Making your own slug nematodes - anyone tried it??

[marchogaeth]

Ah, interesting to read this - I thought of you yesterday when I used my vile home-made concoction for the first time. It was pretty disgusting, very smelly and rather too mucus like for my sensibilities, but let's hope it works, I shall watch that bed with interest. I sprinkled a few organic slug pellets down too as a belt and braces measure.

It's a bit odd that your slugs are just growing! How long have they been in there? Is the bucket/tub sealed? Mine seemed to survive for about 2 weeks until they curled up their toes. It was a very unpleasant experience checking on them, as they all seemed to have headed away from their food island and migrated to the underside of the lid, shudder.

I think you need to be a bit meaner to 'em. Withdraw food privileges, and get 'em in this sunshine to make them hot and uncomfortable?

I might be just a few days away from slugageddon from what you say! They were started on April 28 so only just over the fourtnight. They are sealed in and in the tunnel so should be hot. I haven't fed them since they went in.

Mine are all under the lid, too.

I'll give it a bit longer. Keep us posted on your outcomes.

[Paulottie]

Yuk...Want to try this so badly...I'm such a homespun tightass...but frankly I think I may just have to get my wallet out.

Possibly get my 9 yo boy to have a go!!! if I give him some starter from the pack...sounds like a job for a school boy.

[hippychick253]

Hi, I too have just discovered the Telegraph article and am about to go out in search of slugs.....just wondered if you'd had any 'joy' with your brew, Pipscariad?

[pipscariad]

I was just coming on here to report back, so you must be telepathic hippychic! Well, so far so good - the area I watered down at the plot was a bed where I had planted carrots, beetroot and perpetual spinach, and all have germinated and are now about an inch high and hanging on in there. I've had the slimy critters decimate every single seedling before now when they weren't even this big, so I'm hoping that my home-made nematode brew is working... I think I'm going to get some more on the go in the hope that it is - I still have a lot of slugs lurking here and there, so they can be the sacrificial beings, I'll mix them with the remaining gunk left from the last batch, as suggested in the article. It does STINK mind, so be warned!!

If everything vanishes overnight (please no!) I shall let you know, but at the moment I'm quietly hopeful. Good luck with it!

[hippychick253]

Ah, many thanks for the updates, my slug soup is brewing away nicely now, 10 days to go :-) At work, they all now think I'm a witch, want to know where I get my 'eye of newt' from....I told them "Hags-R-Us" :-)

[marchogaeth]

I have to report that, I really do have the world's healthiest slugs! They are deffinitely dying of old age or starvation (or both) and nothing else. SO..... I am going to buy some nematodes and seed a colony and try again. Hopefully, they will have no resisitance and drop like flies.

[Urban]

Yay! Found first victim of nemeslug nematodes today, looked very poorly and had lump on its back where it had been infected by the nemetodes

Was in greenhouse, god knows how it got in, but glad I put those nemetodes down, think it was about 5 days ago

[MyLifeWithAndrew]

Definately going to try this.
Will use the VC variation of empty milk jugs.

[hippychick253]

Well, Day 12 and the slugs appear to have popped their clogs already.....will strain, dilute and apply as soon as this bloomn' rain stops for 5 minutes....how are things with your slug-brew, Pipscariad?

[Two_Sheds]

It's school garden club today and too cold to enjoy planting, and no need for watering. Guess what Miss TS has planned for the kiddies today?



Oh yes, slug soup




That nematode thing, I might give that a go. I've nipped this bit from the Telegraph link, in case it ever disappears.

Collect as many slugs as you can find in a jar that has a few small air holes punched in the lid with a hammer and nail – and a few weed leaves for them to eat.

Once you have caught around 10 to 20 slugs – the more you have the better it works – decant them into a bucket with an inch or so of water in the bottom for humidity and a few more handfuls of leaves to make an edible floating island for your catch.

place a concrete slab (or any firm cover) over the top to seal them in. The bucket is the perfect environment for the nematodes and bacteria to breed. Nematodes spread in water, so check regularly, giving the slugs a stir with a stick. The idea isn’t to drown them but to keep them moist so the nematodes can hunt them out.

After a fortnight a high level of nematodes will have built up inside the bucket and the slugs will have died from infection.
Now, you can dilute the brew: fill the bucket to the top from the tap and decant into a watering can fitted with a rose.
Prevent the weed and slug mixture from falling into the can with a filter of chicken wire folded over the can so it stays put while you pour.
Water the sieved brew around vulnerable plants – this slug killer gives up to six weeks of protection.
Save the contents of the chicken wire sieve (uurrgh!) to start off your next nematode brew.

(this is going to stink isn't it?)

[marchogaeth]

(this is going to stink isn't it?)

Yep. Is this the school that was worried about what plants were safe???!!!

[Two_Sheds]

^ Yep

I had them collecting slugs & snails today ~ they loved it, but then got all suspicious and asked what I wanted them for. A potion, I said (comfrey tea is also a potion). The cogs turned ... 'you aren't going to kill them are you?'
No, I'm going to make them a little island full of lettuce, I said.
'Then kill them?' (they know me so well)
No, I promise I won't kill them, I said. (It's not a lie, because the nematodes will do the dirty deed, not I)

[marchogaeth]

The cogs turned ... 'you aren't going to kill them are you?'
No, I'm going to make them a little island full of lettuce, I said.
'Then kill them?' (they know me so well)
No, I promise I won't kill them, I said. (It's not a lie, because the nematodes will do the dirty deed, not I)

My class would be worried they were going to be asked to eat them!
The "eating beetroot to see what factors make you pee red or not is a lesson of myth and legend" as are the pictures of Miss trying to force the stuff down. ( I hate the stuff but believe I should set a good example when it comes to the try anything rule.)

[pipscariad]

I wondered how any other DIY nematode aficionados were getting on? I spent the morning down at the plot today and was very cheered at how well things are doing in the areas where I have watered the stinky stuff. I will make up some more soon, as I only have one waterings-worth remaining of the original brew. I do need to be a little more refined in the use of it though - it smells so bad that I couldn't be messing with straining it into the watering can and just tipped it in, but as a result I have a lot of slug corpses in my watering can!

[alldigging]

I tipped mine in the French beans tub .. Wil see how effective it is.