Slugs!

[TonTonMacoute]

I've been reading that it's a bad year for slugs, how is everyone dealing with the plague?

I have resisted killing them for the last few years, although I have used nematodes. However, last year they completely destroyed so much stuff I'm afraid that this year I have declared war, the full Trump unleash hell. I've had it with the slugs are our friends spiel.

I have limited the vulnerable plants to two raised beds where I have put beer-baited slug traps. In just two nights I have 'caught' well over 100 slugs just in that small area.

There are still plenty of them in the rest of the garden to feed my hedgehog residents, so not feeling too guilty. Also, this evening I saved one who was just about to crawl into the trap and put it in the green waste bin.

🤢

I hate slugs I have seen more evidence of them this year.

I’ve got a pampas grass in my garden, and this time of year I rake off all the dead leaves, chop them up with shears and spread them like a mulch round my cabbages and vulnerable,leafy veg. The edges of the leaves are serrated, and the slug s don't like it. You have to make sure that none of the veg leaves break the circle or they,ll get, but it worked a treat. I don't know if any other spiky plants leaves might work.

Mine arent too bad this year. I have a pond and i think the frogs are helping.

I feed and water the slugs and snails away from my vulnerable plants!

I just give them outside lettuce leaves and the odd brown banana or if I'm feeling generous, the occasional whole sacrificial lettuce with a watering can of water in the immediate area. They seem perfectly content to stay where they are, it's the third year I've done it and it's working a treat.

They have eaten all my lupins….
Organic slug pellets haven’t touched them…

Coffee grains are the answer . Throw your grains from the pot onto the soil , the slugs don't like crawling over them .

I use wool pellets around the base of delicious plants. When you water them, the pellets create a matt which the slugs/snails don't like. Put them on in the spring, they just need topping up the following year

I've tried every barrier method going and none have worked very well, I have used nematodes which have been quite effective in the past. This year it just feels like hitting them hard and hitting them early is the best option.

Once the vulnerable plants have got big enough you can be a bit less apocalyptic in your approach, but seeing the seedlings you have so carefully raised demolished overnight by the greedy fuckers them is soul destroying.

I remember your angst last year @TonTonMacoute and hope things are better this year.

They’re not too bad in my garden this year although I’ve been worried about the constant rain and what that would bring.

I do nightly home slug patrol and have been getting more snails than slugs but agree that it’s best to try to control them from early. My dahlias have been planted out and so far have not been demolished so think they’ll stand a chance.

At the allotment I have used slug collars and have encircled the stems of my pumpkin plants with a plastic bottle, both ends cut off, and sunk into the ground. Last year it was painful to see the stems eaten through cleanly, the plants didn’t stand a chance.

For extra measure, I’ve also sprinkled coffee grounds around the plants and sunk yeast traps in the bed.

It seems OTT but in the absence of pesticides I have to throw everything at the bastards!

Not sure how that GIF got there!

I thought it was just me being hit hard this year. 🤨 They seem to be on steroids or something. The buggers have been having a right munch on my new hydrangea that's trying to grow, they never eat my older one any year,
I've spent a pretty penny this year buying a mixture of established plants and now they all have more holes than green bits.. 😬

Might try the wool tip as ran out of copper tape but pretty sure they are doing back flips over that stuff anyway. 🤣

I hate slugs.

It's very sweet!

But yes, they really got to me last year - I did take it very personally 😀

By really hammering them in one little corner of the garden I can feel more relaxed about them crawling in their horrible slimy way across the lawn on a damp evening, happy in the knowledge that my hedgehog family will have plenty to feast on (evil laugh).

They are bad this year. I find a 10pm slug hunt the most effective way to combat them - I either fling them into the woods at the end of the garden, or gather them in a pot and put them in the garden waste bin. At least they can have a feast before they die.

I have used nematodes in the past and they work well so long as you keep the soil moist - in this weather you'd have to be watering at least once a day, and I can't be bothered/don't have time.

I use copper slug rings which work fairly well, and I've just ordered wool pellets to see if they work for my dahlias.

So far I've lost a sunflower and two strawflowers (which I hadn't protected at all), and a dahlia has been munched but that should come back by late summer. Slimy bastards.

My favourite Xmas present is a head torch that I use on my night patrols!

@Maggiethecat I have a head torch too, it's brilliant! 😁

Very happy hedgehogs!

I simply don't plant things they like any more.

We use beer traps plus in the evenings when they are coming out, we pick up multiples in poo-bags and put them in our dog-poo bin which has some slug pellets in the bottom (little blighters chew through the poo-bags).

They've destroyed all my seedlings, the little bastards. I built whole ramparts of coffee grounds, to no effect - it seems to have just perked them up.

Beer traps were working, but then one day I found a frog in one of mine. Thought he was just living his best life in the frog equivalent of a beer garden, but unfortunately it turned out to be a very short life.

I've resigned myself to a garden with nothing but sedums, astrantia, ferns, salvia, osteospermum, campanula, geraniums and crocosmia now.

This made me return to the thread mentioning testing Strulch I’d bookmarked from last year.

https://www.mumsnet.com/talk/gardening/5348275-slugs-tw-for-very-foul-and-sluggist-language

And I note it was also yours OP!

Did the Strulch help at all? I have also tormented myself with remedies for slugs - none really work after the initial dispensing of coffee grinds, wood pellets etc. The garlic spray wasn’t a lot of help either. I love Hostas and have just given up growing them and as for leafy veg and salad - hopeless.

I day dream about slugfeed with slug contraceptives.

@C8H10N4O2 yup, that was me, I've been in recovery since then.

I haven't found a barrier method that has worked for me, but I have been using these slug traps which have been very effective. It's a bit yucky but you can drain the beer out into a jar, to reuse, then just slip the dead slugs out through the holes they got in through (gloves recommended!). I put them in the garden waste or compost heap. Then you can just pour the beer back in and put the traps out again

https://www.amazon.co.uk/SLUG-TRAPPER-Disposable-Repellent-Alternative/dp/B0C8NZ14YW/ref=sr_1_3_sspa?crid=1QIEVEP9JUYHN&dib=eyJ2IjoiMSJ9.4EuDcyRrSerxZZqRJ7bn4uk3OHYxXZqH8DtfC7fd3ri6fxV7Mzv_tbnX5_vwjodCDD_LsjkRWOAK4_nP_3AUYQ4G28WxfI0x8jHFbS2jNFCwyiJBeNdMibPvtBDsoT2fIsoBPpjGd-Jr1KG8AVuCepfH7WXdfZAciaPm5MEI2jy6by1lRRnog_jilEfT0xtR1mlTbpcCS3QWuulDs3ltrCl3GbfLHc7qKwI1Qm1I6Mu39vzQvwISYINEmVanockJRNXSxm7u-NKLCTkb1UH6UGIbvqivOm7OlQbMU2Wg2-w.rOGgShFkkzoXtFYNdtPkG6S3zDMoEqUQL0TcJaCXy5o&dib_tag=se&keywords=slug+traps+beer&qid=1781974867&sprefix=Slug+tr%2Caps%2C561&sr=8-3-spons&aref=l8o06WGZXA&sp_csd=d2lkZ2V0TmFtZT1zcF9hdGY&psc=1

I used to use beer traps, but even the cheapest beer was becoming too costly.

A yeast solution of 1tsp yeast/1tsp sugar/1 litre of water works just as well for me for a fraction of the cost.

I put the solution in a plastic bottle or jar that I can cut a hole in the side of, to allow slugs entrance, leaving the cap or lid on so that the solution doesn’t get diluted by rain.

Sainsbury's own brand beer.
£1.55 for 4-cans.
Have tasted it and it tastes like piss but the slugs like it and that is all that matters.👍

Have yeast in the cupboard for bread making so will give that mixture a go.🤞

Thanks, I'll try this. So you put the cap on the bottle, and lie it down horizontally with the slug doorway on the side?

That’s about 1.6 L for £1.55. You can get 100g of Allinson yeast for that, probably cheaper for non-branded.

Even taking into account the cost of sugar you’ll get a lot more bang for your buck using yeast, I’d say at least 20 L for the same cost