Death to the snail. what actually works?

[King Carrot]

Had S or S crawling halfway up 3 different sunflowers and then chomping through the stem, only one of the "bites" took the top completely off, which regrew in time. Splinted and taped both partially eaten stems, lost one(which will resprount eventually) and saved the other. Following this I wrapped a 7 cm collar of tin foil around each sunflower - 2 weeks later, so far so good. The tinfoil method is something definately worth experimenting with around plants with tall stems???

I'm using Slug Pellets around the garden which is part dry stone wall & bushes & trees. I use the blue metaldehyde pellets only under net, mesh and inside frames(I reckon they take ALOT of wildlife, so use them with care) while using the light blue growing success pellets outside.

After a couple of nightime torchlight searches in the garden I'm of the opinion that the Growing Success pellets work. I only have to look at an area where I've chucked all the weeds and cabbage leaves, S&S population about 10-20 big ones per square yard, in contrast to adjacent cropping areas with gs pellets, where some damage to crops is evident and I spot the odd small slug. Since using the GS it has never been to the point of total crop failure (see sunflowers above, 3 out of 20 damaged)as it would if I used no pellets as control. If anything I grow is a S&S favorite I generally cover the crop and use the metaldehyde pellets.

As to the GS pellets safety, as read on the pack its harmless to pets, wildlife & children. Although it is correct to never believe what you are told by anyone without question, so far I am comfortable as possible with their claims as I have not found dead & dying thrushes in the garden as I regulary used to when using the metaldehyde pellets in the open. I have seen birds eating the slugs & snails immobilised by metaldehyde pellets, I do not think wildlife can distinguish between alive and nearly / fresh dead food, this was the reason I stopped using them in the open a couple of years ago. I understand another big difference with the GS pellets is that the S&S crawl under cover and die after consuming the pellets, so they are not as evident to any wildlife.


KC









I'm not adverse to squishing but sometimes lob the odd snail out of the garden.

[Spreadsheet]

I have major slug problems. I've tried the nematodes - not bad, kept them down for at least a couple of weeks - but not the 6 weeks suggested on the pack. Slug beer traps have been uneffective. Garlic sprays didn't do much but the garlic granules were good - you heap a load around each plant and the slugs wont cross the mound. Could get expensive though. I have cats so I avoid the blue pellets.

I do often squish them - especially if I catch one half way up one of my plants (pulled a huge one off one of my chilli plants last night). But maybe I'll try the prison idea. I only have one reservation - with a slug prison, if it creates compost - don't you just put the slugs back on your plot when you use the compost? Or am I missing a step here? I'm new to this composting lark.

[Sue]

Spreadsheet,
It will take ages to get any significant amount of compost from the slug prison, so was planning maybe next summer, if we get one, to choose a really hot day and empty out the contents on a tarpauline and wait for the slugs and snails to craw under some damp newspaper out of the compost and would put it back on the compost heap for another rot down and as there are slugs in the compost heaps anyway, a few more won't hurt. And as for the slugs that have congregated under the damp newspaper, will keep them in a bucket and gradually distribute them around the various hens on the allotment.

As it's a prison, their diet is not a luxury one, in return for eating my prize plants they are on a diet of weeds, outer cabbage leaves and stalks and any other tough plant material I come across, so it's going to take a while to break down.

I keep one of the pots that mealworms come in (has a lid) with me at all times so any slug or snail I see goes in the pot as I'm gardening, then into clink it goes.
Sue

[kirsty b]

My nephew is pretty good at getting rid of snails. He used to wallop them over the fence with a cricket bat. I suspect that if any survived, they didn.t come back for more of the same!