Slugs!!

[Redhelen72]

I seem to be overrun with slugs - they are munching away quite happily on my lettuce and toms!
I go out and pick them and then drown them - I have tried coffee grounds and egg shells, even tried the beer trap and and nothing is working.
I cannot put poison down because of the dogs and cats - any suggestions please?

[brian j john]

Slug pellets were banned in the UK last April but i believe there are a new type which you can buy that are not harmful to animals or birds

[choux]

The only solution imo is to go slug-hunting by torch at night time. I use old tins or plastic tubs, add 2 tbsps of salt and start picking the blighters up. I bought a cheap pair of kitchen tongs for the purpose.

It is best if you can do an area much bigger than your veg patch too.
When you have done for the night add a cover to the collection box and give it a shake to cover them all. They quickly dissolve! Don't forget to collect snails as well.

When I first started doing this I could get a haul in 3 figures and by doing it each night the numbers slowly came down. If the ground is wet you will do better still. btw, a head torch is ideal ;) Good luck, Redhelen.

[choux]

brian, I don't find them very effective, sadly.

[Redhelen72]

urghghg choux - give me vomit, and other secretions but slug picking is just urghghg lol
The little bleeders just keep coming back

[choux]

I said tongs - not tongues!

;)

[brian j john]

Choux ,
You're probably right it's the same as the changes to the weed killers they are absolutely useless too

[puzzled54]

I pick them off in the mornings and‘rehome’ them, but in the evenings I have to go out with a torch and a pot of salt. Got some huge ones last night, don’t know where they had been hiding!

[Barmaid]

Get some chickens. They love slugs. Mind you, they'll eat your lettuces too. But think of the eggs!

[Redhelen72]

Ooh BM I would be there straight away if I could - I will have to wait a few more years for my retirement but then stand aside Mr Red - I am going animal shopping lol

[Rosetta]

https://www.gardening-naturally.com//nemaslug-slug-nematodes-40-sqm?gclid=CjwKCAjwtcCVBhA0EiwAT1fY73Hg4LZgjdRgjIPQPW8CRFAu3NBSV7gRq6I2jPpwDXxVO4OnI7oVOBoCW8cQAvD_BwE

[Buenchico]

Slugs aren't pests any more! It's official!
https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2022/mar/04/planet-friendly-rhs-to-no-longer-class-slugs-and-snails-as-pests

However the RHS does still provide advice on the problem ;-)
https://www.rhs.org.uk/biodiversity/slugs

[choux]

puzzled, I knew a chap who would "rehome" them by teaching them to fly - but they must have come back over the neighbours' fences.

brian, salt is cheaper anyway :)

[Redhelen72]

The fussy devils did not like the craft beer I put in the traps!

[Canary42]

I've turned a significant part of my garden "wild" and the hedgehogs who have taken up residence there just love a slug supper, so late every evening I pick any slugs off my crops and throw them into the wild garden.

[Hopkirk]

Agreed. Encourage hedgehogs.

[Tuvok]

My hedgehogs ignore them - probably like the food I put out better.

Copper is supposed to stop the slugs - Poundland have copper tape for that purpose in their garden section

https://www.poundland.co.uk/460226-slug-barrier-tape-2m/

[Old_Geezer]

In my experience all supposed solutions to slug & snail problems are utter guano. And no, no one much are going to want to continually be going on personal early morning or evening hunts to pick them off and kill them by hand. The ban-all brigade have managed to make the issue intolerable which has to have been their aim. After all, how difficult can it be to make poison sufficiently bad tasting that other wildlife don't opt to eat enough to harm them ? It's yet another indication of how the world is going to hell in a handbasket, as the phrase goes. Why those in charge if things were ever allowed to get their jobs is beyond reason.

[ladywoman]

In a previous garden we had lots of large dark slugs but eradicated them by going on "slug hunts", every morning and evening, especially when it had been raining and was warm. Numbers ran into hundreds but we won. Now we are inundated with little white ones in our new garden. Doing the same thing although tedious, numbers are on the decline. Someone told me once to collect them and put them in the compost bin to help break down the gardening waste. I have also heard of laying out large lettuce leaves at night , letting them congregate on them and then lifting them up in the morning but it didnt work for me! (but then I dont like lettuce lol) My main problems now are worms and couch grass!!! HEYHO, the Joys of gardening. Hope you get sorted soon. Regards