Top tips for getting rid of slugs in the garden?

[emkana]

Yesterday dh was so impressed at the speed and the helpfulness of Mumsnet when we needed a recipe for fairy cakes that he told his parents about it at dinner today. FIL immediately said that maybe you wise Mumsnetters could help him with a problem - does anybody have a good tip how to get rid of slugs in the garden? FIL is distraught at having his plants destroyed!
THank you very much in advance!

Are you squeamish? The best thing I find is to physically kill them. If you go out first thing when the dew is still on the grass, and just chop them in half with a sharp implement like a lawn-edger. Then the birds can come and eat them without getting poisoned themselves. (It's quite therapeutic too ... I quite enjoy leaving the kids to fight over their cornflakes to take out my frustrations on some slugs )

Coffee, is a very good deterrent (cheapy brand mind) just sprinkled along the edge of the flower bed.....or around the edge of the plants.....ALSO heard someone say a saucer of cider nearby sorts them out (hic) slug (feeling rather giddy..and of course slug pellets if you don't mind dead slugs and things in your garden.

My boys are heavily into gardening atm, and we've got all sorts of veg growing. Ds1 is VERY keen to camp out in the garden 'on guard' for cats and dogs and slugs and snails ... (No, I don't know why he thinks the dogs are going to eat the rhubarb?!)

I haven't tested this method yet, but for a negotiable fee I'd be more than happy to loan him to your FIL for a month or two

Living in the north we are plagued by the things adn have tried everything. To no effect so my top tip is concrete or flag the whole flipping thing to get rid of them but they will still slime their way into everything. My dd9 keeps slug farms which kill off a few.

little bit of beer (1-2 inches) in a plastic ice cream tub or similar dug into the ground, the slugs love it, fall in and drown. disose of entire tub when full!
It works FIL swears by it, his garden is pest free, also try to attract birds.

we used to put grapefruit skins round the garden, and then you can pick them them up full of slugs and bin them in one go.

frogs

i've heard about the beer solution too and apparently it works. be careful if there is a dog in the garden though as they would try and drink it!

A biological solution are nematodes (sp) which are tiny parasites that you can buy.Think you add the poser containing the nematodes and water the garden. The nematodes bury into the back of slugs head and kill them (something like that)
This explains it

death to slugs

add the POWDER not POSER

Emkana, we're going to try nematode worms (microscopic parasitic worms that eat those bstrds up without poisoning any other creatures). You can get Nemaslug from various garden centres. They're in egg form at this point if you are a bit squeamish. You dig them into the soil and then they hatch.
We've had little luck with beer and like our resident birds too much to risk pellets. Love Roisin's idea of slicing slugs in half but never have time in the early mornings...

Starry, great minds think alike clearly. Death to slugs!

Another one is to put straw around the bottom of the plants as, appartently they don't like sliming across it. May make the garden look like a farm yard though!

maybe bark chippings would do the same job?

The beer one was also one I was going to suggest.

Horror of horrors here...........when we moved into this house we used to get slugs in the KITCHEN and I'd find their disgusting trails everywhere in the morning, floor, cupboard doors, worktops, sink, draining board everywhere it really gross. And I trod on one one night when getting a bottle for DS2, BAREFOOT!

circle of sharp sand around susceptible plants (eg hostas) does the trick. we don't have slugs here because we have quite sandy soil and they don't like slugging across it, bless 'em

To get rid of them straight away just cover them in cooking salt. And if you want to keep them out of plant pots, rub Vaseline around the top few inches of the pot.

Ash from the barbecue is great too - they won't cross it - so good for protecting early seedlings and particularly scrumptious plants, that could be killed off by greedy slugs.

bless 'em, pph? You have a soft spot for sluggies perhaps?

I am thinking of nematodes this year too. Wigglywigglers sell them.

Well, maybe we can send all our molluscs down to PPH for a sandy soil acclimatisation holiday
We have serious clay here and they love it, drat them. Will try grit and vaseline, but we haven't found bark chippings a useful deterrent.

If you want pellets, Growing Success do some that aren't harmful to other animals, even if they eat the poisoned slug.

V. interested int he nematoids... might have to give those a go this year.

Message withdrawn

My solution was to stop growing the kind of plants that slugs and snails like. It's working a treat so far - garden is lovely!
Also, feed the birds. The more birds in your garden, the fewer slugs.

We collect them at night, jug full of hot coffee and pair of tweezers, drop them in and flush whole lot down toilet. Roisin-you are so brave cutting them in half, took me a while to be able to even pick them up with tweezers.
Great fun for all the family-dd begs to go out and do it, "is it slug killing time yet"

It says here that nemotodes are temp sensitive so can only be used in late spring and summer and that they are less effective in heavy clay soil-still worth I try though.

I have a soft spot for little slugs, must be difficult being so repulsive and hated. tweezers indeed! (of course, this is because I have none. now those bastard moles digging up my lawn, on the other hand....)

Oh miggy, what if they slimed back up the toilet whilst you were sitting on it? Urgh, urgh, urgh! I get the b**tards in the house as well. Had a recurring dream about them once - I ate them and they tasted like pate.