Topic: The Giant Spanish Slugs (Arion vulgaris)

[woodypecks]

Apparently there is going to be an invasion of these huge 5" big slugs ( went to check my emails and read this on AOL ) . Anyone seen sight of any yet ?   

[Tee Gee]

Only seen on TV where they were eating a rat, apparently they like both meat and veg.

If these become a reality on my allotment then I think it will be time to give up growing!

[woodypecks]

Eeew ! .... Seriously if this is true ,  then , what are we all gonna do about it ?    We are going to have to act fast to stop these things breeding  .
I will be welcoming in what ever creatures eat them ...toads ,  hedgehogs  , badgers . I hate using slug pellets ...I dont really like using the slug-pub method either , because other creatures can fall in too . 

[ed dibbles]

Repeat of a story from eighteen months ago:

http://www.mirror.co.uk/news/uk-news/giant-spanish-cannibal-slugs-six-5471698

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/gardening/gardeningadvice/11461200/Giant-Spanish-Superslug-set-to-invade-British-gardens.html

And our gardens and allotments are still there.

 

[Digeroo]

I am interested in this because I have some large slugs which are devastating my rhubarb.  They are not six inches but they are certainly bigger than normal and pale in colour. Never had problems with rhubarb before.  People on our site are very lax about what plant matter they introduce.

Slugs as far as I know have always been cannibals.   And certainly like dog do.

[Paulines7]

I don't think I have seen the Spanish ones yet but we have hundreds of slugs in our garden. 

Last night I must have killed dozens of them and that was just outside our front door!  I have put slug traps with beer around the garden and have caught a lot but I am still overrun with them.  I won't use slug pellets because I have hedgehogs, but there is a limit as to how many slugs they can eat.

Slugs are certainly cannibals because the ones I found last night were feasting on the dead bodies of those I had killed the night before.  There seems no end to them all!

[pumkinlover]

Just come up from the garden having seen a huge, easily 6" pale brown slug..........

[Tee Gee]

Just come up from the garden having seen a huge, easily 6" pale brown slug.

I hope you did your duty for God and country, and made short shrift of this foreign invader!

[picman]

Think I saw one on a garden visit near Morton in Marsh, Gloucestershire.

[johhnyco15]

this morning there was a large grey ghostly looking slug going across my path it was dispatched the same way as all the other that dare the path of doom a size 11

[picman]

Perhaps there is a need to identify and track these Spanish monster slugs. The stripy grey normal version, on our plots in Worcestershire , has been more common this year, the big black shiny job not so much, I have in the past set a slug trap, with a damp sack held down by bricks , with some slug food bait below , need to start again. Unfortunately not all plotholders care too much and slugs don't realistically have many predators.     

[ancellsfarmer]

Slug porn
https://www.google.co.uk/search?q=varieties+of+european+slug&client=firefox-b&tbm=isch&tbo=u&source=univ&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwiJ3fKa6vfOAhXMBsAKHZgEDLAQ7AkIQw&biw=1207&bih=558

[ancellsfarmer]

And:
www.wildlifebcn.org/.../Identifying%20British%20Slugs%20%202012%20version%2...
Just print off a copy and check yours off to see how many you have got!!!!.....
Prize for first complete set.

[galina]

 MIL lost her remaining lettuce plants overnight and as I replanted a 'living salads' pack, we spotted 2 of these.  They were huge.  Now dispatched!  First I have seen.   

[Tee Gee]

I have never seen as many slugs as there has been this year!

My problem is they are coming into the house but how I do not know???

Each night I have a look in the conservatory and most nights I find one or two.

Trouble is:I found one in the kitchen last night and would you believe it we found one on the duvet of my bed this morning.

Just imagine if it was one of these Spanish ones I might wake up one morning minus a toe or worse!

[Deb P]

I'm in southern Spain at the moment, and haven't seen a single slug of any description!

[galina]

I'm in southern Spain at the moment, and haven't seen a single slug of any description!

They've come here on holiday!   

[sunloving]

This year I've been using sluggo ferric slug pellets which have worked a treat on the hoards. I find that they come into the house through your plug holes not nice when you tread on one on the way for a nighttime loo trip!

[InfraDig]

I have used Nemaslug this year for the first time and I am very pleased with the result! I can actually sow and grow things like lettuce in the garden. However, it does say on the packet that it doesn't work on big slugs. It also doesn't work on snails. Having said that, I haven't seen either since using it. It is great being able to garden without losing great quantities of produce.

[woodypecks]

Great ...I,m going to have horrible nightmares after reading all your replies !       ....especially the " slug porn " thanks  for that Ancellsfarmer !