Can we talk 'slugs' please?

I have tried using that slug gel that you put round the base of the plant - but TBH they seem to like it! I have decided that hostas are meant to have lacy leaves!.

And as for the nemesias - they were eaten within one night!

Nematodes the best - doesn't kill the wild life

I use the slugs pellets that are harmless to birds and animals and I also use broken up mussels shells. Whenever we have mussels, I save the shells, smash them up and scatter them around tender juicy plants. I think that the combination of sharp she'll edges and the remnants of sea water deters the slugs and snails. Works for me.

Many years ago I had slugs that managed to get into my kitchen and crawl across the floor at night. I discovered this when I went down in the early morning in my bare feet. It is very difficult to find anything nice to say about them. I hope their mothers love them.

We currently seem to have a kitchen slug, there are always trails visible in the morning, I suppose I should consider coming down in the middle of the night and "dealing" with it.........

Flaxseed slugs and snails are a never ending battle, beer traps, (they die, but happy) sharp things, pellets, copper tape, Vaseline, tried them all.

Does the copper tape work phoenix ? That's the only deterrent I've not tried. I thought about putting it around planters and pots rather than putting a circle of pellets around them.

I don't tend to have a problem with slugs - the rabbits have eaten everything young and tender - but I took the compost bin lid off today and there was a great big slug staring up at me.

Thanks everyone. Sounds like this gardening lark isn't going to be too straightforward !

I think I'll try Nematodes first.
And next time I'm at the seaside I'll collect some shells.

A workmate said he stays up late and does a nightly slug cull.
Whilst I want to eradicate the little blighters, I don't think I could bring myself to kill them

The copper tape certainly worked for us. We had slugs coming into our kitchen for about ten consecutive nights a couple of years ago. Just one each night (not the same one, as DH gently escorted each one outside and over the garden wall). They followed the same silvery path, popping out from under the dishwasher and heading doggedly across towards the kitchen cupboards. We sealed every tiny crack in the skirting board and around the outlet pipe and tried slug pellets under the dishwasher, to no avail. Then we put copper tape on the floorboards right round the dishwasher. That night the usual solitary intruder got in, tried to cross the tape and splattered into three grisly lumps across the floor. We haven't seen another since, so word must have got round (fingers firmly crossed)!

I used to do a nightly collection then walk to the park at the back of us and rip them out. I did that till the day I found none and touch wood I rarely see one nowadays.

Copper tape has worked for me. Got it from my Kleeneze lady and I notice in the last catalogs they are now selling a Lilliputian copper fence with pegs for putting around delphiniums, hostas, etc. I thought I'd try some next year as the copper tape is very good around pots but tends to collapse when just used in a ring around a plant. I also use egg shells, but the blackbirds tend to scatter them.

Providing water to encourage wildlife helps too. We have a visiting hedgehog, blackbirds and thrushes which all love slugs and snails.

That should be tip them out not RIP

Can anyone explain how one of those big green slugs could get into my toilet cistern in an upstairs bathroom? I took the top off the cistern to paint the wall around it and there it was - about 2" long and sliming around. How it had got in, how long it had been there and what it lived on are all mysteries. The only positive is that while it was there it was leaving the plants alone (I'm a fan of beer traps and frogs)

Has anyone come across the "Spanish" slug? It is a horrible fat orange thing and literally strips everything in it's path. This is a link to it: www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2017/04/23/spanish-cannibal-slugs-invading-britain-creating-superslugs. I am in North Scotland not noted for its warm weather but I have been bothered by them for the last couple of years. They really are ruthless. I'm afraid I have not been kind to them and it's into a bag of salt and the bodies disposed off with the rubbish!!!

We tried beer traps, the big ones had a pint and slithered off to eat the plants, leaving the baby slugs to drown.
I now keep most hostas in large pots, copper tape is effective.
I now have a real slug death campaign in spring and autumn. I use animal, bird friendly pellets, especially in warm, wet weather. Before I got serious about mass murder, the slugs and snails saw my garden as an all you can eat banquet .

"All you can eat banquet" , it seems I'm running one of those establishments too Iam64 and those horrible big orange Spanish creatures go back for seconds and thirds every time!

Maybe it's the kind of beer Iam64 !

We have set up 4 slug bars in our garden and DH thinks that certain beers work better than others. DH complains that the "clientele" mustn't like the drinks on offer so he tries something else. Apparently they are quite down on real ale and prefer a cheap lager?

Can't keep opening more bars though.... At least not until the ones we have got are in profit anyway.

I save all the egg shells and break them into small pieces to scatter around vulnerable plants. Seems to have some effect
Last year I wasted 16 pounds on a bucket of wool pellets no use at all.
Any slugs I find are thrown in the river next to our garden.

Mine are homing slugs. DGC took a few up to the pocket park not far from mine. They came back..... I know they were the same ones cos we tippexed them !

Gillybob you've just got to explain how you tippex a slug! Please!

Well I ( or rather DGC) pick it up and plop a bit of tippex on its back... Easy peasy. Proves a point though. They do come back. I think it's the beer that draws them in. Or maybe they're alcoholic slugs ? I dunno.

Urgh! couldn't pick a slug up. I stood on once when I went into the garden barefooted. You wouldn't believe how difficult it is to get slug out from between your toes and under toe nails. <shudder>

I m guessing you mean picking a snail up to tippex it, i can't imagine how you could pick a slug up and how tipped would stay on its slimed body I m afraid I m a murderer.... snails go for a swim in the bucket and slugs get a salt meal ...... I use slug pellets for the ones out for a munchy lunchy

Both actually BlueBelle the children have a little tiny trowel that I use for scooping them up. Snails are much easier though. Anyway they do come back and it doesn't take them long either.