Slug pellets

[almondflake]

Hi , I've had a few new plants that have been completely decimated this year by slugs and snails . I really want to bombard them with slugs pellets but I now have hedgehogs in the garden so obviously I can't, don't want to use them . Do any of you have proven slug/snail deterrents that actually work before I go down the wormhole of expensive remedies .
Many thanks 🤩

The remedy I have accepted this year is to grow different plants.

Nothing worked except growing plants slugs don't like.

Use beer traps, and sprinkle crushed eggshells round the plants instead. We can't use slug pellets either, a combination of many cats, hedgehogs and thrushes.

I read somewhere that sheep’s wool around the base of the plant is a deterrent. I’m going to gather the wool snagged on the fences and see if it works.

Beer Traps are the way to go and are safe for hedgehogs! Like you, I had many of my plants such as sunflowers, Echinacea and cosmos totally chomped by the bloody slugs earlier in the year, so much so that I had to re-seed/re grow them. But they kept coming.
Soo, ramekin dishes or similar are perfect for this. for each group of plants being attacked I dug a hollow in the soil near to them (mine are all in pots, so one dish for each pot) so that approx 1cm of the dish is above the soil line. Just before dark I half fill with cheap beer and leave them to it.
First time I did it I caught over 30 slugs in total. Now I'm down to around 3-4 slugs per night, and at the moment there's a 3" black slug in one of them, so it's well worth doing, and your plants will thank you. Mine are loving it in the sunshiny breeze here this morning!

@AnnaMagnani that sounds like a good idea , have you any suggestions that have worked ? I'm in the north west and the border is only in sun in the summer months 😁

@ThoseDarnCrows I shall definitely give that a go today . Many thanks 😊

I sprinkle the little wool pellets and they expand when watered to keep the slugs off. Pretty effective.

Sheep fleece. We were able to get two for £10 & we spread them all around the base of the plants. Slugs are kept off, the sold stays damper for longer & over the winter the fleece will rot down & turn into mulch that can be dug in.

Fleece worked for a week. Then I assume the slugs mutated and carried on eating the plants.

A combination of beer traps and applying nematodes worked wonders for us. Still some slugs about but they don't decimate things anymore.

Thanks for all your replies , I'm hoping that a combination of all will sort my slug 🐌 problems 😁

From RHS: A recent RHS study in a garden-realistic scenario found no reduction in slug damage from barriers made of copper tape, bark mulch, eggshells, sharp grit or wool pellets.

Should I kill slugs and snails?
It’s much better to learn to live with slugs and snails, especially if you have a garden that has the right conditions for them. They will always be present and are a normal part of the garden ecosystem.

My non-edible plants I make a garlic wash and add a small amount to a watering can with every watering. The plants then taste like garlic which slugs and snails don't like so don't eat. (Most of my edible plants are herbs which are left alone.)

I've previously used beer traps. The problem was only stronger beer worked so I had to add yeast to the mixture. Also used to put sand and grit around plants plus copper tape around pots.

They always say that yet they want you plant for pollinators.

Well if the slugs and snails eat all your young plants then there is nothing left to flower and be pollinated.

Well, it's kept the voracious little sods off my plants for four months now.

Now, if I could just sort out my red lily beetle problem...

Alpine grit from the garden centre has kept them away from my plants this year, just surround the base of each plant with it

Slugs have a brain and are capable of feeling pain. They also have a nervous system. Please don't poison them

I chopped up The dried up dead leaves off my pampas grass and put them all around my Brussels. The leaf edges are very sharp, and the creatures don't like their soft bodies going over them. Worked a treat.

This has really helped me !
My dahlias now sit in a bed of coffee grounds and eggshells and are tucked up in lambs wool (helps that we live on a sheep farm!) .. belt and braces 😬 = happy dahlias..

I'm not sure about these beer traps.

The last thing you want is pissed slugs marauding around the garden, singing, knocking over milk bottles, giggling and banging on your door, and then slithering away in the dead of the night.

I know I don't

@PsychoSyd o hate those little gits , I use a beetle wash early on then pick them off and squash them before the fall upside down so you can't see them , I actually got lilies this year .

@TwoLeftSocksWithHoles lol that's really put a picture in my head lol 😂

I'm trying the beer swimming pool's tonight and see what happens , im also going to save coffee grounds , we have a rijo machine at work , eggshells and wool pellets . Something must work also launching them over the fence onto waste ground is very satisfying 😁

Have just given up and pulled up the remaining shreds of my hostas. Something else has also not survived but I can't remember what it was.

However London's Pride is supposedly slug repellent so am going to fill the gaps with that.

I read this before & am definitely going to try this next year.
Last year I didn't lose a single sunflower to slugs. I cut down plastic drink bottles & put them around the young plant. I then filled the soil at the bottom of the bottle with sheeps wool pellets.
Compared to losing 50% of my sunflowers the year before, I took this as a win. I didn't grow them this year but lost a lot of other plants to slugs.