Topic: slug help please

[small]

Great minds of A4A, I need your help! I have a large conservatory which is home to about 40 geranium pots over winter. It is also home to my cat, where she is fed. Every night I find one or two slugs round her food dish, so I need to find a safe way of dealing with them. I HATE SLUGS. And I don't suppose Tigerlily likes them in her kibbles, either. I have tried concealing blue pellets at the only point I think they can get in, and I don't want to just leave them open in there in case she is stupid enough to try them. So, does copper tape actually deter slugs? I use ground glass in the garden to protect cukes etc, but can't quite see how to use that inside. Do slugs cross horticultural fleece, I could lay that down, or maybe old towels? What do you all do?

[Tee Gee]

I haven’t a clue how they get into my conservatory but they do??

The most success I have had is following a night time routine where. I go around and see if my doors are locked etc and at the same time I do what. I call my slug patrol and look for them.

If I find any I pick them up in a piece of kitchen towel and flush them down the loo.

I see this as a humane way of dealing with them as they have a 50-50 chance of survival should they survive the trip down the sewer. But I am happy in the knowledge that they are miles away from my house!

[Paulh]

In my experience, copper tape is effective as a barrier: I grow my hostas in pots with tape around them part way up. The plants are untouched for the first part of the summer until I let the leaves touch another plant or structure and an alternative entry route is created. So if the tape can be effectively deployed where you think the slugs enter, that could stop it.

You could mark out a rectangle on the floor (or a board) with the tape and put the cat's bowl in that.

Your problem may also be that you now have slugs happily lurking in the 40 geranium pots or other crevices in the conservatory!

[saddad]

We even get the odd slug trail on the carpet in the dining room, even when the French Windows have been shut for months... I think they get under the floor through the air bricks and come up where the old floorboards don't quite meet....

[small]

Yes, Saddad, we've had one squeeze through right about where I find them in the conservatory. Not fun. Thanks for the ideas, I like the idea of protecting her dish in a magic circle, and I found a way of putting pellets where she cannot get at them. I hate killing things but had a thrill of pleasure when I found two dead ones this morning....