Help me with my slug problem please

[shootfromthehip]

Planted a veg plot about 6 weeks ago and grew most things indoors, hardened them off and then put them in the plot. Just been down for a look and it's been decimated . Courgettes, herbs and salad stuff all gone. I did try putting beer traps out but the buggers have eaten everything. Am willing to try again but are slug pellets the only thing that will work? Please help as I want to be as organic as possible and would rather not use them. Am also very skint and can't afford anything fancy.

Are slug pellets even safe to use around veg?

I use slug pellets around veg. Have no choice sometimes when it's so wet. You can buy pellets that are organic so you don't have to compromise your prenciples.
But the most effective way of dealing with slugs/snails is to remove them by hand at night. Go out with a torch and check all your garden then throw them into a bucket of saled water to kill them. Not pleasant for the slugs but better for the garden

Poor you
Copper tape has worked around the tub I planted my lettuce in, so if you have raised veg beds give it a try, it gives them an electric shock apparently.
You can buy raised bed kits with copper built in but I think they are ££££.
The ranger at the country park we go to recommended really sharp gravel and sacrificial planting around veg, so they eat the other plant and not your veg.

We're using bran at the moment, and on the whole it has seemed to work.

We went to local health food shop and bought a big bag for £1 and sprinkled it thickly around the base of the plants. When it's dry the slugs don't seem to like slithering over it, although when we read about it on the web , it said that they eat it, and it makes the swell up.

We've had no swelling slugs , but most of the veggies are no growing wonderfully, after being nibbled before the bran was used.

You do have to re sprinkle it after watering or rain though, as the little blighters can slither across it after it got wet.

Thanks one and all. Am so miserable about it as I have worked really hard in the garden this year with nothing to show for it now. The weather has been so poor everything is still tiny and suseptable to those slippery wee buggers. Will check out my options.

Nemaslug. Harmless to everything except slugs, works a treat. You get it mail order fromm www.greengardener.co.uk.

Nemaslug (small creature which eat slugs and snails)

Mail order....

www.tamarorganics.co.uk

My garden is overrun with slugs (picked 60 off one small bed yesterday ) I have planted my lettuces in pots with copper tape and they haven't been near them so I've been very impressed with that.

Think I may also invest in some Nemaslug.

After 5 years of trying extremely hard to garden organically, I do now pellet. I only put them round the plants when they are being transplanted to the allotment, which is when they are most vunerable. Anything that gets eaten after that one application of pellets-I just make a note not to buy it again.

Can't use nemaslug on our soil as it is too heavy (hence extreme slug problem)

We also kill every single slug and egg we find and dig over the plot several times a year to find eggs.

Long term plan is for pond, but atm, with a toddler, just not safe to do that.

Slug pellets are vile, vile things, but tbh for us it is that or buying the veg-it is actually impossible to grow stuff because of the slugs.

I think for some of us they are a necessary evil, so if you do find yourselves resorting to them don't beat yourself up too much.