Slug Despair

[PenCreed]

Just as the title says really, this year has been a nightmare for slugs and snails! I've watered in nematodes, we have a slug trap, I have strulched every seedling. Despite that, the slimy fuckers have eaten: all but one of my beans (I planted about 15), all but one of the peas (also 15), two squashes when they were still potted, two more squash plants that had been planted out, a courgette plant, half my strawberries, two tomato plants, and a phlox.

Every time I think something is doing ok, it seems like I come back the next day and it's gone. Join me in my wail of despair - what plants have you lost to them? I'm also very much here for any more suggestions of what might stop them in their slimy tracks!

I haven’t dared
tomove my courgettes in pots on to the terrace - they’re still in the greenghouse. Do you think they’d be OK?

Quicker for them than drowning. I presume we’re not talking about a gentle stub-out-a-cigarette stamp, we’re talking about a lightning-fast purposeful karate-style stamp.

No sun and too many slugs has made for a crap raspberry crop this year. Maybe too cold at pollination time? UK centre for raspberry production was traditionally Blairgowrie (Scotland).

I must have removed 100+ That wouldn’t make a dent here!

Me too. I only have a small yard and like to fill it with tubs. They've ruined them all. I have read that they don't eat geraniums so that's what I'll go for next year. I have just emptied my tubs atm and put lights in them.

Same problem here! they have damaged most of my vegetables...

I have used nematodes which definitely reduced the numbers but early every morning I do a 'slug run' to dispose of the ugly, slimy creatures.

The endless rain has caused that I think.

I can't have hens in the garden because we have so many visiting foxes but I am tempted by the idea of toads and frogs...do you need to have a little pond for them to come in and settle?

I started listing everything they've had but it was too depressing! Bastards. We"re putting a pond in to encourage frogs from next year. Quite a few lily beetles too but we did manage to catch a lot early

You don’t have to but it helps. They spend most of the year on land, returning to pond to breed. Some hibernate in ponds, others on land. They like dense low growing vegetation (alpine strawberries are the favourite in my garden) or long grass, and logpiles and similar for refuges - just the sort of garden you need to attract slugs.

We are very vigilant about them - have picked a fair few slugs off, but it's manageable on the terrace.

They've eaten - most of the cabbages, chard, sprouting broccoli, strawberries

They've ignored peas, kale, leeks and radishes

There are big holes in the raspberry leaves and potatoes - but that could be caterpillars - they've been busy too. Meanwhile the pigeons destroyed the broccoli.

I've used physical covers, blue pellets, sharp stuff, picking them off and drowning them in salt water.

Don't they say gardening is relaxing??

I love the idea of a few garden toads. I'm not sure how one acquires them.

I heard that bran or oats attract them - and they then swell up and are easy pickings for the birds. I'm worried that the food would attract vermin.

After walking around my local park, whose volunteers that tend the borders have planted sunflowers and dahlias, I have decided it's because we don't have large enough gardens. Both of these plants are thriving and flowering with nothing eaten off them!
Or it could be the rats? Do rats eat slugs and snails?

Damp evening here so I just pulled 10 of them off my new dahlia, another 10 from my one remaining bean plant and the fuckers are now in a bucket of salt water. Bean plant is a goner, dahlia might be ok.

I had to use my fancy sea salt as we didn’t have anything else and I was too annoyed to wait (DH is away so couldn’t be sent to the shop).

I went down the garden with my watering can , there were 40+ slugs on the lawn - all sizes from the skinny ones to the great big fat ones , black/brown/beigey.

Where are the birds when you want them to pick these buggers up off the lawn ?

I just sorted out a pile of old flower pots to go to the tip - and squished 30 slugs and snails, now residing on the bird table.
What with a pair of juvenile magpies taking a shine to plucking green tomatoes and the deer leaping the 5ft gate (seen them do it, they just pop over) to eat beetroot leaves, all the dwarf been tops (flowers and set pods) plus runner beans to head height, peas (which the pigeons also enjoyed), and any flowering plants (completely stripped the sweet peas the day before I was going to pick them) and all our flowering tubs it's been a disaster of a year.

I use crushed egg shells and coffee grounds, also copper tape on pots. I also sprayed plants with washing up liquid diluted.

I feel your despair. However I am a stubborn fucker, I go out every single evening with salt and a torch about 9:30-10pm and sprinkle the bastards until they die. It is an endless tide though, been at it for two weeks solidly and still killing about 50 a night
can you tell I’m a bit cross!

like everyone else I’ve given up on squash, and courgettes, I think I have two pea plants left that I’m guarding with my life.

We just use slug pellets. Nowadays they are all organic and the slugs die later underground so no birds or wildlife eat them.
I’m not convinced that hedgehogs actually make much of a difference when it comes to eating slugs, they definitely don’t eat the adult slugs.
www.gardenersworld.com/wildlife/best-hedgehog-food/

I think this year just has to be put down as a bad show. The weather has caused slugs to explode.

Definitely agree with others about biodiversity. Leave wild areas, the grass long at the edges, add a wildlife pond. Most birds and animals only tend to eat smaller or juvenile slugs though. Once they get the monster sizes not much wants to touch them. We have found beer traps worked well.

Hedgehogs don't like slugs, they only eat them if they have no other choice which sadly is becoming more often the case with lack of beetles and other food sources.

I'm no gardener, but they kept making their way into the house, which was so gross. I managed to completely decimate the population for a few years after hunting every night for a week. An old cake slice, an empty lidded laundry box lined with salt, dump them in and bin the whole thing.

They’re in bed.why do you think slugs come out at night? It’s not love of moonlight

You win! Really, without deer, the rest of us have nothing to complain about.

Washing up liquid (wul) in the water will kill them too, save the fancy salt. I wonder if a squirt of dilute wul in a trigger bottle would work instead of sprinkling them with salt?

I've heard (but not yet tried) petroleum jelly and salt painted in a band round pots will keep them away, although I suspect it'll need replenishing.

As for deer...a lion 🦁 ?

We collect them in an old tin/jar and just pour boiling water on them, instantly kills them. Imagine that's cheaper and more humane than salt?

Washing up liquid sounds much easier than salt! There's too many of the damn things for the boiling water/jar approach.

I have hedgehogs and next door has chickens, I've seen toads and frogs in the garden and have a pond to encourage them.

The fucking slugs have even eaten my fennel! FENNEL! My lovely bronze fennel is now just a brown stick. Mind you most of the rest of the garden is just sticks too now. They don't seem to like lemon balm or the winter jasmine, but everything else - yep, my garden is putting on a wonderful stalk display this year.