Feel a bit of a cheat saying this is a Top Tip, as I don't even know whether it will work yet, but here it is anyway! I thought how some people use round sections of plastic bottles to keep the slugs away, and others use barriers such as grit, egg shell or hair (but the problem is the barrier easily gets washed away, mixed in with soil or breached in some way, like a leaf falling on it providing a slug bridge.
So...today cut some sections of plastic bottles, cut the top edge so it's jagged, pasted the top inch with Copydex and sprinkled on some slug barrier grit. Hopefully will prove effective!
Ross: That's not a slug barrier, it's a saw for cutting roofing tiles!
(Me? I'm going coffee grinds seeing as how Mrs Kew now has a new coffee m/c!)
Ross, wonder if putting copper tape around the top would work?! I fill the inside of mine with the barrier material! Let us know how you get on! Oh and Ken, funny you should say that cos I told Mr Pinks just yesterday to start drinking "real" coffee again so I could have the grounds! ;D
DP, I have read reports of copper tape not proving effective unless the copper is always in contact with the soil and damp. besides, I am always one to try and save money!
I do the same as Doris and fill the plastic rings with eggshells &c.
I have tried coffee grounds and dregs, but wasn't convinced I now use them for Camelias, Rhododendrons &c.
Jeremy.
coffee seems to be working on some of my seedlings, they haven't been eaten yet anyway!
I was using coffee on my delphiniums, but with all the rain we have just had, it must have all long washed away, and the slugs have started feasting again :'(. Been out and freshened it up, but I running out of ideas! I grow delphs and lupins in huge pots which I can keep slug/snail free, but I would love a huge patch of delphs by my conservatory. :-[
I grow hostas, which we all know are slug food, yet this year so far they have hardly been touched. No it is OTHER plants that have become victims of the slime devils. namely Tansy, Echinacea and Gailardia (as well as food crops). I have tried a new brand of pellets this year which are supposed to be safer for wildlife, made of aluminium sulphate rather than metaldehyde. Result: Oh yes these are safe for wildlife - including slugs and snails, since one shower of rain and they wash away. They are also more expensive than the traditional sort. So I expect i shall be using these again (albeit carefully) to protect my crops.
This said i am trying out the coffee granules idea. We have been saving used stuff from the machine and have tried a barrier of it around vunerable plants in the garden (not sure about using it on pots, might be too concentrated for the plant :-\). So I shall see if it works.
It's funny you should mention hostas, Richard. Strangely enough, mine haven't been touched either - and neither have my delphiums. I used the nematodes last year and this and I have only seen perhaps half a dozen slugs so far this year. It's snails that are my problem - I have at least four species. This year, they have gone mad for hollyhocks, lupins and bergenia. I read about some research into coffee last year. I may try it but I had heard that it is damaging to lettuces and some other veg.
Been putting out oatmeal - put a ring of this round the 4 surviving heritage peas - no sign of slugs on the peas. However, the slugs and snails like the oatmeal, and I just go round with a jar of beer and bung em in it with a gloved hand - 105 last night, 135 the night before...
Funny isn't it, what slugs and snails munch in one mans garden they leave well alone in another! Hostas and hollyhocks, not touched, delphs and lupins, grazed to ground level! On the lottie, lost about 4 lettuce out of about a trillion (okay, slight exageration, but I do seem to have an awful lot of lettuce on the plot), but I put this down to the other chaps using pellets like hundreds and thousands on a trifle, so they have attracted them all over to their plots! ;D
We have been lucky (ish) so far..been wondering if i shoul dkeep cutting grass as it give the slugs something to munch on instead of the plants ..or does it ??
Well, I found a slug and put a circle of coffee grounds all round it. An hour later I went to check. The slug didn't know the rules, it had bu**ered off!
Luckier than my slugs, KK. Today I brought home large sheets of fleece from last year which I intend putting over my corns as I will have to put them out earlier than intended - anyway fleece dirty so tied in pillowslip and put thru washing machine, came out nice and fresh and as were the 3 slugs trapped inside but they weren't moving sooo......
HAHAHAHA Wicker! Lemon scented slugs, could start a new trend!
I was going to ask how peeps got their fleece nice and clean, mine is pretty grim, and now you have told me, so many thanks!
So; putting slugs through the washer worked? Do you think it was the wash or spin cycle that did it? I mean, if it works for sure then all our prob's are over.
Hee-hee - if it's anything like my socks, there's half a dozen slugs still in there, just waiting to pop out!
Watch what you're doing when you iron things like shirt pockets! :) :)
All best - Gavin
Yup, think I've cracked it, after all isn't the old saying "Cleanliness is next to Godliness" so that way we are actually doing the wee souls a favour sending them off to meet their maker washed clean. For assorted insects perhaps Mixed Fabrics Cycle would be best (but in a pillow slip remember - best for all delicates) ;)
Did any one see the tip for slugs and snails on 'The Allotment' tv programme?
Its to do with using pellets so if your are against them look away now ;D
You get a plastic box with a lid and cut a slug/snail sized hole in the side at the bottom, Then put the pellets inside and put the lid in firmly. Now just put the box near vunerable plants and check it in a few days. Dispose contents in bin ;D .
I think the idea is that the slugs get at the pellets and are killed by them, but birds cannot get at the poisoned snails, nor will the chemical get in the soil. :)
This did surprise me, I always thought you used the pellets like a barrier to stop and kill the slime devils on their way to the plants. It seems that the pellets actualy attract them, so this is actualy a longer lasting chemical equivalent of a beer trap. One snag, what do you do if they decide to visit your plants BEFORE visiting the trap?
Put beer traps out today, at least in my lottie they die happy!!!Hic (well, apart from the 30 or so I cut in half a few days ago! :o ) Oh and I managed to get a nice cold shandy out of the remaining beer ;D ;D ;D
After several years of 're-locating' slugs and snails (by the bucket full) to a hedgerow some distance across the field, we are virtually free from the little darlings. I know about the theory that they will return unless you kill them, but the trick is to re-locate whole families so they stay together in their new 'home' and don't come back looking for a lost family member. The birds seem to like the arrangement too.
I uses radishes to sacrifice my salad stuff. I let them been eaten while I keep an eye my lattice. I put hosta next to water stream as barrier. Any good idea???