Slug management

[redser]

Thought this was interesting ...
Teagasc - Slug Management in Potatoes

It's more about using pellets for commercial potato growers but useful all the same if you use pellets. Suggests now would be a good time to use pellets as early september is a breading time and you can get them before they lay eggs. Then use again in spring before growing begins.

[glacey]

Thanks for the info, we have been over run with slugs this year perhaps due to the amount of rain we had. Just wondered if you dont want to use pellets is the copper barrier tape any good?
We have raised vegetable beds and could put the tape around quite easily but does it work and how long does it last?

[lettuceleaf]

I would like information on how to "destroy" slugs. Monty Don said in a recent Gardener's World that he destroys slugs. I wanted to know exactly how he does that, but the BBC would not give me direct access to him nor did they know how to destroy them. My aim is to collect slugs and get rid of them permanently. Can anyone help, please?

[rustylady]

Not sure exactly what you mean by getting rid of them permanently Lettuceleaf. Do you mean killing the ones you collect? If so, drop them into a bucket of heavily salted water.

[veggiechicken]

I take it you haven't been on the Vine much this year? There have been so many threads about destroying slugs. A search will reveal lots of options!

[redser]

I think it's more a case of management. Strangely enough I haven't seen many around lately. Maybe they're too obese to get out of their sluggy beds. What's eating gilbert slug??

[lettuceleaf]

Not sure exactly what you mean by getting rid of them permanently Lettuceleaf. Do you mean killing the ones you collect? If so, drop them into a bucket of heavily salted water.

I guess so. Monty Don used the word "destroy" and to me that means kill. Doesn't the bucket fill with slime and then you'd have to drain them off and put them into a bag, I suppose, and then the bin? Thanks for the suggestion but it sounds high on the "yuk" scale and I don't think I could that. Any other suggestions, anyone?

[veggiechicken]

When they have drowned you just empty the bucket on the ground somewhere. The bodies soon disappear.
Others here stamp on them or snip them in half - whatever you do to get rid of them you can't make them disappear in a puff of smoke. There will always be a lump of yuk to dispose of somehow.

[Kaiya]

I tried the salt water thing and hated it - I don't like killing things but had to get over it because of the slug issue this year, but I did not like the salt method. Took ages for them to die, and they produced a lot of slimy snot that was nauseating. Now I stick to cutting them in half or squishing them with whatever tool I have handy - the hand fork often, or more usefully my onion hoe. When tool-less I have even been known to use lumps of flint! They blend into the ground so you don't have to watch their little dismembered bodies dying. Squishing might be quicker but probably depends on how soft the ground is.

Nemaslug and organic slug bait 'destroy' them without body disposal required.

I still can't kill caterpillars though. Good thing I don't have to rely on my allotment to keep me fed.

[mothhawk]

I have lots of little black slugs, find that if I stamp on them on a path or hard surface, (to squash them dead!) and leave the bodies, more slugs (squeamish folk look away) come out to feed on the corpses, so then you can get three or four more under one size seven boot!

If I find the huge orange ones, I put them in the compost bin, as they like decomposing matter best, and help make the compost.

[lettuceleaf]

Thanks for the comments and suggestions. I think I'm going with the organic slug bait, although the idea of putting them in the compost also appeals providing they've gone away by the time the compost is ready. I don't fancy having to eject several hundred slugs when the time comes to use it.

Footnote: Why are slugs so ghastly both alive and dead?

[Kaiya]

Think positive! At least they aren't Spanish slugs...

[redser]

The drawback of putting them in your compost is that they will breed and lay their eggs in it. So you could end up spreading them around your plot when you use your compost.

[crichmond]

I throw the slugs I collect over the fence of one of the hen pens on the allotments, definately no survivors within a few seconds they are all gone.

[zazen999]

I snip them in half or stab them with a fork. In fact, I encourage my students to do the same and each student gets a handshake when they manage to do it. Some won't but once they realise that they may lose their crops when they get eaten they usually come round.

The bodies get put into the compost bin for whichever beastie wants to eat it for lunch.