Done Slug Patrol

[cilla]

I have just gone out as I do most nights with my iPhone touch to catch the slugs. Not getting as many as I did a few weeks ago when I started my night patrol. I got the wool pellets which is supposed to be good, well does not seem to work. The slugs still climb on the plants and flowers even with the plants surrounded with the wool pellets and the stuff stinks. The beer pots works if you catch them before they climb out again, drunk! Blue pellets seems the best after the night patrol.
If anyone have any other ideas let me know.

[Bigmallly]

10g Yeast dissolved in 1lt warm water, 1 teaspoon of sugar to activate the yeast. Decant into small pots, just as good as beer traps but cheaper..............I decanted 6lts yesterday with 6lts on standby......each pot had captures today.

[Lumpy]

As said before in the 'What I did today' thread - give up gardening and take up knitting!

It has been so wet and warm here that the critters are coming out every where.

Too add insult to injury I have yet to find a suitable recipe for them al!

[cilla]

Thanks for yeast recipe. Will give that a go.
Maybe if flour goes in with yeast we could batter them for you to eat Lumpy! Or just batter them!

[Bigmallly]

There you go Lumpy............home made Snail Bread................

[Containergardener]

Perhaps a pic ? I need to do something , lots off more brownie ones today ewwww

[Lumpy]

I really hate the big yellow ones!

[cilla]

Yellow ones? Not seen any of these just big brown ones.

[Ryez]

I have 10 litres of the stuff! (wool pellets). They work if the weather is dry as they stay rough (mind me, you need to put a lot and keep topping it up). Rain softens them up and the slugs can cross them comfortably. I use "pet-safe" slug pellets but, with so much rain lately, they melt. So again I need to top them up every day which seems pointless. Funny eh, all the stuff that is meant to deter/exterminate slugs don't work well with rain.. Hello! Slugs come out in rainy nights... The blue pellets (non-pet safe) seem to work better but as I live on a slope and near to a river I feel awful using chemical stuff. Wouldn't want the cows in the nearby field drinking anything dodgy!

[Bigmallly]

I use "pet-safe" slug pellets but, with so much rain lately, they melt.

They can be used in water using the same method as beer traps and are still effective. It worked for me last year using blue pellets as an experiment.

[muddled]

I have the most success with fizzy pop bottles and vaseline or copper slip.

So far, despite the worst slug infestation I have ever seen, I have zero slug damage on my runner beans and have just today planted out some peas and courgettesusing the same method.

Handpicking works quite well, slug pubs even better and the bottle/vaseline collars better still. Whatever you use I think you need a combination of barriers, traps and deterrants before you see a decline in slimey damage and numbers.

[chasingmytail]

on the prowl late last night

I was out just before midnight last night with a head torch and got hundreds it was revolting. There are so many plants eaten through. I am now seriously concerned by the devastation I've got. The Nemaslug got me through the beginning but thats worn off now and if I go back to it the soil will be too dry. Also found a leaf covered in caterpillars!!!!

Will have to try the traps but as usual its the time element for me.

[maverick451]

Im having to go out at 10pm and again at 11pm and get about 50 each time

Im using beer traps using similar home made recipe to above, im still getting about of damage but plants are getting a bit bigger.

I personally have never found the barriers to be that effective, ive seen snails go acrross 4 foot of roof felt on my shed to get at my seeding I put up there (thought they would be safe on the roof)

One tip I would give is refresh the beer traps regularly, about every 4 days, they seem to become less attractive after that

[SusieG]

An ode to slugs :

This innocent-looking gastropod
Us gardeners do despair ...

'Fraid they're gonna beat us
So don't pull out your hair ...

Black ones, cream ones
Brown ones and yellow ones ....
Fat ones, thin ones
And all Inbetween ones....

Beer traps, copper tape
Woolly pellets, blue pellets...
Catch 'em, squash 'em
Chuck 'em over the fence

Nature is nature,
We're never going to win ...
We love to hate them
And the chance of getting rid is really very slim(ey) ...!!!

[OscarSidcup]

I've been going out in the garden at night with the light on my phone and a large salt shaker. Slugs do not like salt at all. Not at all.
Only downside is that my grass does not like it either and now has a lot of white spots.

To add insult to injury, I found 2 massive slugs on my cucumber plants, despite the fact that all my raised beds are covered in netting. They were not supposed to be there! I can only imagine the little b*ggers came from the soil. I have now semi buried large jars half filled with beer but have very anxious walks to the vegetable beds to inspect damage.

In this day and age there has to be somewhere a real deterrent. I'll keep looking and reading and will report! [no luck so far...]