Freezing slugs

[running_muttley]

Just wondered if anyone knew whether slugs and snails are likely to be able to survive the recent cold snap? Oh please tell me that the little blighters have all been killed.

[lynda66]

they won't all die, but a lot will ...... it's worth going out and turning over any rocks or stones too, so the hiding ones freeze

[SarzWix]

Whilst the adults can and probably will be killed off, the eggs will more than likely survive for a new generation of terrorist slimeys to emerge in the spring

[The amateur]

ock I hate slugs - down with the horrible things! Somehow they have even managed to get under the cloches over my broad beans and have a chew.

[vegnut]

Oh i sooooo wish that they would all freeze

[kitchengardner]

they won't all die, but a lot will ...... it's worth going out and turning over any rocks or stones too, so the hiding ones freeze

It is also worth trying to turn over the soil asthis will help kill the eggs and the burrowing varieties

Regards

Kitchen Gardener

[Finedon.Dandy]

I dont think any of us would miss them if they all died out eh? Now why did they go and make that cute Dodo extinct - slugs would have been a much better choice!

[kitchengardner]

I dont think any of us would miss them if they all died out eh? Now why did they go and make that cute Dodo extinct - slugs would have been a much better choice!

Dodos were tasty and easy to catch, slugs aren't!

[Two_Sheds]

You've got to have some slugs to feed the hedgehogs, frogs & thrushes.

Slugs are active all year round if the temperature is at least 5 C (41 F), and will hide in long grass. (I've been out salting them as recently as a week ago)
Snails, on the other hand, are more sensitive to the cold and are likely to hide under garden debris such as logs and pots, & in the gaps in stony walls. Over winter they seal themselves into their shells with mucilage for protection.

[snuffer]

Just before the really cold weather started I spent ages clearing all the fallen leaves from the garden so as to rob the slugs of as many hiding places as possible. It was a real pain in the proverbial type of job but I'm glad I did it now. All of the hard frosts we've recently had must have got rid of some of the blighters.

[HeyWayne]

So glad this thread isn't what I thought it was going to be. Was half expecting to read the best ways to freeze/store slugs...

[maytreefrannie]

I dont think any of us would miss them if they all died out eh? Now why did they go and make that cute Dodo extinct - slugs would have been a much better choice!

Dream on, Finedon.Dandy - no chance they'll be wiped out - plenty will survive to do their job of feeding birds, frogs etc. as Two Sheds says. And plenty more to harass you by feeding on your veg!

I think there's some traditional thinking that a hard winter kills off a good share of pests - that would be hard, dry cold I guess, not the dismal damp kind of cold.

[SlugLobber]

So glad this thread isn't what I thought it was going to be. Was half expecting to read the best ways to freeze/store slugs...

Lol! I was only watching the Blackadder episode with Baldrick balancing his slug the other day.

Liquorice allsort, Darling?

[Fluorescent green]

no chance they'll be wiped out - plenty will survive to do their job of feeding birds, frogs etc.

I would assume that if the frost killed off too many slugs, it would also kill off the "good" insects etc.

FG

[bluemoon]

Sadly there have been snails and slugs in Britain for as long as people have been growing crops and they've never died out yet, even though we have had some horrendous winters. The 'little ice age' of Tudor times for a start, when the Thames would annually freeze sufficiently for fairs to be held on it. Ask your Gran about 1947 or even ask me about 1970/71 when it snowed before Christmas and I was still walking to school atop 4ft of frozen snow at Easter - and back then the schools never closed unless the water in the loos froze and no amount of salt could thaw it -. There's even a theory that if you wipe out all the adults there will be no competition for the young and rather than have a year with few slugs you get one where their numbers boom as most of the newly hatched are able to survive (another good reason for not using pesticides too).