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I have just tried the pet-friendly, ferric phosphate, slug pellets, about 10 days ago. I am making my own slug soup to breed my own nematodes, but it needed 2 weeks to 'brew'. In the meantime, I had to do something.....I too was collecting 100's of the barstewards a night....
The ferric phosphate pellets had very mixed reviews on t'internet, most people thought they were worse than useless, but I have to report massive success, and I still haven't applied my nematode concoction :-)
After about 3 days many of the pellets had disappeared, and I was sceptical as to what had happened to them, I didn't really think the slugs had scoffed them, but I dutifully re-applied the pellets and did a little test. I found a few slugs heading for my seedlings and so dropped a pellet or 2 near the slugs, and wow, they veered at a rate of knots (for a slug :-) ), away from the seedling and towards the pellet, started rasping (or what ever they do ) straight away.
I haven't seen a slug for days now and some of the pellets from the 2nd application are still there, (the pellets survive the rain, so I don't have to keep re-applying after every downpour. In fact, according to stuff I read on t'internet, they work better when they are damp as they release more scent to the slugs).
And my 2 very nosy, scoff-anything' dogs haven't shown the slightest interest, even after watching me put the pellets down.'
I think they are called 'Slug Death XL', and were 4.99 or 2 for 8 pounds in my local garden centre, a billy-bargin, as my plot is quite big and I've only used just over 1 tub. (It said to apply sparingly and I did resist the temptation to go mad with the scattering ).
And I think any that don't get eaten by slugs get broken down harmlessly into the soil.
I replaced many of my seedlings after using these pellets and so far, so good, I still have seedlings and they are getting bigger by the day :-)
The ferric phosphate pellets had very mixed reviews on t'internet, most people thought they were worse than useless, but I have to report massive success, and I still haven't applied my nematode concoction :-)
After about 3 days many of the pellets had disappeared, and I was sceptical as to what had happened to them, I didn't really think the slugs had scoffed them, but I dutifully re-applied the pellets and did a little test. I found a few slugs heading for my seedlings and so dropped a pellet or 2 near the slugs, and wow, they veered at a rate of knots (for a slug :-) ), away from the seedling and towards the pellet, started rasping (or what ever they do ) straight away.
I haven't seen a slug for days now and some of the pellets from the 2nd application are still there, (the pellets survive the rain, so I don't have to keep re-applying after every downpour. In fact, according to stuff I read on t'internet, they work better when they are damp as they release more scent to the slugs).
And my 2 very nosy, scoff-anything' dogs haven't shown the slightest interest, even after watching me put the pellets down.'
I think they are called 'Slug Death XL', and were 4.99 or 2 for 8 pounds in my local garden centre, a billy-bargin, as my plot is quite big and I've only used just over 1 tub. (It said to apply sparingly and I did resist the temptation to go mad with the scattering ).
And I think any that don't get eaten by slugs get broken down harmlessly into the soil.
I replaced many of my seedlings after using these pellets and so far, so good, I still have seedlings and they are getting bigger by the day :-)
This evening I'll go out with a torch and see about killing some more the old-fashioned way.
) becauls it will be a bit harder to just pop out for a few mins at dusk as the allotment is a couple of miles away.
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