slugs

[marcros]

I am losing sleep over my hostas. the first is poking its head through the soil, and I imagine that a slug has already put an advert out on facebook inviting all local slugs to a party at mine.

Has anybody used nematodes for slug control? I don't want to use anything that is poisonous because we have a few birds around. These things seem good, but I am not sure whether I calculate the area of the lawn when working out what I need.

 

[nabs]

yes they seem to have a similar effect to the old blue slug pellets and give a few weeks protection when you apply them locally to flower beds.

The only long term control that I have found to work is a wildlife pond (and therefore frogs) - not very scientific but when my nextdoor neighbour filled hers in we were inundated with slugs for a couple of years, I made one and the following year no more slugs!

no good if there are young children around though. A lot of people say copper strips laid on the soil or around pots works, has anyone tried that?

 

[marcros]

I have read about copper strips, but for as many people who like them, there are as many saying that they had no effect. same with sharp sand/grit etc. I have a micro irrigation system set up, so any grit would probably get washed away quite quickly. Wool pellets get mixed reviews, mainly not good ones.

The downside of the nematodes is about £9 every few weeks, for the area that I need to cover, but if I can get plants established they may have a fighting chance. If I can do that for £18, it is probably a decent investment.

The other methods that I have seen is beer traps (still may be) an issue with the watering system, and providing somewhere for them to gather (upturned guttering etc) and then culling them from there. I may try these too, since they cost next to nothing.

I am all for encouraging wildlife to help out- gaps in the fence for hedgehogs, possibly a pond for frogs, and we do have at least one song thrush who visits.

 

[Rorschach]

Only 2 methods work for serious slug removal from my experience. Slug pellets, scatter them wide and often on dry nights.

Second is children, give them a bucket and bribe them with sweets.

 

[novocaine]

ah slugs, you see, you have to treats em like moles.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fePU5CIHpas

 

[MikeG.]

Only 2 methods work for serious slug removal from my experience. Slug pellets, scatter them wide and often on dry nights.

Second is children, give them a bucket and bribe them with sweets.

Ducks. Have a couple of mallards in your garden and there'll be no slugs.

 

[Brandlin]

The only long term control that I have found to work is a wildlife pond (and therefore frogs)

<snip>

no good if there are young children around though.

Frogs are the single best slug control you can get. I've had a pond for 20 years and we grow dozens of hostas with barely a single slug hole.

I dont subscribe to the "you cant have a pond with children" angle either. Mine were simply taught to be careful and they LOVED spending summer watching the insects, frogs and fish -it was a valuable learning experience in their lives.

You don't really need a pond to attract frogs though. An area of wetter ground (made by putting a lining of pond liner of builders plastic under a foot or so of soil, along with something as simple as a washing up bowl buried to the rim and allowed to over grow will attract all kinds of beneficial wildlife including frogs.

I would seriously avoid slug pellets. They get into the food chain and poison lots of things. Thrushes in particular eat slugs and snails, as do hedgehogs, moles and other small mammals.

 

[Jonzjob]

+1 for the anti slug pellets. They are not nice to all sorts of wildlife.

I used to spend a few nights with a pair of bamboo tweezers that I made. Go out just after dusk and pick up as many as I could find and drop them in a jar with some white spirit in it. There were less each evening and after a few evenings it was difficult to find any. Drop the slugs into an ash bucket. ad some kindling and burn the things.

The few that are left were then left to the thrushes.

You could always get a slug gun if that don't not work :? :?

 

[John Brown]

I've used the nematode worms in the past. Worked quite well.
As for the expense, I think you can grow your own at home. I've not tried it myself, but the Web has some info/recipes, I believe.

I did make a couple of beer traps a few years back. I was totally amazed at how the slugs would clamber over their dead colleagues to get to the Guinness. I like to think beer traps are fairly humane - it's the way I'd like to go - drowning in Guinness.

 

[Phil Pascoe]

I tried it a few times without success.

 

[Marineboy]

+1 for a pond. Frogs will appear from nowhere soon after you dig it, and they will work away in the background ridding your garden of slugs. We used to plagued with them, not only eating our plants but leaving trails on the doors, coming into the house etc. Since digging the pond, no more slugs, with the added bonus of attracting birds and insects.

 

[Fergal]

I tried copper strip around the rim of a pot, but it didn't put them off.

I then tried two parallel copper rings made from stripped copper cable placed about 1cm apart with a 9V battery connected across them. When a slug bridges the gap between the two wires they get zapped and that puts them off. A 12V car battery works even better.

 

[whiskywill]

Old coffee grounds are supposed to deter them.

 

[Phil Pascoe]

I've just seen somewhere that Starbucks give their coffee grounds away - makes sense, they pay to get rid of them otherwise.

 

[Harbo]

I shall have to try that as I already use the grounds as compost.

Rod

 

[user 19915]

Go on
Have a look at this if you do it let us know how it work's or if it work's https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DtdCBWeL4SQ
Alan

 

[marcros]

I've just seen somewhere that Starbucks give their coffee grounds away - makes sense, they pay to get rid of them otherwise.

I would be a little cautious. I am fairly new to gardening, but do listen to GQT on radio 4 most weeks, and read around the subject a bit. (so limited first hand experience). I heard on GQT that nothing grows around coffee plants- the caffeine surpasses other plants growth. Other reading supported this.

If you chuck a daily domestic amount onto a compost heap, it is probably a tiny percentage of the compost, and in any case will be some months before it is used. If you go to star trek's and get a dustbin full of grounds to use as a mulch, or slug deterrent it may kill everything. We can get some from the costa at work, but I am yet to find anything useful to do with it.

 

[gardentips]

Try: wikihow - how to get rid of garden slugs

This guide has lots of different methods for you to try out, hope one of these works for you.

I am losing sleep over my hostas. the first is poking its head through the soil, and I imagine that a slug has already put an advert out on facebook inviting all local slugs to a party at mine.

Has anybody used nematodes for slug control? I don't want to use anything that is poisonous because we have a few birds around. These things seem good, but I am not sure whether I calculate the area of the lawn when working out what I need.

 

[Phil Pascoe]

... the caffeine surpasses other plants growth. .

Suppresses?

 

[Harbo]

There’s a company that uses waste coffee grounds to grow mushrooms.

Rod