Slugs! wat to do?

[fieldgrower]

thanks all appriciate the help

 

[elevate]

I found this....
http://www.plantitearth.com/store/product.asp?pid=158&catid=6

 

[hilljack]

"Snails and slugs are attracted by yeast solutions, which are easily prepared from cooking yeast, sugar, and water. This is also why gardeners have success trapping these leaf munchers in bowls of stale beer. Place deep-sided containers at the soil level. The pests slide in and drown."


this is from the sticky at the top of the outdoor forum

 

[Guest]

humans the salt of the earth

I agree! Salt is no good for the earth, and eventually will build up in the soil... Remember the main reason why we flush potted plants is due to salt buildup... The same effect for outdoor plants, overtime that salt will build up... Why use salt, when you can just use beer or ferramol??? Beer is cheap and effective IMO....

 

[Guest]

Hi, I just posted this on pests & prevention, hope it helps. Just remeber slugs are interlinked with other factors wet weather being the big one. Most forms of control ie wood ash, salt, pellets, etc will only be good for a day or two if its raining, so will require more treatment. More salt, ash etc after time this will affect soil and plants health. Nature can be the best means of slug control. Beer traps are very environmentally friendly.
Kill em & kill em good. here a thread I posted on the pests & prevention thingy sticky.
Collect toads & let them out in your garden, they eat more slugs than anything else for the simple reason there active when the slugs are out ( at night time ) Toads are your friends look after them. A small garden pond could get you a few hundred of these for nothing. Keep your seedbeds as clod free as possible. Slugs will crawl under clods & in the cracks of your flower bed, so try to make it hard for them, leave a fine tilth or seedbed. Clear away all your garden junk, flower pots, ceramics etc leave them no hiding place. Please take care when using slug pellets, they can contain formaldehyde, or metaldehyde, and the pellet can be made of pasta flour, so birds will eat them. there are more environmental alturnatives, but may not be as good. Place pellets under an old roof tile, plastic sack, etc so birds can not get to them. Any dead slugs you find, please pick up & put in the bin, again birds will pick them up & take to their nest, poisoning the next generation of slug predators. Deter Magpies & grey squirells from your garden, these eat an enormous ammount of song birds eggs, they also kill young birds. The more bird nests you have in your garden the more mouths they have to feed the less slugs you get. Thrushes eat alot of snails, look after them, they suffer more than most birds at the hands of magpies, the reason is they nest at the top of the hedge, tree, wall, There nests are the first to be seen by flying magpies, usually early in the year when there is less cover.They will reward you by singing beautifully in the evening while you tend your plants, and can eat 20 - 30 snails a day, and they love slugs. Mice eat slugs too.Nest boxes. Kill every slug you see, 1 slug = 25000 slug eggs. You get the message, I dont like slugs,I like song birds.
cheers.
farmaz2

 

[Don Dump]

copper doesn't do anything at all, it's a total waste of time

are you sure? not being a dick, just want to know.

I used both copper wire and slug pellets last year, fixed the problem. even after the slug pellets were gone I still didn't see any slugs, so Im inclined to believe the copper wire works.

 

[Guest]

ive taken copper wire and copper ribbon, and have watched slugs go right over them with no sign of distress. from what ive seen the copper thing isn't worth it..

i find that slug pellets work extremely well though

 

[Guest]

Just one more thing, if you got a problem with slugs & plants youve left it too late. Start thinking in the wet autumn early spring BEFORE you get your plants out. Look for the signs, slime trails on brickwork, drains, foliage. Young plants getting munched. Take action then, these slimeballs breed like you wont believe. If we get a warm wet patch we could see a lot of slugs that apparently come from nowhere. To be forewarned is to be forearmed. Do not let em breed, one little nip to the stalk & your expensive / rare seedling has gone for good. They can smell food from a long long way away, I used to feed my dog outside, & you could see the slime trails coming out of a drain 20 feet away without deviating & head straight for the bowl, till it became encrusted with these big fat yellow sods. Once they find a good munch they dont forget where it is, ................They'll be back.
Kill'em & kill'em good.
Marv, Slug City.

 

[humble1]

i've seen the copper tape work miracles. make sure it's flush mounted and totally encircling your bag, pot, or raised bed. nothing else needed. DE or beer are the only other things i would try, in that order

 

[elevate]

too bad there isn't a giant species of spider that is only aggressive towards snails and or slugs. That would be a badass predator, especially if the spider could be purchased at OSH.

 

[Gantz]

Snails???? WHERE????