Slugs can swim! Even in salt water!

[Demeter]

I went on a slug hunt last night and thought I would try the tip I read on here to drop them into salty water. But they just swam up and slimed out of it and up the sides!

I kept poking them back in but they kept coming - like something out of a miniature horror movie - Night of the Living Slug... . In the end, once I'd been all round the garden, I took the container into the kitchen and salted them as they popped their heads above water. But even then, there were big ones still swimming up from the bottom through the salty water and surfacing... Die, slugs, die, oh why won't you just die?

And there was one big snail in there as well, floundering around, which was the last to give in, because it was too clever to put its soft bits above the waterline - I poured a big dollop of salt on its shell and it sank. Shudder.

Tonight I took a pot of beer instead, they didn't try climbing out of that, and it seems like a much less horrible way to go!

[Tam]

I do a slug hunt every night, but I take a knife as well as a torch, so no salt needed. It is strange, though, that first thing in the morning there is no trace of the halved carcases and even the snails that I have stood on have almost entirely disappeared, apart from the odd bit of shell.

[squashysu]

that photo is foul!!! I hate them and dont let them drown in salty water when they are caught, i stamp them and cut them in half!! They like my beer traps the yeastier the better!!!

Anyway I am now off on the hunt, i will be back later with a count!!

SS

[Alice]

That's like something out of a horror movie Demeter. What a shame yo have so many slugs. I must be very lucky - I hardly see one.

[Wren]

LMAO @ Demeter

Oh my goodness!! Its not funny really but i were half crying with laughter as i read your post.

Poor you!!! *wipes eye's*

Wren

[Demeter]

I can't cut them in half! I'd rather pick them up with my bare hands. I've tried cutting them and it's (1) harder than it sounds and (2) really horrible!

I haven't had many problems with slugs at home (at the farm allotment, different story) until yesterday when the blighters ate my broccoli, tomatoes, potatoes, lettuce, brussels sprouts, mangetout and carrots!! I've killed well over 50 since then, and a few snails too...

[Demeter]

I do a slug hunt every night, but I take a knife as well as a torch, so no salt needed. It is strange, though, that first thing in the morning there is no trace of the halved carcases and even the snails that I have stood on have almost entirely disappeared, apart from the odd bit of shell.

it's the early bird that catches half a dead slug?

[TracyP]

Yes, and they can swim in bleach water too!!! Madness. Beer all the way if you collect then in a bucket.

I mainly have snails and I just bash them with a small spade.

[areia]

slugs make me want to be sick so the thought of cutting them in half makes me want to welllll ya know, funny really considering i worked in a butchers but hey ho. i use hot salty water when im on my slug hunt, grapefruits skins halfed upside down, and vasaline covered in salt round some of my pots, it just getting the reallllllllllllllly big orange ones they climb and go over anything gravel, glass, pellets, im half expecting them to be in the beer traps having a laugh and giggle showing off there tatoos of all there achievements before sliming there way home to sleep off there hangovers i will get the lil b********

[busylizzie]

Oh yuck I feel a bit queasy now.

I'm being really lucky with slugs this year, very little damage to anything so I'm leaving well alone. I wonder whether it's because we now have lots of bird feeders out to attract the birds and they are picking off the slugs too?

Anyway, my daughter's favourite book at the moment is called the Snail and the Whale and when she finds a snail in the garden she gets very excited thinking that it's the snail from the book, and she gives them names. So we have to gently relocate them to a quiet corner rather than bashing them!

[finney]

areia
the beer really does work put new beer in once a weekstronger the better,plus pellets,
then go on a slug hunt,you cant keep hunting it becomes to much of a job,just like weeding around the veg plants with all this rain.

Finney

[Hellbell]

I hope that slugs don't grow another half like worms are supposed to when they're chopped in half. Perhaps that's why we have so many slugs in this country as everyone who cuts them in half doubles the population! lol

[HeyWayne]

Reminds me of a film I once saw...

YouTube - Slugs: The Movie (trailer)

[Chillimad]

Yuck, that picture looks like a tin of Lidl sliced mushrooms,, still I know what I would prefer to eat.

As for actually killing slugs and snails I used strips of copper about 1/4" apart all around my borders and connect it to a spare car battery,, I know the copper upsets them anyhow, but the extra 12 volts across them seems to do the trick.

[Garden_girlie21]

I'll let you all into a secret:

I can't stand killing slugs and snails.

yes, it's terrible, and I deserve to have my tools taken, my greenhouse gone, my vegetables vanished, my ...... i think you get the idea!

I use copper tape (new this year) and I just put them in the bin when I find them.

It's all in my attempt to be organic and not kill things. I jsut feel bad.


However, the other week, I collected them and put them in an old saucepan, and a jam jar, and was going to take them to the tip, but I forgot, so I think they all suffocated and starved to death. I honestly didn't mean to!!!

Jennifer