[captainb]

Hi,
I was thinking about how to control slugs from entering my raised beds that I'm building. I was thinking about coating the wood in PVA glue and coating in sharp gravel or using sand to make like a sandpaper effect on the outside or create a shingle border around the beds ?
Would any of this help or even work ?
 

[Beetroot queen]

Slugs live in soil too so i guess only if the raised beds had bottoms, ours are just defined beds not raised so sit on normal open soil.

I just use pellets but i am sprinkling a smaller area i suppose

[BabbyAnn]

When I was in school, the foot of the snail was demonstrated by allowing it to crawl over the edge of a razor blade - it did not cut itself because the muscles contracts as it moves forward.  So sharp stones, glass, nails and so on will have no effect.

Slugs and snails however, do use mucus to help them crawl and using superdry stuff like sawdust and diatomaceous earth will absorb moisture - but stuff like that do have a limited use and break down when it rains.

Using copper was the big thing at one time - supposedly crawling over it gave the slugs an unpleasant experience, so nailing copper pipes along the top edge was supposed to stop them entering the raised bed.  I don't know if this was ever proved.  However, since the cost of copper has shot up it's probably too expensive am experiment to find out for sure.

As BQ mentions, slugs live in soil too so you'd never eliminate them completely 

[surbie100]

I put nematodes into anything that I am really bothered about losing, otherwise I can cope with losing some or slug marks on others. I haven't actually had much slug damage at all so far this year, compared to last.

[captainb]

Thanks, looks like I've saved myself some work. Back to pellets and beer traps I think

[Kirpi]

sink a deep washing up bowl or similar near or in the raised bed and wait for the frogs to move in.

[wil4025]

Im taking the method I know works, digging a small area about 2" around each bed, adding load of grit and they will not go over it, I use this method with my hostas

[grinling]

black beetles eat slugs, so put one in and move from raised bed to raised bed.