[cbu183]

Took my plot over in Winter - it had been abandoned for a couple of years and the slugs reigned supreme.

What I've lost in my first year - peas all types, beans all types, sweetcorn, courgette, broccoli rabe, squash, radish, scorzonera, salsify, skirret, carrot, cabbage and every other brassica.

Spuds, onions and the fruit that was already there is all i've got.

i've bought iron pellets now and they lessen the impact for a day or two.

Question: shall i wage all-out war or shall i grow slug-resistant stuff only?  i feel like all those winter months of digging perennials out of 19 metres of clay have been for nothing.

[BabbyAnn]

Anything "slug resistant" are likely to be unpalatable for you, not that I know of anything slug resistant anyway (apart from a few potato varieties, and that's usually due to the density of the tubers rather than a true resistance)

This year is particularly bad because of the mild and wet year so far, so numbers are on a high at the moment.  Other times, I find seedlings and young plants are most vulnerable but thereafter once they reach maturity, plants tend to survive any slug or snail attack.  I find I usually only put slug pellets out to protect the germinating seeds and young plants and after that, when the weather is particularly wet.  Waging an all out war would be difficult as the slugs and snails from neighbouring plots would simply cross over due to lack of competition when the original have gone, but you could try nematodes (and also encourage frogs on your plot - but then you do need to cease using slug pellets containing metaldehyde)

Spuds, onions and the fruit that was already there is all i've got.

.... potato tubers are vulnerable to slugs in the soil ....

[JayG]

Good idea to try to work out where the slugs and snails are likely to be hiding at night and put pellets there as well as round your crops, particularly if using ferric phosphate which is not technically a poison so takes longer to produce results than metaldehyde.

In my case many hide in the hedges surrounding my garden so can be intercepted before they reach my veg growing areas - the pellets last longer given the partial rain shelter than they do in the open which is an added bonus.

Don't lose hope - I've still got plenty of slugs and snails despite a blue pellet blitz over the past few months, but there are fewer than before and I do finally have some salad seedlings which have escaped their attention. Most other crops are more or less big and tough enough now to not be at high risk, although I am keeping vigilant! 

[mjg000]

I have lost more things to slugs this year than ever before.  Even things I wouldn't expect them to go for like tomatoes have ben attacked in the early stages.  I have put out more courgettes and French beans than I can count and have come back to everything chewed up back to the stalks the next morning.  As others have said - if you can get them established they can usually cope with a few slugs around but I too feel quite defeated by them this year as I was quite late getting things out.  It would perhaps be a good idea to clear your long grass and rubbish areas so they don't have places to hide.

[wighty]

This is the first year that they seem to have even got in the greenhouse!  We smoke bomb every spring and have never had a problem before.  They have also decimated the leaves on the broad beans which I've never seen before. 

[Yorkie]

They've eaten the tops off a row of potatoes - never known that before 

[cbu183]

Thanks everyone. A multilayered attack will probably be the way forward and peas in pots next year.  I did try everything with the soft stuff and they didn't go in until they were very big and hardened off for weeks but the little so and sos munched the lot.