Sweet peppers, slugs and blue pellets of death

[Vince G]

So how do the blue pellets work? Do the slugs/snails eat them and get poisoned, do they crawl over them and that somehow kills them??

[Farmer_Gyles]

So how do the blue pellets work? Do the slugs/snails eat them and get poisoned, do they crawl over them and that somehow kills them??

it's a low dosage chemical that poisons the slugs either through contact or digestion ... metaldehyde in the pellets will cause the slugs to produce a lot of slime, which causes them to dehydrate and die ...

[Farmer_Gyles]

egg shells .... crushed .... sprinkle them around precious plants .... slugs and snails apparently don't like crawling over the sharp crushed shells ....

i do this around my lettuces, no proof it works, but my lettuces seem to grow ok ....

[Urban]

I did a late night check of my raised beds, I found a few massive snails and some smallish slugs eating my plants, broke the shells and chucked em in the pond for the piranhas (tadpoles) to eat, it was a feeding frenzy, felt a bit guilty actually for a while, but over it now just hoping the tadpoles like slugs/snails as much when there adults

I wont use slug pellets because of the danger to wildlife, plus I reckon some of the chemicals from them must leech into the soil, I really need to get some nematodes sorted though before I plant out my squash

[donnakebab]

Has anybody ever tried eating our garden snails? I read once that if you gather them up, just the ones big enough to bother with, confine them and feed them on lettuce or something to clear them out you can then eat them like they do in France.

Don't know how true it is.

[donnakebab]

I use beer traps too. Morissons used to do 4 cans for 99p but I haven't seen them this year. Where's the best place for cheap beer?

[Cue the Toms]

Give them strong lager.

I give the male ones Stella Artois, they then go and beat up their wive's and kids

[Two_Sheds]

Good god!! Smashing, squashing, snipping, dashing, drowning. The poor things. Think I'll start a shelter or something.

Good plan.

What's your address? I'll give you a donation

[redser]

Good plan.

What's your address? I'll give you a donation

Will get back to you on that. Have to register it as a charity for tax purposes dont ya know.

[Alison]

I use nematodes occaisionally on the plot but mostly I just stamp on the blighters or squeeze them to death if possible. Not remotely squeamish about it - it's war out there but OH can't bear to touch them, the big wimp

[DGoulston]

how about a mini barbed wire fence around the veg lol.



I have a roof terrace at the mo, but am buying a house, so will have to start protecting my stuff, defo not worried about a bit of squishing.

[alldigging]

Will get back to you on that. Have to register it as a charity for tax purposes dont ya know.

Save the slugs charity shops could open all over the UK.
It'd be slimetastic.

[redser]

So lab coat off and this is what I came up with. A salty take on copper rings. Reused plastic cups from the water cooler at work, a couple of strips of double-sided sticky tape around the top, rolled in salt. Cut the bottom off, slit it up the length so I could fit it around the base of the pepper stem and then taped up the slit on the inside. Hope it works. It's in the tunnel so the rain shouldn't wash the salt off. No slugs were hurt in the making of this invention But the blue pellets might get them ...

[redser]

btw, this may have been done a million times before but not to my knowledge

[veggiechicken]

Is there any chance that when you water from the base, the sticky tape will get wet and the salt turn to salty water?