Slugs!

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Slugs!
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Hairyloon

Joined: 20 Nov 2008
Posts: 15425
Location: Today I are mostly being in Yorkshire.

Posted: Thu Aug 25, 11 10:42 am Post subject: Slugs!

I am having a devil of a time with slugs at the moment, I have a couple of beer traps, which are catching them, but not making a noticeable dent in the population and I'm going out of a night and stabbing as many as I can find.

I am a bit loathe to start throwing chemicals at them, but at the moment, it looks like it has to be done... at least until I can persuade a toad to take up residence.

Any other ideas?
More beer?
How far should beer traps be spaced? From the look of it, I need one by each plant!

OtleyLad

Joined: 13 Jan 2007
Posts: 2737
Location: Otley, West Yorkshire

Posted: Thu Aug 25, 11 10:58 am Post subject:
When it comes to eating my plants, its personal! I use one of the organic slug killer its quite effective and economical too as you sprinkle them quite thinly over the ground. It states quite clearly on the container that its safe for pets and wildlife. Amazon sell it too:

Went

Joined: 19 Mar 2006
Posts: 6968

Posted: Thu Aug 25, 11 11:32 am Post subject:
Same here - Advance Slug Killer and scissors.

Hairyloon

Joined: 20 Nov 2008
Posts: 15425
Location: Today I are mostly being in Yorkshire.

Posted: Thu Aug 25, 11 11:43 am Post subject:

OtleyLad wrote:

I use one of the organic slug killer its quite effective and economical too as you sprinkle them quite thinly over the ground. It states quite clearly on the container that its safe for pets and wildlife.
Amazon sell it too:

Is the Amazon price competitive? It is quite a lot dearer than B&Q's not so safe stuff. Over five times the price.

What is the active ingredient? Is it shower-proof?

Monki magic

Joined: 21 Jun 2010
Posts: 161
Location: Stockport

Posted: Thu Aug 25, 11 6:13 pm Post subject:
Give everything a good soak early evening. Then go out about 1hour or so after as it gets dark (take a torch). You should be able to find them from the sound of them eating.

Andrea

Joined: 02 May 2005
Posts: 2260
Location: Portugal

Posted: Thu Aug 25, 11 6:16 pm Post subject:
I used to religiously place an upside jam jar over every seedling, only to find slugs INSIDE the jars in the morning. I know moving to Portugal is a drastic solution, but I've only seen about 3 slugs in the whole time I've been out here

Hairyloon

Joined: 20 Nov 2008
Posts: 15425
Location: Today I are mostly being in Yorkshire.

Posted: Thu Aug 25, 11 6:26 pm Post subject:

Monki magic wrote:

You should be able to find them from the sound of them eating.

Finding them isn't the problem: I'm not here all the time, and the allotment is another matter again... At least there are a couple of resident frogs there.

Have just come back from the supermarket where they had alluminium sulphate reduced... doesn't look too nasty to all of us that aren't molluscs, so I'm going to give that a go...

jamanda
Downsizer Moderator

Joined: 22 Oct 2006
Posts: 35056
Location: Devon

Posted: Thu Aug 25, 11 7:15 pm Post subject:
The darn things were having an orgy on our lawn yesterday. About twenty big orange ones each paired up with a smaller browner one and going for it!

Paul Sill

Joined: 16 Jan 2009
Posts: 118

Posted: Thu Aug 25, 11 7:24 pm Post subject:
These nematodes are ment to do a good job, get a pest with a parasite! urled by the link fairy edit : thanks link fairy! Last edited by Paul Sill on Fri Aug 26, 11 4:15 am; edited 1 time in total

Tavascarow

Joined: 06 Aug 2006
Posts: 8407
Location: South Cornwall

Posted: Thu Aug 25, 11 8:31 pm Post subject:

OtleyLad wrote:

When it comes to eating my plants, its personal!

I use one of the organic slug killer its quite effective and economical too as you sprinkle them quite thinly over the ground. It states quite clearly on the container that its safe for pets and wildlife.
Amazon sell it too:

That price is extortionate.
Mole valley farmers have 750g for just under a fiver.

Hairyloon

Joined: 20 Nov 2008
Posts: 15425
Location: Today I are mostly being in Yorkshire.

Posted: Thu Aug 25, 11 10:21 pm Post subject:

Tavascarow wrote:

OtleyLad wrote:

Amazon[/url] sell it too:

That price is extortionate.
Mole valley farmers have 750g for just under a fiver.

Then I might just drop in and get some.

Hairyloon

Joined: 20 Nov 2008
Posts: 15425
Location: Today I are mostly being in Yorkshire.

Posted: Wed Mar 07, 12 6:14 pm Post subject:

Paul Sill wrote:

These nematodes are ment to do a good job, get a pest with a parasite!
urled by the link fairy

How hard is it to breed these things do you think?
Seems silly to have to keep buying it if you can just breed them instead.

Beetles have also occurred to me. Not sure which species eat slugs, nor how to encourage them in.

dpack

Joined: 02 Jul 2005
Posts: 45470
Location: yes

Posted: Thu Mar 08, 12 12:01 am Post subject:
todes help but it also needs perimiter control to prevent travellers

Claire70

Joined: 22 Aug 2006
Posts: 144
Location: Surrey

Posted: Wed Mar 14, 12 9:28 pm Post subject:

A word of warning on the nematodes: they are not cheap, and the ground needs to be more or less constantly moist (or moist enough) for a week or so after you put them down. I had two years where I bought them in April only for there to be an early hot spell right after I'd applied the nematodes, so they were a complete, and expensive, waste of time. Especially as I then had a sandy garden so even going out and watering three times a day didn't help.

It's maybe fine if you have a fancy-pants sprinkler system or superhuman weather-prediction skills....

As for the beer traps: they catch some of my slugs but can anyone tell me why the snails don't go near them?? Are snails just teetotal or what?

Hairyloon

Joined: 20 Nov 2008
Posts: 15425
Location: Today I are mostly being in Yorkshire.

Posted: Thu Mar 15, 12 2:10 am Post subject:
Thanks for the tip. I think a cunning plan needs to be hatched.

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