Depressed - slugs are evil

[Doris_Pinks]

I use my boot Aqui, that way I know they are gone, and quickly! :-\ Have a look in the pond and see if you can see any bodies! Have a funny feeling the resilient little darlings would find a way out!

[Doris_Pinks]

[aquilegia]

Had a poke round in the still undrained (it's not lined yet - full due to rainwater and clay!) pond last night with a stick. And what do you know - found two very wet, very dead snails in there! Left them on the side for the birds/toads to munch on.

My theory is - if I supply the predators with easy food, it'll incourage them to come into the garden (Maude? ;D) um... more and then they'll start doing the hard work for me!

[rdak]

Last year I read somewhere that you should collect any slugs you find, pop them in a plastic bottle, pour in some boiling water, and keep doing this until you have a bottle full. The slugs will die, melt and you have yourself a bottle of the most vile smelling black liquid known to mankind. Your are then meant to pour this liquid on your plot- the theory being that it will stop slug eggs from hatching, as the slime in slugs acts as a population control mechanism -i.e. if there are lots of slugs in an area leaving slime everywhere, the eggs won't hatch, preventing over population of slugs.

I have no idea if it works- I have a bottle of said liquid from last year and am too scared to use it in case it does serious harm to plants!

[Doris_Pinks]

Or your sense of smell Ross! Phew :P

[aquilegia]

Ross - I need a really good vomit emoticon. blurgh.

[SueM]

I endorse the "2-litre plastic bottle cut in half" method for protecting very young plants. By the time each one had outgrown its very own personal cloche it's big enough and ugly enough to look after itself - with a bit of help from slug pellets.

Sue

[Margaret]

METHINKS YOU ARE ALL MISSING THE OBVIOUS SOLUTION

FROGS FROGS FROGS FROGS FROGS

AND MORE FROGS.

i HAVE THE MOST BEAUTIFUL LARGE LEAVED HOSTAS

NOT A HOLE IN SIGHT!!

[Doris_Pinks]

Have to say Margaret, I too have loads of froggies, but they just can't seem to keep up with my hippo sized slugs!!! My hostas that are coming up next to the pond, already have the net curtain look! :'( What I need is an army of hedgehogs too!!  Only heard the one so far snuffling in my hedges :o  Still, worth the holes to see the wildlife I reackon! ;D

[Multiveg]

Mwah, they have been eating my peas in the garden border. Caught a couple of snails in the greenhouse nibbling my beans and tomatoes & squash. Still got the trail over the sage leaves. Might go on a slug hunt tonight...

[Mrs Ava]

Visited my sis yesterday to give her a hand in her garden and she was moaning like hell about the slugs eating all of her french marigolds she had just planted out.  When I looked, every plant in her garden seemed to be infested with tiny little slugs, as though a couple of huge egg clusters had hatched a couple of days ago!  Her whole garden is raised beds and she loves to mulch with bark and I do wonder if she has made a have for slugs of all sizes!  So, before I had left, she had almost emptied a whole pot of slug pellets our her plot.  :-\

[Multiveg]

 :'( :'( Got 4 heritage peas left from the 15 I planted out. The snails got them  :'( :'( They also got my marigolds (or their homeless cousins) and 3 out of 5 lettuce seedlings. Caught the 2 snails in the greenhouse responsible for eating tomato & bean seedlings. The trail of one is still visible on my sage seedlings.

[Multiveg]

went slug & snail hunting - monday yielded 50, yesterday 135 and tonight 105. Putting oatmeal as bait - also put this round my 4 surviving heritage peas and had 2 nights without slugs and snails there.

[rdak]

they is evil, I tells ya. Planted out some EJ Aubgerines in pots, with a Marigold for company, and surrounded edge of pot with expensive Slug Barrier grit about an inch wide. Result this morning....marigold and aubergine in tatters with slug slime all over the pot. this is war.

[Chezzie]

I have a horrible feeling that this is going to sound stupid but doesn't salt work?  [running for cover]

My biggest fear in the whole wide world is slugs, with snails a close second.  I gave a big pot of Hostas to my neighbour because of the slimey visitors [I might be regretting it now they are coming up a treat!]

Chezzie

[rdak]

pouring salt on slugs will kill them- but leaving salt around plants is bad for most veg crops (think beetroot and asparagus are two that don't mind a little salt)

[Chezzie]

So I'm not as silly as I thought, does that mean it's ok for Hostas and non-edibles?

[philcooper]

Plants that like/tolerate salt are those that come from species that orginally grow on the coast

I can't recall seeing Hostas on the Golden Mile!!

Phil

[derbex]

Interesting about asparagus tolerating salt -my dad told me that my granddad used to put salt on his asparagus beds. Is it realted to samphire/glasswort?

Jeremy

[Chezzie]

I do live 5 minutes walk from the sea Phil so they have grown up with it.

[philcooper]

Presumably they also like candy floss!!  ;D