldn't it! I've planted everything out in pots and grown it on bigger before planting out, but I'm still expecting most of my beans to get munched. I've had asters that have survived for years but this year most of them have died, I'm guessing because the slugs got all the new growth...

Our garden is a slimy mass of slugs with the odd sprinkling of snails.

How do I procure a herd of hedgehogs to help me with this problem?

I've been driven spare. I've had to sprinkle on the proper slug murdering pellets, and something is eating the pellets. I've not seen any animal or bird corpses anywhere (unless they are taking themselves under the decking to die?) But something is definitely eating the pellets. And the slugs munch on the seedlings and baby plants. And slither under my feet when I take the dog out. And cling to the dog. BOAK.

My anti slug campaign this year is 3 fold!
Slug beer traps - working.
Copper mesh circles around the dailiahs- seems to be working.
And frogs in our pond. Seems to be not working, they need to eat more!
Wool pellets do work a bit, but do not deter. Bloody minded slug.
They owe me £15 for a delphinium the bastards

Nematodes are the only thing I've used against slugs that I had any success with, but a bit ££.

I've taken to going out in my pyjamas with a torch then picking and launching the bastards over the back fence (there's only garages, not other gardens) so any that survive are eaten by the magpies or foxes. I've become quite skillful. It drives me mad when experts smugly say it's part of the ecosystem etc. etc. Well, quite - but when you've only got a little patch and you're over run with the buggers, it's disproportionate. It's heartbreaking when you lose an entire tray of plants overnight, especially when you've grown them yourself. Because of s&s I pretty much only have fuchsias in my pots this year which is fine but a bit boring.

Yep, the crawly little gits ate my entire first crop of sunflowers, stems and all. So the 2nd crop is now on my window sill blowing smug raspberries at them, but I must admit, I'm wary of putting them out whilst this wet weather continues.

I read the other day that there are on average 200 slugs per sq yard of soil. 200!!

They've also decimated my beloved Echinaceas, 😢

On Saturday I took each Echinacea in turn out of their pots and removed all the soil from around the roots. In each one I found approx 12-14 slugs in the soil. So, evicted them, repotted the plants in fresh compost and put them up onto a garden table, and am very happy to say that new leaves/shoots are beginning to appear.

I've also noticed that 2 Echinaceas also in pots (with hole at the base) but were stood on upturned bowl/pate dishes (without holes) were not chomped. On turning over said patebowl/dishes I found a large amount of slugs underneath crawling around the innerside. Obviously couldn't get to the hole at the plantpot base. So, once the other Echinaceas are back to full health I'm going to try this with them too.

I've taken to going out in my pyjamas with a torch then picking and launching the bastards over the back fence (there's only garages, not other gardens) so any that survive are eaten by the magpies or foxes.

They will slither back to the moisture of the garden. I'm not kidding. They are liking homing pigeons -chucking them over the fence especially if it's dry like garages is futile.

Murder is the only weapon.

Problem with using slug pellets is birds eat the slugs and then die horribly, or they take them back to their nests and the babies then die. I have watched a blackbird at dusk over several evenings this week eating slugs. Need to encourage more blackbirds I think.