The Accidental Smallholder Forum
Growing => Vegetables => Topic started by: Fleecewife on July 11, 2015, 07:45:48 pm
-
This strikes me as a useful article on ways to deal with slugs. It's written by a permaculture designer, but his methods can be applied everywhere.
http://www.permaculture.co.uk/articles/20-ways-control-slugs-permaculture-garden-or-allotment (http://www.permaculture.co.uk/articles/20-ways-control-slugs-permaculture-garden-or-allotment)
-
All those ideas sound wonderful but are impractical for a 1/4 acre plot on cost or in my case that the plot is within a section of meadow so surrounded by just a barrier i keep mowed short. I use slug bait and have no qualms about it.
the grrenhouses on the other hand are designed so slug entry is almost impossible.
the copper idea is old and very nive... but again cost is a facor unless you just want to keep them off a special plant or two. I;ve got three ponds all with frogs and there's plenty toads about...but it'd take many times that number to clear this acreage.
-
i recently saw several pictures where 6" wide copper band was covered in slug & snail slime as well as there being four slugs on it.
I'm using the nematode control method ..it's working but I might have to give them another dose in three weeks time if it turns humid . It is expensive at £18 a session for enough to treat 40 sq /mtrs from seed merchants like Suttons etc. .
If I were a farmer or small holder I guess it could be had for far less cost per sq mtr if I purchased in bulk .
-
I have an old kitchen knife which is known as the slug murdering knife, although I do use if for other things in the garden as well.
-
i recently saw several pictures where 6" wide copper band was covered in slugh 7 smnbail slime as well as four slugs on it.
I'm using the nematode control method ..it's working but I might have to give them another dose in three weeks time if it turns humid . It is expensive at £18 a session for enough to treat 40 sq /mtrs from seed merchants like Suttons etc. .
If I were a farmer or small holder I guess it could be had for far less cost per sq mtr if I purchased in bulk .
The concept of copper and electrolytic deterrance for slugs should work well. If ya thinks about it it has to depend on a potential difference.. so either copper oxide on one surface with a clean edge or an effect between the copper and whatever it's attached to... and the slug slime as the electrolyte. Once the whole slug is on the strip it's not going to work any more than birdies sitting on power lines.
It'd be a reasonable guess that copper mesh would be better than a solid wide band. or even bands made up of paired diferent metals?
-
I always sink Marg containers with cheap beer in them into the ground, the amount of slugs which I find are tons. Salt is also good, but near plants is a no go. You can buy organic slug pellets from harrods horticulture. Hope this helps
-
I have an old kitchen knife which is known as the slug murdering knife, although I do use if for other things in the garden as well.
For a moment I thought you were going to say.........'though I do use it for other things in the kitchen....' :roflanim:
Being quite primitive creatures, I'm not sure just how immediately chopping in half kills slugs. Standing on them against a concrete path, and twisting about, as long as you don't have deep treads on your boots, obliterates them, then other mini critters come along and clear up. I've never had hens or ducks that would eat slugs - fusspots don't like the slime I suppose.
-
The one I like (as I have the means to hand without buying anything) is dog food tins:- don't wash them out, just put a bit of water in the bottom with the residue of dog food and sink 'em half way into the beds and the slugs are attracted to the dog food.
Although I do wonder if it's the right slugs I'm catching.
-
My brother does this and finds it very effective. Also, he doesn't have to wash out the tins for the re-cycling box!
-
Well their suggestion of attracting predators such as toads is a pants idea. Look what I found today when I moved some undergrowth - he obviously hadn't read the article ::)
(http://i1104.photobucket.com/albums/h339/whitbylast/IMG_0232_zpssv4k5v07.jpg)
-
Yuk on both counts, Katy! ::)
-
I read the article and I go for the duck idea.. I want ducks...
-
I have ducks - they're not loose on the garden yet till I get my dog proof fence built. :innocent:
-
I have an old kitchen knife which is known as the slug murdering knife, although I do use if for other things in the garden as well.
For a moment I thought you were going to say.........'though I do use it for other things in the kitchen....' :roflanim:
Being quite primitive creatures, I'm not sure just how immediately chopping in half kills slugs. Standing on them against a concrete path, and twisting about, as long as you don't have deep treads on your boots, obliterates them, then other mini critters come along and clear up. I've never had hens or ducks that would eat slugs - fusspots don't like the slime I suppose.
If they are on the path I tread on them like you said, but it's no good doing that on soft surfaces so it's the knife. I hope they don't suffer but they have to go. I'm hoping my resident frog(s) are busy with them at the moment.
-
I have an old kitchen knife which is known as the slug murdering knife, although I do use if for other things in the garden as well.
I call mine the 'Slug Slicer'
-
I was told years ago that sooty soil deters slugs. Our garden in England had been spread with chimney soot for many years by previous owners and we didn't have any slugs at all. The downside is that your hands get filthy when weeding.
Over here the slugs are huge. We were losing a lot of chicken feed to slugs at night -hanging up feeders didn't work because the slugs climbed up to them. I had to resort to catching and killing them early morning. Killed about 200 last year and this year I have only found 3.
-
I found this page very interesting on the subject :)
http://www.weekendgardener.net/how-to/snails-slugs.htm (http://www.weekendgardener.net/how-to/snails-slugs.htm)
-
......I use slug bait and have no qualms about it......
I don't either although I only use them in certain places.
Just to clarify for those who wish to use bait, a lot of the agricultural and horticultural baits are now ferric phosphate based which is completely natural and safe.
They can also be organic approved.
-
I sometimes use the organically approved slug pellets, but they disappear by the morning after I've spread them. Turns out they are ideal mouse bedding, and we have found several nests beautifully lined with blue ;D Doesn't seem to do the mice much good - there have been a couple of very sick mice huddled up on the ground, then dying. Could be connected.
Mostly I have given up fighting the slugs outdoors. They eat holes in the veg, and occasionally completely demolish something like cabbages, but the effort of trying to eradicate them is more than the worth of what they eat. It's too cold, and our veg patch too big to use the nematodes. We get plenty of food from our veg patch, so laissez faire I say.
Inside the polytunnel, we only water the area of the root run of the crops. This leaves areas of dry soil which the slugs don't cross. I sometimes find slugs crawling up the inside of the polythene when it's wet, and those I pick off and squash.
In the flower garden, the problem is snails, thousands of them, which graze contentedly on my alpines, and munch their way through everything else. They crawl up my front door, make walking on the paths a hazard (for them - they get crunched underfoot by mistake), and occasionally they fall in the pond and drown. I often chuck them over the wall into the field, but they're always back (same ones) within a couple of nights.
We do have loads of frogs and toads, so they must help a bit......
-
I gave up with slug pellets years ago - my aim wasn't any good and I couldn't hit the beggars....! Seriously, the best control I've found is definitely ducks - they just cant get enough of them, the ducks 'root' around in the vegetation and under stones etc.,, I don't see many slugs these days, and there are no poisons to worry about. Years ago, for small areas such as borders, we used to put a 2 inch line of chimney soot around the border which worked fine - providing you didn't mind the soot.
-
I found this page very interesting on the subject :)
http://www.weekendgardener.net/how-to/snails-slugs.htm (http://www.weekendgardener.net/how-to/snails-slugs.htm)
I've tried most of these over the years but does anyone know where I can get a possum? :roflanim:
I do see that the ones I squash or decapitate aren't still there the next day so I assume the birds or frogs are taking them. I do have to be careful not to leave any on the dogs' part of the garden as at least one of ours was eating the corpses and it made him sick.
-
All those ideas sound wonderful but are impractical for a 1/4 acre plot on cost or in my case that the plot is within a section of meadow so surrounded by just a barrier i keep mowed short. I use slug bait and have no qualms about it.
the grrenhouses on the other hand are designed so slug entry is almost impossible.
the copper idea is old and very nive... but again cost is a facor unless you just want to keep them off a special plant or two. I;ve got three ponds all with frogs and there's plenty toads about...but it'd take many times that number to clear this acreage.
The majority of hedgehog deaths is caused by the use of slug pellets :(
-
Been out this morning to water everything and slug army have invaded and my French beans have been almost wiped out grrrrrrrr. They were my pride and joy this year along with my white grapes..
-
Oh, Quirkygirl, poor you. Been there and it's heartbreaking, I know. :hug:
-
If it's warmish and dampish when I do the night check at lambing time I go aong the vegetable garden paths and squish the slugs. I have a family of hedghogs and many Great Crested Newts who do a very efficient job over the summer so my slug numbers are right down. I would never use slug pellets in case of harming the workforce.
-
Sorry to hear about your beans QG, sad and maddening I know. I try and do a lot of slug control in spring, get the breeding population before they ge started ( and if they are in the process of just getting started at least they die happy).
If you get a bit of damage one night, get out there the next night as they will folow their previous nights trail back to the same plant, others seem to join the trek.
As slug pellets attract slugs IN to the garden, I resist as much as possible, have used them in greenhouse a couple of times when I couldn't catch the blighters.
On GQT there was once a question from somebody who used slug pellets, yet she still had problems while her neighbour, who didn't use them didn't have a problem, the panel suggested she was enticing her neighbours slugs into her own garden.
Thing is, slug pellets are so cruel, I hate slugs as much as anyone, but they are living creatures, just surviving the only way they know how.
But imagine eating poison and laying there all night dying, then to be tortured in the heat of the morning sun. If I have used them, I've gone out regularly to kill any that are about, and remove them before good beasties pick them up.
Thrushes are in decline, they were known for eating snails, could there be a connection? :(
-
I need a natural method as I have dogs and cats. Is doing a path of gravel around the veg beds ???any good?
-
I need a natural method as I have dogs and cats. Is doing a path of gravel around the veg beds ???any good?
Would be very good as they hate gravel, egg shells and fresh straw work well too.
-
Mine trot merrily over all the barrier things I've heard of. I've not tried soot as we don't have any. Some things like wood ash are fine whilst it's dry, but that doesn't happen frequently here.
I think if you really want to get rid of them and can't use organically approved slug pellets, you just have to try everything all at the same time - picking, barriers, beer traps, copper, dry ground around plants, anything anyone's thought of.
-
I need a natural method as I have dogs and cats. Is doing a path of gravel around the veg beds ???any good?
A lot of them live underground during the day so could come up within the gravel.
-
Ahhhhhhhh. Went out this morning and they are hanging off my melon plants..
War ~ me 0 slugs 20 :rant: :rant:
-
We hired an army of duck mercenaries to roam around our raised beds and the outside of the polytunnel, and it's made a huge difference.
On a damp night there can be hundreds of slugs on the rest of the lawn, but very few now in or around the polytunnel.
-
I want ducks so so badly.. but until I find some where to rent I can't have them :huff: :huff:. So until then it's me and a plastic label stick thing and a coffee jar .. :&> :&>
-
...But imagine eating poison and laying there all night dying, then to be tortured in the heat of the morning sun...
If you use the ferric phosphate pellets, once the slugs have eaten them they will go underground and die - they shouldn't die on the surface. The old methiocarb pellets were the worst (for agri & horti situations) as they were not selective and would kill beneficial insects as well as mollusc's. The other pellet type that you can still get is the metaldehyde pellets and while they are selective the affected slugs and snails will die on the ground surface.
Been out this morning to water everything and slug army have invaded and my French beans have been almost wiped out grrrrrrrr. They were my pride and joy this year along with my white grapes.
Our veg and flowers have been walloped by them too :( We have loads of toads about the house but the slugs are outnumbering them without fail.
-
I haven't bought any slug pellets for years, but heard about these ferric phosphate pellets on the radio. did wonder whether they were worth trying for the more elusive beasties. But it must still be a horrible death.
-
Has anyone used the copper slug tape before.? If so is it any good or a waste of money... :raining:
-
I say it's a waste because if like it is so often in Wales it's raining , ( the slugs & snails on the copper generating the power like a small battery ) the vital electrical difference will be run to zero in the earth/ material it's fixed to by the rain water completing the circuit .
If it was bone dry it would be a different matter, the voltage available might deter them.
-
some years ago OH cut a copper cylinder into strips, folded them like angle iron and we ran them round a couple of raised beds, those beds were slug free once we'd eliminated residents. just had to make sure foliage didn't lean over edge. Havn't been able to garden for a couple of years until this year, but recently found those strips again, buried under some black plastic. quick rub down with wire wool and I'll be using them again.
-
lets know how you get on please I've no hair left to pull out.
I went out to have a look at things this morning and found almost nothing left of nine out of eleven all year round caulies I planted on Monday I treated the area with the recommended rate of slug pellets . There was plenty of slime trails but only a few dead slugs , the anti bird netting was still in place & effective.
This is despite using nematodes as well.
On a happier note I found the biggest British snail I've seen in years partly buried in the soil a few feet away from the cauli stumps , it was quite dead .
-
lets know how you get on please I've no hair left to pull out.
I went out to have a look at things this morning and found almost nothing left of nine out of eleven all year round caulies I planted on Monday I treated the area with the recommended rate of slug pellets . There was plenty of slime trails but only a few dead slugs , the anti bird netting was still in place & effective.
This is despite using nematodes as well.
On a happier note I found the biggest British snail I've seen in years partly buried in the soil a few feet away from the cauli stumps , it was quite dead .
Does you think there is a world record on british snails? ;D We could catch the biggest snails like they catch fish and try and out do each other by getting the biggest one, that'd be fun :roflanim:
-
Does you think there is a world record on british snails? ;D We could catch the biggest snails like they catch fish and try and out do each other by getting the biggest one, that'd be fun :roflanim:
[/quote]
Umm....ok, right....is there something missing in your life, LoL! What next, snail racing perhaps, or the prettiest snail competition? Just teasing........!
On the subject of big snails, I once came across on the edge of a railway embankment that crossed farmland, a colony of 'Roman snails', the edible ones, they were truly huge (and no, they didn't speak latin or march in columns and I didn't fancy eating them!). Apparently, they were brought over by the ancient Romans as a 'delicacy' and obviously some colonies have survived. Where I saw these had indeed been a Roman/Romano British occupation site.
-
The dead snail I found in the veg bed had a shell about 1 & 1/4 inches across & was about 1& 1/2 inches high .
Whilst abroad many years ago in the middl east I found a discarded snail shell that I could put my whole fisted hand in , till the lip of the shell reached my wrist .
Total size of the shell was about five & a half inches long by four & a half inches tall .
Evidently the locals prized them as a delicacy, extracting the snail body with a six inch long hooked nail thing and then roasting them on a stick BBQ style over dying embers .
-
Listen to Gardeners Question Time on Sunday 2pm, :-)
-
......I treated the area with the recommended rate of slug pellets . There was plenty of slime trails but only a few dead slugs......
If its ferric phosphate pellets that you used, the slugs should go under ground to die. If the pellets were metaldehyde based, then the slugs should be more visible on the soil surface.
-
The dead snail I found in the veg bed had a shell about 1 & 1/4 inches across & was about 1& 1/2 inches high .
Whilst abroad many years ago in the middl east I found a discarded snail shell that I could put my whole fisted hand in , till the lip of the shell reached my wrist .
Total size of the shell was about five & a half inches long by four & a half inches tall .
Evidently the locals prized them as a delicacy, extracting the snail body with a six inch long hooked nail thing and then roasting them on a stick BBQ style over dying embers .
Y U K !!!!! Y U K !!!!! Y U K !!!!! Y U K !!!!! Y U K !!!!! Y U K !!!!! Y U K !!!!! Y U K !!!!!
-
I still want ducks... :&> :&> :&>
-
......I treated the area with the recommended rate of slug pellets . There was plenty of slime trails but only a few dead slugs......
If its ferric phosphate pellets that you used, the slugs should go under ground to die. If the pellets were metaldehyde based, then the slugs should be more visible on the soil surface.
Thanks that's useful info for when I go a slug & snail hunting by torch light tonight .
Do you know if the ferric phosphate treatment tends to acidify the soil ? At present it's only very slightly acidic & I don't want to increase the level if I can help it?
-
......Do you know if the ferric phosphate treatment tends to acidify the soil ? At present it's only very slightly acidic & I don't want to increase the level if I can help it?
I don't think that they would CD. The actual concentration of active ingredient in the pellets will vary between 1 and 3% and the amount that will actually be used wouldn't be huge.
-
Thanks I'll do a bit of deeper looking .