[richyrich7]

lmao @ richy... they seem to love cucumber also...cannot believe my babies actually ate my cucumbers and just left me with the smallest hint that there had ever been a cucumber hanging on that stalk!  it must have given them good exercise though as they were quite a way off the ground and nothing to stand on!!!!

   mine stripped the blackberry bush the other day, anything below "jump" height has vanished  

[woodburner]

I find that it's not so much what the chooks eat that's the problem it's the scratching! My cockerel even scratches cardboard to bits (ok it's been down a while and is damp too but you'd think they wouldn't scratch where there's no earth or green stuff.)

[Kate and her Ducks]

My ducks love slugs and snails and have almost completely stripped the garden of both. The problem is that if they are let in the veg patch they eat the tender stuff and trample the little stuff so they have to be kept out. Despite this they seem to have kept the population right down in the whole garden and I have had no slug damage this year (caterpiiars are another story :evil: ).
I am letting mine onto the veg patch over winter to forage out any last suvivors and their eggs in the soil and to concentrate their "fertilizer" where needed. Come spring they will be back to the rest of the garden and by then the grass will have grown back!

[Sassy]

I used these once but they are expensive and you do have to keep using them. Also the ones I had only worked on slugs not snails. I don't know if there are nematodes for snails.

[Mellibelle]

Actually Ceri I thought Llanboidy was probably the slug capital ....
I want Carlitos Crow's slugs that won't go over old carpet.  I've found mine even go over bran and copper tape, although a friend of mine swears by it.  I've used nematodes, but terrifically expensive for the size of my patch and then to repeat every six weeks, and if they worked, it wasn't noticeable.  I find chickens do a lot of damage by scratching, but are very handy when it comes to pest control.  My old hen, sadly deceased, was a terror for leatherjackets and used to help when I was digging by getting in the way of the fork.  I ended up letting them into the veg patch during the 'winter' half of the year and excluding them (and slug pelleting) during the 'summer' half.  Has anyone tried ducks?  Do they eat all your veg as well?

[Alby]

I use Nematodes every year in my garden at home ( which is very small ) kills the slugs but not the snails. Only takes one application per year as the Nems live until all the slugs are dead .

    Snail are not affected by them but at least you have halved the problem and no fear of harming wildlife or the hens

 Alan