Argh!!!! Slugs!!!!!!

[Minamoo]

I can't take it anymore. I have had it with the softly softly approach to slug killing in the garden. I started picking them up and feeding them to the ducks yesterday and I have fed them at least 300 slugs in that time and that is probably a huge understatement. I spent the last hour picking slugs out of the same 4 raised beds over and over again. By the time I had reached the last bed and gave them to the ducks, at least 10 more slugs had miraculously appeared from nowhere in each bed. I did that over and over again. DH had to bodily drag me back into the house to get me to stop going round in circles cos it was getting too hard to see. Tomorrow I'm buying slug pellets and raining blue death over the garden.

I have almost no veg left. No courgettes, only 1 butternut squash, no beans, the few runner beans I resowed have just started pushing their way out of the ground and have already been nibbled, the peas are skeletons, the chillies' leaves are all lacy and only 3 physalis remain. Wierdly they havent touched the toms but I figure it's only a matter of time.

I had to stop feeding the slugs to the ducks in the end. They love them so much they kept on eating them until their throats got so full of slime that they could no longer quack at me.

[SarrissUK]

Nemaslug, Minamoo... seriously My back garden was infested with absolutely thousands of slugs when I moved in, and one treatment kept them at bay for much longer than the six weeks they promise. It's well worth the investment

[Samurailord]

Hi Minamoo

I too have had problems with slugs and snails, but not quite to the same level you seem to have.

I have been going out at dusk and after every shower for the past week (when I am not at work that is) and harvesting loads of slugs and snails.

When I started I was getting dozens of huge specimens, but more recently it has been rare to find one more than a couple of centimetres long.

One night I only found a single small snail after 20 mins of searching - carefully folding back leaves and rooting around the back of potato sacks.

By this time I had not lost a single leaf of the plants I had put out three days earlier so I announced to SWMBO that I had beaten the slugs and snails at last.

Guess what - next morning I had lost one of my romnescue broccoli with another well munched, and the damned snails had also had a good go at my aubergine and one of my peppers.

These things must be ninja slugs and snails - hiding until I have gone.

I have now officially declared war on them - a mail order jiffy bag arrived today containing enough Nemaslug nematodes to cover the entire garden.

Didn't have time to get it on today so I have improvised mini cloches from 2L pop bottles to try and protect the rest of the romanescues until I can rain chemical weaponry down on the slug and snail population from above in the morning.

No doubt they will be all out tonight after the torrential downpour we have had this afternoon/evening, probably finishing off my rhubarb and curly kale 'cos I didn't have enough bottles for them all. (ant the rhubarb is a little bit too big for a 2L pop bottle to cover)

I even found a six inch long slug on the kitchen floor tonight!

I decided against slug pellets as we have four cats, and one of them was bound to have a try at the new blue food in the garden , so nematodes was the only way forwards.

Hopefully this will let me grow some nice veggies in peace

Andy

[kentishgal]

I go for a belt and braces approach and use blue death pellets and nematodes as well!
In fact I also lean over the fence and nematode the neighbours gardens as well!!(dont want any slimy invaders from next door!).

[Two_Sheds]

It certainly has been a bad (good?) year for slugs

[sweetcorn]

I do sympathise Minamoo. I too am at the end of my tether with the little *****ers. (Insert any particular fair/foul language of your choosing) I had a row of beetroot coming up, looking very promising. Came down one morning and all of them had gone. All that was left were little red stalks and slime. I have lost beans, basil, lettuce, spinach, lupins, loads of bedding plants and numerous brassicas. I too am going to resort to some of the pellets although I hate to do so. I have used Nematodes once, but must have done it at the wrong time or something, cos it didn't seem to work that well? Is there a good time to apply this stuff? Is it too late once the slimy ****ers have already established? I also found that putting bottles around them didn't help - some of them obviously live in the soil and slime their way under the bottles and find themselves in a conservatory with a restaurant for their convenience.

[Cue the Toms]

I use slug pellets but because of the many cats in our area I have netted/covered everything! It seems to keep most of the slimy buggers at bay but I still find a few!

My only concern about covering everything up is.. Does/will this affect pollination because the bees can't get to the plants either?

[PyreneesPlot]

I too sympathise.
From early spring until about now I pick slugs everynight from my plot. The numbers are frightening, aound 600 a night but they drop off quite rapidly. Last night was 25!
I sow almost everything in modules and plant out once its big enough to loose a lot of leaf and survive. Almost all brassicas, tomatoes and the like get planted with copper rings (cut from a copper pipe that we replaced in an old house) or rings made from spikey mesh.
Three years on and although I still seem to start at about 600, the decline in numbers is quicker.
We have also seen a big increase in toad and hedgehog numbers, as we provide habitat for them, all of which will help get a balance.
Plus the glow worm colony is expanding - 2 adults glowing last year, at least five this, and with no slugs we wouldn't have them.
I reckon I can't use nematodes - too hot and dry - and have resisted pellets so far. But I understand your frustration.
But what lucky ducks... I may have to get some!

[eirish]

Have a look at this research article: http://manoa.hawaii.edu/ctahr/farmfo...Protection.pdf. They found that garlic solution was one of the most effective products, both as a barrier and for killing the slimey blighters. Copper works pretty well too.

[alldigging]

Even the potatoes are being nobbled by slugs!
They've eaten 6 of the courgettes I put out without slug pellets.

I have been brewing a slug soup though and think it's ready to go out.

[BeatTheSeasons]

We save egg shells all year round and put them down around precious plants. We've had more slug damage this year, but probably not as much as you as it's generally quite dry here in Cambridge.

If you're going to use the blue pellets then I suggest you read up about metaldehyde and decide how safe you think it will be - for example if your ducks eat slugs that have eaten the pellets.

[mandyballantyne]

Yip, same here.

I went out yesterday and fed the slugs..... Chickens have had there fill of collected ones.



NEMOTODES, DOUBLE STREGNTH!!

Sort the buggers out in a few days I recon

Mandy

[Urban]

little s***s are getting in the greenhouse now, climbing up the sides onto roof and into small gaps in the windows, going to see if I can find them tonight, no lobbing for these ones though, they will be destroyed!!

think ill have to put some of that copper tape round the window frames aswell

[Chef_uk]

Really glad its not just me getting fed up with them. Might have to give Nemaslug a go.

[Minamoo]

I went out and bought some 'organic' slug pellets made by Bayer that are ferric phosphate and safe to use in gardens with pets. They're still blue and seem to be working as I've found a dead/dying slug already. I might have gone a bit overboard as I managed to pretty much empty a large bottle of the stuff over the garden. Lol! It was about 4 times the price of the cheapo pellets in the shop st £5(ish) versus £1.20 but well worth it in case we have a chicken escape. I covered both flower beds, veg beds, raspberry bed and even went so far as to put them in the pots with my fruit trees in. Fingers crossed it does the job. Tomorrow I'll go out and buy some courgette plants and hope for the best! At the lottie the situation seems to be MUCH better and only the ripe strawbs have been munched.