[johnfh]

I have just lost a 3 week old tray of lettuce seedlings thanks to my stupidity in trusting a "Safe" green product.  I bought Fito Slug Stoppa Granules in a mainstream garden shop in good faith as I really like to protect all wild life.  However these manufacturers should be sued for fraud and they do nothing to help the green movement people by making false claims, in fact they drive more people to be cynical and dismiss all their claims however valid.
I have now used Bayer Slug and Snail Killer and the evidence is there for all to see! Sorry but thats's how it is - rant over!

[hamstergbert]

is that the stuff that consists of tiny shards of stone that looks like it failed the physical to be horticultural grit?  If it is then the only way that will get rid of slugs is to squash 'em by hitting 'em with the ruddy box!

[JayG]

Sounds like it's purely a physical barrier product and it only takes one to get lucky and breach it......

The "old fashioned" metaldehyde pellets are the most effective but poisonous to wildlife and possibly pets if they eat enough of them.

The active ingredient in the newer "Growing Success" pellets is ferric phosphate, an iron salt which should be much safer for other animals. It seems to work but you don't see a trail of empty shells or drying up corpses as evidence. I'm not 100% sure about them, but I suppose life is full of such unsatisfactory compromises! 

[Sharonx]

I am sitting here looking at a box I brought half price in the garden centre yesterday! I won't bother opening it I will take it back this afternoon. Just thought it was regular slug/snail pellets didn't read the box.

[birmancats]

Didn't work for me either.  Still have an unopened 2nd box!

[DD.]

Oddly enough I don't have much of a slug problem on the allotment and where I do have to pellet I also net. I have in fact not used any pellets down there this year.

HOWEVER - home is a different matter! I finally got fed up of disappearing lettuce, tagetes, bite marks on the cucumbers etc. etc. and I let rip with the blue pellets of death a few days ago.

Result - slug & snail carnage and no more losses since. I was up early  and did the honourable thing of sweeping up the bodies!

Ask me if I feel guilty!

[Zippy]

I sometimes wonder if by netting we are preventing the slug and snails' main predators - birds, hedghogs and frogs? However by not netting you are open to veg attack.

[Springlands]

I have had good success with the old fashioned beer traps - used the bottom of a plastic drinks bottle and used some of OH's beer (don't tell him). 

[JayG]

I have had good success with the old fashioned beer traps - used the bottom of a plastic drinks bottle and used some of OH's beer (don't tell him). 

That's OK unless your pour it back in the bottle afterwards!!

(My word, darling, I don't remember this beer having so much body!)    

[r2d2]

i have not had to use pellets since i got my ducks! they love eating slugs, i collect extra slugs if i can for them. 

[Springlands]

I have had good success with the old fashioned beer traps - used the bottom of a plastic drinks bottle and used some of OH's beer (don't tell him). 

That's OK unless your pour it back in the bottle afterwards!!

(My word, darling, I don't remember this beer having so much body!)    

Yuck 

[johnfh]

Thanks for all your responses.  DD I am sure you do feel guilty!  I see the Bayer product does contain the deadly metaldehyde and has dire warnings about possibly being fatal to pets but it does work well!
Is it better to collect up the dead bodies to possibly prevent birds and other predators etc eating them or will they not touch them?

[stentman]

I sometimes wonder if by netting we are preventing the slug and snails' main predators - birds, hedghogs and frogs? However by not netting you are open to veg attack.

That's my experience this year I have used enviromesh for my brassicas and it has worked well in that butterflies and pidgeons etc have not touched the plants. However the slugs have had a field day unhindered by predators and slightly shaded by the netting the slimy terrors have chomped on almost all of them. So this week patience ended and the blue pellets are now inside the net. Strangley I had more brassicas than I had prepared space for so a few were just popped in were I could fit them in and with no help or cover they are suffering less slug damage. Mother nature eh

[Zippy]

That was my experience as well. No sign of caterpillars or their damage under the nets but tell tale signs that slugs have been chomping through my greens unhindered as you say by my frogs, birds and hedgheogs.  I had considered making very small arch openings where the net meets the ground so a bird could not get in but a frog could; maybe introduce frog tunnels with short pieces of drainpipe running under the net.

I placed a half eaten corgette under a slate near the frog pond and Mr Frog has been making short work of my slimy friends. They can check in any time they like but they can never leave!

The late swedes I put in outside the net have been untouched by slug, bird or caterpillar - too late for caterpillars now?

[SUTTY1]

I've had great success with beer traps, when i go for a meal or a pint i ask the bar staff to put the dreggs in some lemonade bottles. Some people say it acts as an attractant but so do pellets if you read the packaging.

The biggest attractant is our fruit and veg. So if their there anyway why not try and catch some 1st before they eat.

Apparently its the yeast they attracted to, since a lot off people on here brew or bake etc its very cheap to pop a few grains into a trap and save the beer