Topic: Are slug pellets frowned upon?

[slippy fly]

As we are new to allotment keeping I am curious to know if its considered ok to use pellets.Do other plot holders mind? I suppose if we use them we cannot say our produce is organic is that correct?

[SMP1704]

In an ideal world, it would all be torchlit midnight raiding parties to squish them and beer traps to drown them.  I use both methods and use the blue ones too.  given the amount of little corpses at the lottie, if I didn't use them there would be nothing but stalks left.  The yukky part is picking the remains up so that birds/mammals don't eat them.

At my plot, several other plotters use them so there are no issues.  I would think that if you have joined a totally organic site, it may be a different story.

I think the key with the pellets is to use them sparingly and sensibily.

Another thread on here has been talking about an organic alternative that is available at B&Q - so that may be the way to go.

[Curryandchips]

Technically you cannot claim your produce to be organic anyway, with complying with very stringent requirements, but as an 'amateur' gardener, albeit a successful one, that should not present a problem (I prefer the term 'natural' ).

Slug pellets have a downside, since they introduce a poison into the system, and also endeavour to remove an organism from the local environment.

If they are scattered freely, then the dead slugs are available to be eaten by unsuspecting scavengers, eg birds. Also the nature of slug pellets is such that most of the constituent is an attractant, rather than a poison, the latter which is rapidly washed away by rain. Hence after a couple of days, the pellets can stop working, and make matters worse ...

A useful design for claiming slugs using pellets is to put them inside an empty margarine carton with a hole cut in the side. Not washing off by rain, and the contents (ugh) can be disposed of without handling the disgusting contents, or presenting them to wildlife.

Hope this helps  :)

[stuffed]

What a good idea hadn't thought of that one. Will definately be trying it soon.

[Tollanedrag]

What a brilliant idea Curry!
I am going to try this out as it appears to address the problems associated with using pellets and I really don't fancy other methods!
I soooooo hate slugs!
Thanks for sharing your inspirational idea!

[Robert_Brenchley]

I use them inside my cold frames, where one slug can cause devastation, and nowhere else.

[slippy fly]

Great idea Curry another thing to add to the list of must save items  ;D .

[weedbusta]

i've just raided the bin for an empty tub. thanks curry, a great idea.

[Larkspur]

Hi, I use them, though sparingly. After many years of watching and reading every test I could find I an convinced they are the only econmical method which works. Mind you, given the average population of slugs and snails per square metre it seems a pretty hopeless task anyway.
If you think about it there doesn't seen to be any shortage of slugs despite gardeners best attempts to kill them for the last few centuries or more. ::)

[Sprout]

An additional note to the margarine tub suggestion is to ensure that the tub is either weighed down with a stone or suitable weight or somehow secured to the ground otherwise it'll blow away in the wind.

[robsa]

Have a search on this board for 'ferrous phosphate' pellets. They are apparently wildlife-friendly, remain active when wet and the slugs burrow into the soil to die so no mess to clean up.

You can get them from B&Q or the Organic Catalogue:
http://www.organiccatalog.com/catalog/product_info.php?cPath=61_179&products_id=1821

I'm trying some out at the moment after my dwarf french beans and pak choi were starting to get nibbled.

Robsa

[Curryandchips]

Good suggestion Sprout, I have only used the tub idea in a sheltered corner.

[Svea]

robsa, those are the ones i am using.
i havent had to clean up any mess yet - like you said, the slugs and snails go into hiding to die quietly.

i still crunch underfoot what i can, too

[Daisy_Jane]

I agree with Curry , the traditional blue slug pellets do appear to attract more slugs and snails than they kill off. I've just come back from hols and found my young artichoke plants eaten to the base of the stems ........ and that was after a liberal application of pellets ....... arghhh!

Must try and lure them away to a margarine tub in future!

[greenstar]

I've ordered some of the organic ones, and am waiting for them to arrive whilst the slugs happily munch away on everything.  Had used the slug stoppa pellets before, and they really seem to work but are not economical to use on the whole allotment - you have to use them quite thickly and ring individual areas or plants, and re-apply quite often.  I used a whole £5.99 box in one go. 

But in answer to your question, unless it says otherwise in your lease, you can use whatever you like on your lottie.  Ask other plot holders what they use - you never know, you might get more handy hints and even some freebies!   It worked for me!

[Dunc_n_Tricia]

The chap that has the plot next to ours made a very small pond on his patch to encourage frogs to breed. Nothing clears up slugs quite as well as a hungry frog  ;D

The frogs didn't seem to be doing to well tough, until I pointed out to other lottie holders that slug pellets will kill frogs too. I refuse to use pellets for this reason. I would gladly nuke all slugs and snails out of existance, but I am not going to harm frogs, birds and hedgehogs though.

I don't know of any of the plot holders who still use pellets, and the result is startling. There are lots of little frogs about, and NO SLUGS. I didn't see one last summer. It didn't work on snails unfortunately, we had a bumper crop of them - but it is much more pleasant to remove a snail by hand than a slug - that shell makes a nice handle.

We've tried a couple of barriers in the last couple of years. Egg shells and sharp sand seem to work well, but in my experience, nothing (except frogs) works better than coffee.

Most of our young plants are grown from seed in the greenhouse in our back yard. There are a couple of small raised beds and lots of wall mounted troughing as well. For a small yard at the back of a terraced house, it is amazingly green. It is also blessed with a south facing aspect, and cursed with slugs and snails.

A few years ago I read about coffee deterring slugs and decided to have a go in the back yard. It was covered in slimey trails, and lots of young plants were being nibbled. I got the cheapest instant i could from the supermarket, and made up watering cans full of cold coffee. Nothing scientific - I didn't measure it. About a lid full in each can I think. Then i drenched the whole back yard. The hanging baskets got coffeed too. The result? I didn't see another slime trail until the following spring!!!

I did it again this year just before my sweetcorn went outside on the staging to harden off. We had been clearing snails by hand for a couple of days, but there were too many. Since the whole place has been coffeed again, there have only been a few sightings of snails - mainly INSIDE the greenhouse which was coffee free. There have been NO SLUGS. Those in the green house are easily removed, and it looks clear now.

Sorry to ramble on so much, but there ARE viable alternatives to slug pellets. But if you do decide to use them, please remove the corpses before the frogs have them.

Tricia :-*

[Larkspur]

Hi Dunc_n_Tricia, I agree with you that frogs (and toads and thrushes) would be the ideal solution to slugs and snails if we had them in large enough quantities. However, so far as the barrier methods you describe are concerned,  I have as I wrote earlier, followed every published test for these that I can find and the inevitable conclusion is that despite widely held views to the contrary, when put into the field in test conditions they do not work.

[Dunc_n_Tricia]

Tests of coffee in our back yard, on on our allotment over the last three years have conclusively kept slugs and snails at bay. I've never tried it in a field though ;)

Tricia

p.s. The pond our next door plot holder has is about 1 foot wide by 2.5 feet long, and is in about the middle of a 14 plot site. The chapp with the end plot has reported a drastic reduction in slugs too, so you don't need that many to make a difference.

[loulou]

do you think  that if i sprinkled coffee on the floor in all this rain it would have the same affect as my seedlings are being munches and my little girls sunflowers  ;D iv  got loads of cheep Coffey ( thanks to a  familymember )

[Larkspur]

Hi again, I'm glad coffee works for you.  ;D. I don't know how many frogs are based in the small pond you describe but I have about twelve adult frogs that live in my small back garden and also a population of slugs and snails that would probably have counted as one of the plagues of Egypt in biblical times.
Perhaps you have hyper frogs, running on caffeine. ;D