How do you beat slugs?

[arpoet]

Poke em with a sharp stick early in the morning and spoil their day.
Also spent hops round the base of plants as a barrier works well.

[Bill HH]

I use a multi pronged approach

Negotiation:
I have tried to convince them next doors garden is so much soggier than mine. Unfortunately I don’t speak slug very well. I tried sign language but the neighbour who had been watching me called social services. I said “Oh it’s alright I can explain, I am talking to the slugs” This did not help one bit.

Aerobatics:
Launching them over the wall is very satisfying and seemed to work well until I hit Mrs. Mountjoy (Women’s institute president) in the face with a particularly soggy one.

Alcohol:
I made jam jar beer traps but somehow begrudged giving these pests a treat when in fact I was trying to kill them. So each can I opened I felt it only right I should drink at least half of it. The search party found me huddled in a cold frame singing “I’m gonna get yer, I’m gonna get yer, look out slugs cos I’m gonna get yer”.

Ordinance:
My home made mini land mines merely resulted in me losing a little toe.

Chemical weapons:
Have you tried buying poison? My chemist eyes bulged when he read my list, Arsenic, strychnine, Agent Orange etc.

I have however had one success, my mother in laws banoffe pie, it really is lethal.

[WPG]

Here are my slug defences - six months' collection of baked and crushed egg shells. I know a lot of people find shells don't work as a barrier, but I think the trick is to put a really solid ring of shells around seedlings - at least an inch thick - and to be careful when watering not to disperse the shells.

They may not be 100% effective, but shells work better for me than some of the expensive garden centre products.

[Findlay@Fidgarth]

I love the idea of organic but if you dilute household ammonia into water 1 part ammonia 9parts water and put it into a spay bottle and spray it at them it will kill them and doesn't harm you plants.


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[BigV]

A mixture of coffee grounds and eggshells worked for me last year.nothing ate my lettuce.


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[Mumbles]

A mixture of coffee grounds and eggshells worked for me last year.nothing ate my lettuce.

do you use used coffee grounds, or straight from the pack?

[AllInContainers]

Machete



Copper tape failed me due to the close proximity of the planters to each other and to walls etc (touching), so I resorted to pellets off the planters where slugs were known to be seen, garlic spray, and night time hunting trips with scissors.

They still wiped out my peppers and made a mess of my sunflower though I will be considering nematodes this year

[datz]

I used nematode a on my spuds last year to good effect, very little slug damage. Elsewhere I used the organic ferric pellets, which also worked well.