Slug Solution

[Bigmallly]

At last, a slug eating plant............

Slug Eating Plant .

[pipscariad]

I like the sound of that - it's even pretty too! However, I would need to plant many hundreds to tackle the slug problem at my plot, and at £7.99 each . I'll stick with my organic pellets, beer traps and bran for now...

[Florence Fennel]

I'll stick with the scissors.

[Snadger]

A pond full of frogs keeps the slugs at bay at my allotment. Best thing I ever did with an old bath tub!

[stella]

I let mine go to death in a haze of beer, I like to think a happy end

[vegnut]

Me thinks that i will let their prices come down first, before ordering any. Thanks for the link though. Definately an interesting one to watch.

[21again]

I will def be buying some organic slug pellets after reading this.

Safer Gardens

[chris]

I was just thinking about digging trench out around all my beds, and filling it with sharp grit and sand.. perhaps even have a roof over it, so the sand doesn't get wet and easy for the slugs to slide over.

[Nepwardle]

hello, sorry i am new to this forum.

I have to ask, pipscariad - does bran work well for stopping the slugs?

I have tried copper edges around my patch, beer and slug pellets, but my crops were still destroyed last year.

I have been thinking about nemaslug for this year and killing them from the inside out. I want a slug free patch.

Has anyone tried using this?

[pipscariad]

hello, sorry i am new to this forum.

I have to ask, pipscariad - does bran work well for stopping the slugs?

I have tried copper edges around my patch, beer and slug pellets, but my crops were still destroyed last year.

I have been thinking about nemaslug for this year and killing them from the inside out. I want a slug free patch.

Has anyone tried using this?

Welcome to the Vine Nepwardle . I can't give you an answer to this through personal experience, as it's my first year of using Bran as a slug repellant. I've read good reviews of it on here though, and the GYO mag rated it highly a couple of years ago, so I'm giving it a try. It was £8.70 for a huge sack from my local farm stores, so it hasn't broken the bank. Nemaslug are by all accounts excellent, but a bit beyond my budget sadly. Good luck in your battle against the slimy ones!

[gilwrig]

Hi All

Don't want to rain on your parade but my husband grows sarrcenia in huge quantities and I'm afraid they don't eat slugs. They do however attract and eat every flying insect you can imagine - I check the pitchers twice a day for bees and butterflies and fish them out. The only way I could think a slug would get in was if it crawled up the side and fell in the top........ as for it forming a seal that stops the odour getting out ..... utter tosh. The pitchers have digestive juices in the bottom of them which basically eats the insect alive over a period of time and yes on a hot day after a big meal they do smell rather nasty.
Also 7.99 is very expensive for a plant - you can pick them up for a couple of quid from any specialist grower - they're very pretty and can get 3-4ft high in a year.

Gill

[t4tom]

"The battery-powered Fence Charger generates a 2,000 volt pulse, creating an electrical field which slugs detect just before contact and are repelled by instantly"

Plant Guard Slug Fence 10m Starter



Has anyone tried one?

This is my first year growing my own and I'm already tempted!

[sarraceniac]

Back to the original post - a slug eating plant, sarracenia purpurea.

The one thing I do know about is sarracenias. You would never guess it from my name and avatar (although the avatar is a S. flava not a purpurea) and they all eat insects. I have a bog garden full of them, the insurance companies won't cover them even just for theft - too high a risk. The nutrition in a midge or gnat is enough to keep a sarracenia alive for 6 months. I reckon a new hatched slug would feed it for about 5 years. These plants (the purpurea) grow to about 8 inches tall, some of the others can grow to about a metre in a good year. I won't spell it out, I'm sure anybody with a slug problem (all of us) has got the picture. I've never actually found a slug being digested by any sarra, including by me. Good way of selling them though.

[DaveJ]

The garden used to be plagued by slugs and snails and then the cavalry turned up in the form of frogs and a hedgehog - never had a problem since.

[Patchninja]

I'll stick with the scissors.

How could you!