Slugs have eaten my little marigolds!

[Numberfour]

What can I do to get rid of them? I am new to gardening and am learning as I go along!

I dont like using pellets so I go out at night time particulalry when it's damp and collect the slugs and snails by hand ( with a utensil). Not a recognised method but seems to work.

Not much is the answer, if my own experience is anything to go by. I've had marigolds every year (in pots), and have tried everything - eggshells, beer, scattering little blue pellets around, bringing the pots in at night (that didn't last long) - last year I tried some copper tape around the pots which is supposed to give them an electric shock when they try and cross it. It's not cheap either. The slugs in my garden must have had jetpacks or something because they still managed to get past the tape to the marigolds.

This year I didn't even bother buying any.

If they are planted in the soil, I can only imagine it's worse as they are easier to get to. Good luck, and if you find something that works I'd be very interested to hear.

I do the same as PardonMyClench, and it's very effective.

I use marigolds as sacrificial lambs on the basis that if the slugs are eating them, they might be leaving my courgettes & lettuce the hell alone!!

Yip, I planted them in the soil in a damper area than they probably should be, Fontella. But on the bright side, my lettuces are in a trough with fresh soil and hopefully to use liath's way of thinking, the slugs will leave the lettuces alone.