slugs in the garden

Yuk Pompa. I wonder why it depends on where in the country you live, that controls how many slugs there will be? we had hundreds when we lived in Devon.We also had loads in another part of Oxfordshire, in fact they would squeeze through the door to get at the cat food! here, we hardly have any.

The Spanish slugs are attacking my purple sprouting broccoli atm, which doesn't bother me as the foliage has done its job and once the spears are done, it will be dug up. Picking them off and gently hitting them with a brick.

Yep! Took about an hour [yuck], I've only got a small garden.

Good grief LoopyLou,all those in ONE night.

My garden non-slimy inmates are the same as yours apricot but they'd have to be either highly optimistic or starving or short sighted to have a go at my slugs.
I'm overrun with them - just been out at collected 105 slugs and 37 snails [yuck] and disposed them in salty water.
I guess backing on to woods doesn't help!

When I used to have milk delivered my big dread was picking up a bottle of milk and realising there was a slug on it [it happened quite often and, being half awake I'd forget to check before I reached out for it]. Never actually dropped one in shock, but came close. Used to have nightmares about slugs when I was a child [not sure what to make of that ].

My garden is infested with slugs and snails despite hedgehogs, slow-worms, toads and lots of birds. Hedgehogs don't stay in one place, they wander.
I used liquid slug killer just on some lupins and found a dead toad there so will never use slug killer again. The pellets are deadly to dogs.
I gather snails and drown in salt water but the numbers never diminish. Now I only grow plants which they don't eat.

Mollie, standing on one....... Ugh.

Meant to type only not one, makes me sound like the Queen!

Pompa, Spanish Slugs? it's all the fault of the EU !! they sound ghastly anyway, shudder.Thankfully one had one or two so far, and the lupins have been left alone which is great.

the worst thing about slugs is accidently standing on one in the house when they squish to yellow innards - makes me shudder when that happens and I wonder how they get in past the dog.
for that reason I never walk around in bare feet in the slug season
on a more serious note - had lots last year and resorted to the cheapest slug pellets I could find but I still found them clustering under pots and behind boards

Yuck, I can`t stand slugs, and yet although snails are just slugs with shells, I quite like them, some are really pretty. We don`t have a garden, but get a few on the back wall of our house.

So far - and touch wood - the Spanish invasion hasn't reached my garden but I have vast numbers of snails. The odd slug - non Spanish - manages somehow to get into my kitchen despite a very snugly fitting back door. I fixed a strip of copper tape just under the outer threshold and that seemed to help but I still find a little one from time to time.

Well, this thread certainly has attracted of lot of slimy slugs by the way of spammers.

I am overrun with Spanish slugs. Apparently they are bitter to taste ( I decided not to test that) and are not eaten by all the usual predators, like frogs, birds etc.

Only the baby ones are attacked by nematodes, and adult ones can consume 20+ pellets without effect.

I find that beer traps do work (I brew up a diy brew in a bucket), but each trap only gets 3/4 a night, atm I have 10 traps. Some gardeners are reporting 4000 slugs/month.

I also go round most mornings with a brick and lift anything where they hide. ATM I humanely squish 50 ish each morning.

Good news this morning - they are forecasting El Niño so we are likely to have a hard winter that will kill off many of them.

Well Mr soil test the number of slugs and snails chewing our plants is not going to improve just because we have our soil tested.

Reported

Message deleted by Gransnet for breaking our forum guidelines. Replies may also be deleted.

I know its a waste of good beer but it works so well as does the salt too, so armed with both this year that is what I shall be using, get on my side Mr Slug and you are fighting with the wrong person!!!

Tried everything to get rid of slugs last year!!! Some mornings I could collect 30 or more from the veggie patch. Put them in a bucket of salt water and then flushed down outside drain. Still the best slug pellets are the ones from Poundland (guess how much!!!) not dangerous to pets (not got any) or other wild life. I will be super alert this year...ready for the little b.....s. Nothing is going to spoil my lettuces and plants etc.

Well, using those measurements, I would need nine at 12.99 each for my kitchen garden. Still very expensive, and I certainly don't spend that amount on seeds and compost. People should judge for themselves whether they feel that amount is justified. I'll wait until I see them on Ebay for a lesser price.

Message deleted by Gransnet for breaking our Talk Guidelines. Replies may also be deleted.

Message deleted by Gransnet for breaking our Talk Guidelines. Replies may also be deleted.

Gardenog my initial outlay for just my kitchen garden would be over £150. That's not £1 a year - you only get one for £1 a year by your calculation. That's not gong to tackle the average slug problem! I would need at least a dozen, according to the YouTube demonstration

Message deleted by Gransnet for breaking our Talk Guidelines. Replies may also be deleted.

Just watched YouTube video of slugbell. One small patch with five or six planted amongst the flowers - at £12.99 each, that's an expensive purchase!