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shopgirlsue
Joined: 26 Jul 2006
Posts: 150
Location: Nr Shaftesbury
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 Posted: Sat May 17, 08 9:26 am Post subject: |
 
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I've just got back from hols to find all my beans and courgettes have been eaten out of existence - it's depressing isn't it. It's only the second time I've tried to grow vegetables and this is the first time I've had a problem with slugs.
Mind you the previous attempt was the year of the Great Courgette Glut when in my innocence I planted the whole packet of seeds - maybe I overwhelmed the slugs with the sheer number of plants 
Has anyone tried using copper pipes to deter the b****rs I thought I read that they didn't like crawling over them ?? |
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Mary-Jane
Joined: 13 Jan 2005
Posts: 15129
Location: Ceredigion, West Wales
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| Posted: Sat May 17, 08 10:56 am Post subject: |
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| shopgirlsue wrote: |
| Has anyone tried using copper pipes to deter the b****rs I thought I read that they didn't like crawling over them ?? |
I've used copper tape around the top of pots and it did seem to help a bit...but it's very expensive.
So far not bad for me...my organic slugs pellets seem to be working. Although nightly/early monring slug and snail patrol also seems to help. I've tried also to grow my plants on a bit before planting them out too. |
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Cathryn
Joined: 16 Jul 2005
Posts: 13191
Location: Ceredigion
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| Posted: Sat May 17, 08 10:59 am Post subject: |
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Yeah, I stuck mine in earlier than I had planned as I thought they would have withered away in the heat by the time I got back.
Copper didn't seem to work for me and would get in the way of the electric fencing surrounding the plot.   Is this gardening or guerilla warfare?
Slug traps yeuchhhh but I will set some. |
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Mary-Jane
Joined: 13 Jan 2005
Posts: 15129
Location: Ceredigion, West Wales
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| Posted: Sat May 17, 08 11:00 am Post subject: |
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| ruby wrote: |
| Is this gardening or guerilla warfare? |
Destroy...with extreme prejudice.  |
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Cathryn
Joined: 16 Jul 2005
Posts: 13191
Location: Ceredigion
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| Posted: Sat May 17, 08 11:02 am Post subject: |
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You haven't mentioned rabbits yet but is that the (usually hidden) benefit of living with a JR? |
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Mary-Jane
Joined: 13 Jan 2005
Posts: 15129
Location: Ceredigion, West Wales
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| Posted: Sat May 17, 08 11:07 am Post subject: |
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| ruby wrote: |
| You haven't mentioned rabbits yet but is that the (usually hidden) benefit of living with a JR? |
Not the Toby the Jack Russell, but Pete, the cat that looks like Hitler. A true exterminator of rabbits. |
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vanessa
Joined: 08 May 2006
Posts: 1564
Location: Zummerzet ;o)
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| Posted: Wed May 21, 08 7:49 pm Post subject: |
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| Treacodactyl wrote: |
It's getting to that time of year when I suggest we all try eating the large garden snails, hopefully this year I might find a way of making them edible.  |
Why not? The French do!! Lots of garlic butter ... |
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Cathryn
Joined: 16 Jul 2005
Posts: 13191
Location: Ceredigion
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| Posted: Wed May 21, 08 7:52 pm Post subject: |
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I am now growing the countries most expensive vegetables. But I am damned if they will beat me... 
Please tell me that the organic slug off pellets are more than the cat litter they resemble? |
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Nanny
Joined: 17 Feb 2005
Posts: 4520
Location: carms in wales
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| Posted: Wed May 21, 08 7:52 pm Post subject: |
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i seem to have far fewer slugs this year than last
is this because of my chickens and turkeys or because the weather has been drier.....
and what happens to slugs and snails in the winter? do they die or hibernate?
answers on a postcard please |
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vegplot
Joined: 19 Apr 2007
Posts: 11040
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| Posted: Wed May 21, 08 9:33 pm Post subject: |
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EV uses slug pellets but I tried the bottom of a 2 litre water bottle sunk into the soil and filled with some home brew. Worked a treat but run out of brew and I'm not going to buy the little slimeys bottled beer. |
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Quail By Mail
Joined: 11 Apr 2008
Posts: 295
Location: Brixham, South Devon
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| Posted: Thu May 22, 08 9:53 am Post subject: |
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To fend off the slugs - after being ravaged at my first unprotected attempt - I use the moat method.
I had loads of shallow, plastic trays that could hold water kicking around so I created 'islands' from spare bricks and put my pots on them. Everyone's doing fine! |
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earthyvirgo
Joined: 24 Aug 2007
Posts: 1849
Location: in the loft, Gerlan
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| Posted: Thu May 22, 08 10:14 am Post subject: |
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| vegplot wrote: |
| EV uses slug pellets but I tried the bottom of a 2 litre water bottle sunk into the soil and filled with some home brew. Worked a treat but run out of brew and I'm not going to buy the little slimeys bottled beer. |
The beer traps definately worked, the resulting slug mush was particularly disgusting, not sure what exactly happened to them but it looked like a grim death!
Has anyone found that wood ash works?
EV
p.s I'm also finding that slugs haven't been so prolific this year ... yet. |
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cab
Joined: 01 Nov 2004
Posts: 30113
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| Posted: Thu May 22, 08 10:26 am Post subject: |
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| earthyvirgo wrote: |
The beer traps definately worked, the resulting slug mush was particularly disgusting, not sure what exactly happened to them but it looked like a grim death!
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Have you been out to watch the surviving slugs and snails though? They're like drunk students with no 'protection', they're copulating wildly all around the source of alcohol. Some drown, some drink so fast they can die of indigestion, but the rest seem so intent on making new slugs and snails that I wonder whether beer traps really are a good idea!
Less this year than last, but thats hardly surprising, last year was the worst I can remember for gastropods. |
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judith
Downsizer Moderator
Joined: 16 Dec 2004
Posts: 17754
Location: Montgomeryshire
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| Posted: Thu May 22, 08 10:31 am Post subject: |
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And the sight of a large slug that you were convinced had drowned rising like a phoenix from the beer trap is enough to depress even the most sanguine of gardeners |
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kevin.vinke
Joined: 19 Dec 2006
Posts: 1303
Location: Niedersachsen, Germany
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| Posted: Thu May 22, 08 10:47 am Post subject: |
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We are due a slug plague here....
I started a course of organic slug pellets early (the packet says it takes 10 days of use to work. Other than that it´s a long stick with a sharpened nail on the end, they go with a very satisfying pop. I then put the dead ones in a pile because the thing slugs like even more than my seedlings is dead slugs |
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