[reddytogarden]

I'm starting a raised bed veg garden and can make the path out of anything so wondered if there was an ideal path to deter slugs? gravel?

[yorky]

I wouldn't go to too much time and trouble trying to deter slugs on your paths. Its the ones on your veg beds that are a problem. The slugs and their eggs are in the soil of your beds, Its a bit of a myth that they only venture onto your beds for a feed then wander back off again.

[DHM]

I've had some success with copper tape, wrapped around pots and tubs, you could I suppose go round your raised beds with them to guard against the hit and hide feeders like snails, but as Yorky says the slugs and unhatched eggs in the soil of your beds would not be affected. Maybe a few beer traps in the beds, light sprinklings of crushed eggshell, coffee grounds, go for a multi pronged attack! You can buy microscopic nematodes which are a predator of slug, but I've heard mixed opinions on the use of these.

[upert]

I concur with DMH - multi-pronged attack. I use beer traps to great effect - v cheap beer (90p Asda for 4 cans) in jam jar or yoghurt pots, occasionally with something to keep the rain off overhead, they need to be an inch or more proud of the ground so beneficial beetles don't fall in. Beetles eat slug eggs.

Coffee grounds are good for point defence. Coffee shops are usually happy to give their spent grounds away.

Nematodes are about £12 a go and you have to use them as soon as you get them and when the ground is warm enough. Try one application April-ish if you don't want to keep shelling out 12 quid; shows the slugs who's boss from the get-go.

Leopard slugs are your friends too - they eat rubbish, not your veg - so don't kill them either.

[sunshineband]

Our paths are landscape membrane covered with wood chip from the local council, and slugs don't seem to live in them /on them at all, and I would say it is much better than grass paths, as slugs seem to rest on the bed edge where it meets the nice damp grass.

[al78]

I use a combination of copper rings and nematodes, which seems to work well enough to get a crop. Next year I am going to apply a second lot of nematodes in mid summer, as despite the lack of rain this year, my cabbages have been ravaged, particularly in August when the weather flipped to mediocre normal.

[rowlandwells]

we usually put sawdust from cutting up logs round the razed beds it keeps the weeds down and we don't seem to have any slugs either but as said by others slugs are in the ground and come out to feed we use slug pellets on our razed beds that are netted and the pellets seem to have done the trick