Allotment Gardening Advice Help Chat
Growing => Growing in Greenhouses & Polytunnels => Topic started by: adri123 on November 03, 2014, 12:41
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Hi
I'm about to put in some slug defences (9 volt electric wires around top of raised beds as seen on youtube) but I want to clear out any slugs/eggs before setting it up.
Can anyone suggest a reasonable way of clearing out other than the rather expensive nematodes? If not then I suppose I could set it up and just go down and slugwatch for a while...
TIA
Adri
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The slugs come up through the soil, even with a barrier around the outside - it will stop snails though.
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OH!!! Didn't know that. I know that if they are in there then they will lay their eggs in the soil but I had hoped that if I clear a bed and have the 9v fence it would prevent them getting back in. I have paths between the beds with gravel on top of weed fabric.
hmmm...need to think some more then....
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So if I did somehow clear out all slugs and eggs from a raised bed and then put in the electric fence would they tunnel their way back in?
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I doubt you could stop them... maybe if your beds are laying on top of concrete... that might slow them down.. a bit... for a while... maybe...
Pip pip,
Balders
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Something like this may just help....
(Source: Google images)
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I'm just going to make lots of the pop bottle beer and pellet of death traps and have at least two traps a bed. I have started peppering them around the plot today to try and eradicate as many of the little blighters as possible and slow down the egg production. Any eggs I find will be placed on a tray on the table for my neighbourhood robin to feast upon.
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I've never seen slug's eggs - 'til now...
(source: http://www.ruralramblings.com/slug-and-eggs/ )
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beetles eat slugs, but you will need to release them as they cannot climb out.
some slugs eat slugs.
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This is one - you really don't this even if it does eat other slugs - (for once the 'others' have my pity)
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spanish_slug (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spanish_slug)
http://www.slugwatch.co.uk/?page_id=174 (http://www.slugwatch.co.uk/?page_id=174)
Pip pip,
Balders
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@cadalot
Any info on how to make the bottles of death?
TIA
Adri
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Yep. Spanish slugs are what we've got...loads of em!!!
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Cadders has put a post up under frugal living about his traps:
http://chat.allotment-garden.org/index.php?topic=117376.0 (http://chat.allotment-garden.org/index.php?topic=117376.0)
I'm glass-blowing mine - only way to win his respect ;)
Pip pip,
Balders
(I haven't looked into the spread of spanish slugs - but I had an inkling they weren’t in your neck of the woods adri - might be some sort of slug notification GCHQ thing that would be interested in that info.)
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How about emptying the bottles of death? It looks like if you get a full trap it might be tricky to empty.
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Put a new trap in - tie the old one (full of dead slugs) to some sort of pole.
Dance around said pole (possibly naked - depends on your plot committee)...
Slugs are (not legally) guaranteed to run a mile... ;)
Pip pip,
Balders
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#MostHelpfulBalders
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That's the beauty of the POP bottle beer trap or blue pellet of death trap once full of sluggy bodies, just pour out the liquid and put in a sack and throw them away complete with sluggy bodies. The way my kids go thru POP and I go thru fizzy water I only need 30 pop bottles for two traps per bed. By start of next year I shall have many more than that ready to deploy.
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Wouldn't it be better to be able to empty them out and put back in to catch more sluggies? Then no need to keep making.
I'll have a making session and see if they can be emptied and reused as I'm sure I'd tire of making up new ones all the time...
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It's only the beer ones that I would rather junk, the ones housing the blue pellets of death only need the lids removed and topped up with fresh pellets once in a while, you don't even need to lift them, just deal with them when you are weeding.