Topic: How can I protect my courgettes from slugs?

[Crystalmoon]

I am soooooooooooo frustrated  >:(
I carefully treated the bed I planned to plant my courgettes in with nematodes to kill the baby slugs. I covered the surface liberally with pellets, then I covered with the black anti weed stuff. Then i planted my young plants & surrounded them with organic wool type mulch that slugs are supposed to hate along with pellets around the edges of the bed & even eggshells because I have read slugs dislike crawling over the sharp edges....despite all of this I have had 6 plants destroyed & I havent even had the heart to check today to see if the remaining 3 have been damaged  :'(
Does my allotment have the only hang gliding stunt slugs in the world??????????????
Can anyone think of away to protect my courgettes?
I am going to sow some new plant indoors & am considering keeping them in pots inside so I can keep them safe.

[tim]

What can one say??

I put 4 or 5 pellets around each & get away with it.

[oubykh]

i always use pellets and make beer traps. put cheap bitter (seems to work better than lager!!) in a plastic bottle which has had a small window cut out of it about 2/3rds/half way up.
you bury the bottle in the ground almost upto the window for stability and leave the top on so rain doesn't dilute the beer. always get a sluggy beer soup soon after!!

[Magnolia]

I'm using used coffee sludge from Cafe Nero.  It's working a treat.

[tonybloke]

A ring of copper wire around the plant works, be aware that any membrane will provide a hiding placefor slugs. ;)

[wilko]

 :) hi do a search for 'coffee' (sorry I don't no how to give you the link) I'm trying that this year, I lost all sorts to the little sods last year  >:(

ever hopeful  :-\

[Crystalmoon]

Thanks for all your replies. I will lift the membrane & try to get hold of some coffee sludge from my local cafes. I am also going to use the copper tape on some pots I will use for the next batch of courgettes. 

[Tee Gee]

I think I see two things here;

One; I get the feeling you are using too many slug pellets and Two; you are scattering them too much.

Slug pellets have an attractant in them so you might be attracting every slug/snail for miles around to come for a feast.

Sometimes I only put them around the perimeter of the bed, in  this way I find they have a feed of pellets on the way on to the bed and another on the way off. If you put them next to the plant you have in fact attracted them to where the plant is!! which otherwise it/they might have missed.

But I find best of all is to find out where they hiberenate during the day and put a row of pellets between there and the bed and again they have a feed of pellet on the way out and on the way in. Plus by doing this you tend to find most of the dead slugs in this vicinity making it relatively easy to clear them before wildlife eat them.

Now I am not saying this way is perfect but I find I don't have  a major problem with slugs/snails

[Plot69]

Can anyone think of away to protect my courgettes?

Also used by Jeremy  Clarckson for weed control...

[littlegem]

we moved into new home in nov last year, and i must have killed about 1,000 slugs since then, by going out at night with a torch and a big tub of salt!  one slug went into my gh the night we got it put up! it was the last thing that slug ever did!!!!!   let's hope i got the majority of the little beggars, eh!

[Crystalmoon]

Thanks Tee gee I had no idea the pellets attracted the buggers  :o

Littlegem, I think I will go down to my lottie tonight when its cooler & wait to kill the buggers as they arrive for their feast...also need to clear up some of the blooming attracting pellets  ::)

Ha Ha Plot69...yes I could do with one of these as a security guard  ;D

[Geomet]

I planted out 2 courgette plants in my compost heap (added soil on top) 10 days ago.I have 2 lines of defence.......first,a circle of soot(not in gontact with the plants..second...a circle of flint stones from my plot..................so far so good....................................I planted out an additional 5 today WITHOUT any protection...............it will be interesting.

[tim]

Attract them? What else! Glad you mentioned the overkill, TG - like adding a bit more weedkiller. Counterproductive.

I'll stick to my 4 or 5 mini pellets.

[loopyloulou]

ill have the army guy too please! think my seedlings need all the help they can get! and no, not the only hang gliding slugs hun, i caught one little one on a string of slime dangling down from the roof of the pop up greenhouse this morning and a big fat one (ninja master?) on the side luckily they hadnt chomped yet so sorry to say they didnt get theyre last feast! im prone to chopping them up with whatevers handy n then flinging them next door, snails get a free flying lesson into next doors fence... birds love me!!! elsewise the crafty devils have eaten half my baby sunflower seedlings so far and nibbled on my cosmea, last yr they devoured everything so not going to complain yet! i scattered eggshells wether or not that or the weathers makes a difference who knows? but i will keep chopping and flinging any i find... and planting more just incase we do get more rain and so on, have always got pots to fill... can never have 2 many pots :)

[GrannieAnnie]

I'm trying this for the first time (after they nipped off my cucumber seedlings): a used paper cup (actually plastic cup) with the bottom cut out, sink it into the ground a tad so it won't blow over then planted the new seedling in it. the slugs will have to climb up the cup wall and down to get the seedling. It has been in the ground about 5 days now and no slug damage so far.

Half of my sunflowers were nipped off last night also  >:(so might try the cup bit with the survivors. Or it could have been birds...

[PurpleHeather]

Slugs do bring out the worst within us, don't they?.

They hate anything rough and dry.

They do not like to climb. (Yes I know that they do climb but they are stupid too).

So, place the plants on a mound with dry material around them

A coat of sawdust, straw, coffee grounds and a bit of gravel smattered with a few slug pellets.

Next trick is to lift the little babies as they grow. The leaves are naturally prickly so as a blossom appears stick it on a leaf.

If you can't get decent fruit after all that then give me your address and I will send you some.

[weedgrower]

i think the best form of defense against slugs is to go down to the plot at night after it has stopped raining with a torch and kill the b.stards.i went down sunday night at 10.45 and by 11.30 had killed 266. now theres probably a lot more but theres 266less than saturday