Slugs and Snails!!!!

[robmarston]

Slugs are evil and I hate them but I would rather kill them humanely (odd choice of word-humanely- we are talking slugs). Of course I want to them to die and leave my plants alone but one year I went out at night (as suggested) and picked them all up and put them in a bucket. I put water in the bucket to drown them. 5 days later some were still wriggling about, gasping for air ( I'm guessing). I was very disturbed by this and now I use pellets. Why? Coz I don't have to watch them die slowly.


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[Florence Fennel]

They've done for my runner beans for the first time ever I give them a chance with the traffic.

[Bal]

They'e eaten half my marigolds, and they are on gravel. Have got a large tub of organic pellets, these will be used.

[Knight of Albion]

"Far and away the best course of action against slugs in your garden is a simple adjustment to the watering schedule. Slugs are most active at night and are most efficient in damp conditions.
Avoid watering your garden in the evening if you have a slug problem .
Water in the morning - the surface soil will be dry by the evening. Studies show this can reduce slug damage by 80% ..."

[Bill HH]

"Far and away the best course of action against slugs in your garden is a simple adjustment to the watering schedule. Slugs are most active at night and are most efficient in damp conditions.
Avoid watering your garden in the evening if you have a slug problem .
Water in the morning - the surface soil will be dry by the evening. Studies show this can reduce slug damage by 80% ..."

That's ok, but it doesn't quite fit in with your policy of do no harm to any creature does it? If they are eating 80% less they are starving are they not?

[veggiechicken]

How do we stop it raining in the evenings?

[Scarlet]

"Far and away the best course of action against slugs

...is to chop them up or squash them with your boot!
I don't water my garden - it gets watered naturally, my beans are getting eaten regardless!

[Shadylane]

I hate killing anything even slugs but this year has been horrendous. Knight of Albion's philosophy is admiral and one I lean towards, but I'm afraid the beer traps went down tonight. I don't spend ages sowing carrots, spending my hard earned cash on enviromesh to stop the carrot fly, only for the slugs to scoff the lot. The idea of changing your watering regime is frankly not going to work if you have a slug problem. Especially if you live in Great Britain. There's this unfortunate thing called the weather...

We used to go on slug patrol and relocate them - it made no difference. Also do you really think people are going to go down their allotment after dark to hunt slugs? It's just unrealistic. Maybe you just don't have that many slugs(?). I always said that as long as they weren't causing a major problem (and they haven't until now) then I wouldn't use pellets. This year, a lot of the brassicas have been decimated as well as the carrots and to be honest I'm getting p**** off with it. I really, really don't want to use pellets and I'd rather not use beer, but sooner or later I may have to do something.

What do we think about beer? I'd like to think it's more humane as hopefully they're tiddled before they drown but who even knows. Even then, I still hate seeing them all dead but what can you do? The ones that do the most damage live underground. You can't relocate them. Also I'm a no digging mulcher, which seems to make matters worse.

If there's a better solution that's practical and works I'd rather use it. I heard a good idea about scrounging used plastic pint pots from pubs/festivals which would work for bras but not carrots.

[greenishfing]

Due to the constant deluges of rain I haven't watered my allotment this year at all. I think I only watered 3 times last year.To make an adjustment to the watering schedule would need an application to a much higher authority..............

Due to a request from a neighbour my slugs now meet a different fate.

Her chickens adore them ....now all their birthdays come at once.

[Shadylane]

Our plot veteran once tried to convince me that pellets were more humane than nature after he saw a blackbird hacking and scraping a slug along the ground. Similar to death by chicken I expect.

[TrialAndError]

It's definitely slug pellets for me this year after the damage caused last year. As for being humane, if a slug can feel pain then so can my Runner Beans.

The idea of chickens eating them however is very appealing! Do they really do that (I know nuffing about chickens)? And if they do, just imagine what happens when a chicken eats a slug. It's going to scoff it down whole and then let its digestive juices slowly and possibly very painfully digest the thing! And the pain will be all the slug's.

Nope, I have not one shred of humanity in me when it comes to slugs and snails. Do chickens really eat slugs? The idea has got me going.

[veggiechicken]

My chooks eat small slugs but not the large ones. Even the small ones seem to leave their beaks sticky as they wipe their beaks from side to side to rub it off.
Snails seem to be easier to deal with but again, only the small ones.
The thrushes in the garden are the best with snails.

[Bal]

Oh no just realised forgot to put slug pellets down. Am now in bed so to late to do it. Fingers crossed it will be ok. I think they have eaten everything in there're reach by now.

[Raybon]

Nope. It just means they'll slither off and look for somewhere more agreeable.

[hearts151]

After most of my plug plants from gyo get decimated last year (first year growing) I've been keeping a close eye this year.

Bought some marigolds to help with my major aphid problem and the 3 I put directly outside. In pots didn't last the night! I thought a cat must of ate them they were that bad. So I have since grown the rest in pots inside, planted out my biggest one yesterday. Surrounded it in blocker granules and sprinkled the surrounding area with pellets :-D

My of pests is at a complete zero, not in the relocation camp or keeping them alive in the compost bin. I'm now at the stage of setting traps! I must of squished a few thousand aphids on my chillies this year aswell.

No love loss!