Slugs

[blue-and-green]

get the same organic slug pellets cheaper at B&Q!! and my usually very expensive local nursery sells 750g for £3.99, with the website as above it is £8.15 inclusive of delivery. so worth shopping around.

[Grandpadragon]

Yipes! they are pricey but not as bad as Nemaslug! Think as we have so many birds coming into the garden I might just say Bugger the expence. Thank you for your help O Queen of the Peasticks

[Grandpadragon]

Thanks for the tip blue and green due a trip to B&Q this coming week so will check for them

[heebiejeebie]

I got some cheap in poundstretcher yesterday.

[TPeers]

Much as I hate admiting defeat - stopped using pellets, can't be sure that my toddler won't eat them! Not to mention the hens, not that Pippa eats much mind you, except pasta, but if she shouldn't.......

I either have to do the evening patrol (which I hate) or let them get away with it - close race at the moment.

[berksmike]

My poor brassica bed is getting most of the unwanted attention of flea beetles and slugs.... Just doused them in derris solution.
My beer traps are catching the big slugs but the smaller ones prefer my cabbages... Grrrrrrrr
I may have to resort to pellets after all.... I had wanted to avoid it but manually catching them isn't practical as I'd have to dismantle my netting cage every time

[Flummery]

If you net the bed the birds shouldn't be able to get to the pellets should they? Mine are netted because the pesky pigeons eat new shoots of just about anything!

[Dobby]

in have heard soap powder isgood it frofs up and clogs up thry slime glands its ment to be fun to watch

[inca'smum]

Lidl have got an offer on slug and snail barrier,made from copper alloy - starts today. 18m for £7, You could try surrounding your plants with that?

[Cutecumber]

Sue - in answer to the end question in your post, a shallow dish of beer will just attract them, they'll enjoy it, and then move on to your plants. You do need something with depth.

I am very interested in problems with slugs and snails...

When I first started growing veggies in the garden about seven years ago, we had a major slug, and to a lesser extent snail, problem. I happened to be setting up a farmers market at the time and asked a few growers about them. Ones told me that, just like any other pest, he had observed cycles of boom and bust over the years. We were in a particularly big boom, apparently, more slugs around than he could remember for a long time.

For much of that year, and the next two or three years, I did everything I could (organically) to keep them at bay. Yes, most overground slugs and snails eat debris, but there were so many they just ate anything and everything. It was soul destroying, and not just for me and my vegetables, but for any plant with a remotely soft bit!

Beer traps (good, if disgusting) and torchlight collection (literally hundreds could be found in an hour or so) followed by the quickest death I could manage with boiling water (oh the guilt!) were very productive. Clearing areas of ground cover such as ivy and periwinkle, even temporarily, revealed their hiding places. There were a lot of odd bricks and stones where they collected, too. I learnt a lot about what attracted them and how they kept coming back for more! I had no desire to eradicate them all, but things were out of balance.

Since this time, over the last three seasons, things have been much, much better. Maybe this is in part due to reducing the breeding population by human means, and by reducing the hiding places, but it's also been relatively dry.

Oh how I can't wait for the next "boom" ... not!

So, my advice would be to protect your plants wherever they are, but also to work out where the little blighters are hiding... you don't have to keep a spotless and sterile patch, but it helps to be aware of when you are creating the ideal conditions for them to breed and shelter.

Oh, and a warning to you... collecting and counting slugs is addictive

[Sue]

Cutecumber
I know about the addictive bit, can't resist looking in any likely place, have a collection pot in use during the day and in goes any wireworms or leatherjackets too and they go to the hens - if I've had a bonanza day they go in my slug prison instead of giving the chickens too many at once.
I've just seen, an ad in the rival magazine, a new product that is some sort of powder - they don't say what which is annoying, in a gutter like container with a little roof to protect the powder from rain, this can be fitted round the greenhouse, raised beds etc. Very expensive - probably £15 per raised bed, but of course, as you would expect, it's guaranteed to stop them in their tracks.
But I'm interested in the boom or bust thing, don't know if last year was boom or bust, if bust I'm seriously worried.
I do wish I could get them out of the greenhouse though, too late I found that basil was one of their favourite things.
Sue

[bubblewrap]

I had some slugs(orange ones) that were so big they could have eaten the birds.They were at least 2" long.

[Paulottie]

Lidl have got an offer on slug and snail barrier,made from copper alloy - starts today. 18m for £7, You could try surrounding your plants with that?

Does copper actually work? I have never got a definitive answer or seen any scientific proof.

CuteC I guess the boom years are when you have to swallow hard get out your chequebook and pay out the £15 for Nemaslug!

[inca'smum]

I dont know yet Paulottie, but my mother in law was buying some yesterday to protect her hostas etc. I will let you know how it goes.

[Bren In Pots]

I've bought some 'Slug off' from Aldi for £2.49 to me it looks a lot like cat litter, you spread it around your plants and its supposed to stop slugs getting near them.
Hope it works.