Big Fat Black Slugs

[cottage garden]

Is it the weather? So much rain? I have NEVER had so many black slugs. So much for nemetodes working!!

14 on one runner bean stem !!!! 5 on one sweetcorn cob!!!

Went around the garden picking them off and dropping them into hot salty water (Cruel but necessary), how many do you reckon....20...30..? Lost count over the hundred mark..

Must do this every night now!

DEATH TO SLUGS!!!!!!

[Two_Sheds]

mmmm, Arion Ater, big burger.
"While relatively dormant during the day, slugs rely on the coolness of the night to search for food. Soil surfaces must be moist for slugs to safely move around. [Try] watering plants early in the morning so that the ground is not so moist at night, when slugs are active. This is particularly useful when combatting Arion ater--considered the most destructive species of slugs (Long 1999)."
good pix here:
http://www-biol.paisley.ac.uk/bioref...rion_ater.html

[Sue]

I'm confused by slugs, arne't the big black ones the least dangerous to plants? I thought it was the little grey jobs that were the worst?
I've got books on slugs, but I need pictures, where can I find illustrations of all the different types?

Sue

[Two_Sheds]

I always thought the big ones were the least harmful, but who knows? Sue, have a look on Google Images for "slugs" as a kicking off point.

[cottage garden]

Just read that apparently (according to yahoo news section), due to the wet summer there is a 50% rise in slugs this year.

I thought there were too many.., I feel less guilty about not being on top of things now!

[Alison]

Worryingly, not only is apparently a bumper year for slugs, the little (well quite big in some cases!) blighters will be breading like nothing on earth so next year could be worse..............

[cottage garden]

Hmmm.......regular rotavating can help destroy the eggs etc, apparently. Just wish I had one!

I think I will definitely be putting nemotodes down in June...they must help surely!

[SueA]

Hi Cottage garden, I'm suffering with lots of slugs & snails as well (in the garden-not me personally!) & in the Times the other day there was an article saying there are 15 billion slugs in the country (don't think they've counted them all individually) & someone counted up to 1000 in a square metre.Nematodes will only have an effect on the smaller slugs which live mainly in the ground, they don't seem to work on the big guys or snails. Everyone says the giant slugs do the least damage as they eat rotting vegetation but I'm not convinced myself.