Slugs and Snails
  • Ali

    Anyone got any unusual ideas on how to stop the blighters eating all my young plants.

    My son has found that beer traps work quite well but depend on the type of beer. Kronbourg 1664 is not so effective as Coopers Ale which is much more yeasty

  • vetski

    The most effective - and most yucky - way is to go hunting at dusk and drown them in a bucket of water! Though I'm not entirely sure what you might do with a bucket of drowned slugs afterwards - my uncle tips them onto his compost heap, but his garden is HUGE, so no danger of smelling decomposing slugs from the house! A layer of sharp sand or ground glass around the plants might also help, as might some lengths of copper strips/piping. 

  • miss annie

    Salt. Lots of it! Crushed eggshells or sharp sand work too.

  • miss annie

    Salt. Lots of it! Crushed eggshells or sharp sand work too.

  • vetski

    Can't put salt around most plants - it'll kill them as well as the slugs. The Romans apparently used that technique very effectively in the Third Punic War, though some say the tale is apocryphal...

  • Donna

    Drown them in a beer trap

  • poxy

    http://www.nemaslug.org.uk/

  • therattle

    Before bed I take a torch and go on a search-and-destroy mission. I have saved my lovely hollyhock, which no longer has lacy leaves. I just place them on the ground and smash with stone. Slugs and snails, and rosemary beetles and spittle-bugs are the bane of my garden. SHOW NO MERCY.

  • nick_m

    I can confirm beer traps are effective, but you have to keep up with them, or you end up with putrefied, bloated slugs in a bowl after a day or two. I agree with the search and destroy approach, in the evening, preferably after rain (quite easy right now). I use scissors for a clean, fast and effective kill. My wife thinks I am becoming slightly obsessed and unhinged though, which is a downside.

  • crispy

    I can't rate nemaslug highly enough.

    I buy mine from http://www.wigglywigglers.co.uk/ and they come in the post (stick the packet in the fridge until you're ready to use them).

    You can buy a few doses in one go, and they send them out every month or two so you can keep on top of the slimy bastards without forgetting!!!

    C

  • Idoru

    You could try encouraging slug-eating birds into your garden. Loads of garden birds eat slugs - Blackbirds, thrushes, Robins, Starlings. Song Thrushes love a bit of snail.

  • nick_m

    @ Idoru - i love the idea of birds controlling them, but they are unfortunately heavily outnumbered!

  • J_V_MacGyver

    First of all greetings to everyone, I'm glad to be a member of this site from now. If there's a discussion for introductions I should visit please let me know.

    I recommend the following two methods against slugs and snails:
    A)
    1. Buy the cheapest vinegar you can find in Tesco (preferably at least a pint).
    2. Dissolve it in a watering can with 4-5L water.
    3. Sprinkle over their usual habitat and/or the path they cover (i.e. around your flowers, it won't hurt the plants; flowers that prefer lower pH soil will actually be happy with it).

    B)
    Buy the 'Doff Slug Killer 450g' at 99p stores and spread the around your flowers.

    Not 100% proof but greatly reduced slug&snail damage.

  • Idoru

    Maybe the birds could call in reinforcements from miss annie's garden.

  • gardener-joegardener-joe

    Do not poisoned slugs and snails poison birds that might eat them?

  • Idoru

    That's actually a very interesting question. I've never seen anything about that, but I've just asked my editor and he says yes, it can be very harmful to birds, and other animals that eat slugs and snails like Badgers. Apparently the British Trust for Ornithology did some research on it and it's possibly partly to blame for the decline in Song Thrush, but I can't find any info on the BTO website.

  • crispy

    that's why i like the nematode worms - they only harm the slugs, not their predators (nor us!).

  • J_V_MacGyver

    Hmm... so no 99p store slug killer, ok, understood. Am I still ok to use vinegar?

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