[mashbintater]

You know what Gobs? That very same thought crossed my mind when I read the title to this tread   !
Anyway, my tuppence worth. I've surrounded my lettuces & chinese cabbages mini plot with sliced open plastic water bottles cut from top to bottom, chopped in half. laying the sharp cut edge facing upwards, overlapped them and stones in to weigh them down. I've also planted chives & onions all around them too. I noticed a slime  trail all around the outside, but none within that little plot.
I've again put dry porridge oats in the crevices where they hide and a slug blocker barrier gel all around the rims of my containers. Each plant I've made a collar similar to the whalebone ones for my tom plants from chopping water bottles across-wise. These have so far worked for my cauli & sprout seedlings.
I didn't know about sand tho' & I've got loads of that!

[iwantanallotment]

a slug blocker barrier gel all around the rims of my containers

I haven't heard of this product, can you please explain more about it?

[mashbintater]

With pleasure, it SEEMS to be effective, but time & weather will tell...
It's a product made by Westland Garden Health, slug & snail barrier gel. It's rain resistant, safe to use & degrades naturally, environmentally friendly, contains no poison. It's kind of like a  sticky, runny version of vaseline / petroleum jelly, which I believe, they can't slither over that either!

I bought mine from B&Q ages ago, think it was a few quid for 750g. it's in a tall grey plastic bottle with a large green cap. You can actually pour it onto the compost / soil surrounding the plants.

Incidentally, I'm using broken egg shells & frequent late night patrols to gather in the wanderers, and treating them to a dip in my beer traps. I'll try anything that's environmentally friendly  

[fletch]

I've taken a multi-pronged-attack approach this year. I started with the organic slug pellets, then I ordered some nematodes (expensive, I know, but I was at the end of my tether) and I also scatter "regular" slug pellets around, albeit thinly.
This is the first year EVER where I have young hostas that look like hostas, minimal damage to young brassicas/salads etc... and generally my whole plot looks pretty much intact. Usually it looks like something from a horror film at night, literally 1000's of slugs everywhere.

It seems counter-productive to spend so much money on anti-slug treatments and also goes against my organic principles, but I may as well not bother otherwise. In the past I have tried every other deterrent imaginable, but the end result is always the same - total devastation, I think they used to use my beer traps to get p*ssed, get the munchies and then go and eat my plot.

[iwantanallotment]

Many thanks for the description, mashbintater. It sounds ideal, will look for some next week  

[love-my-plot]

started with the organic slug pellets, I   then I ordered some nematodes (expensive, I know, but I was at the end of my tether) and I also scatter "regular" slug pellets around, albeit thinly.
This is the first year EVER where I have young hostas that look like hostas, minimal damage to young brassicas/salads etc... and generally my whole plot looks pretty much intact.

Did the organic ones not work, Fletch? I was thinking of trying them....

[DeadlyNightshade]

I'm just after another killing spree although there was a lot less to kill (and no, I do not eat them, neither fried or roasted )

I think I will do this more regularly, event hough it's quite time consuming- just spent an hour out there. But at least I weeded a bit as I went along too

[compostqueen]

I tried some organic pellets from Wilko and they were useless and I ended up losing loads of brassicas I'd put in a frame.  Some folks say they have found organic ones that work so I think I must have been unlucky with the brand I got.

[peterjf]

try using oyster shell grit , as used in bird cages , we buy 25 kg for £12 sounds expensive but £ 12 is same price of 4-5 tubes of pellets , the slugs dont like crossing over a band of shell grit , nothing to loose ,

[woodburner]

If I wanted to kill slugs, I'd use bran. I'm not 100% sure what kills which slugs though, so I'd only use it if I was desperate.

[fletch]

Did the organic ones not work, Fletch?

The problem with my approach is that it is difficult to decide what worked and what didn't as I went for it all guns blazing. The main problem with organic pellets over traditional ones is that you don't see the dying, messy slugs, so it is hard to decide if they work at all. I used them in my garden very early on and I have had little/no slug problems at all.

I do know that the combination I have used (which sounds like overkill, but I don't have blue borders!) has resulted in the best my garden and plot have ever looked at this time of year, and the organic pellet/nematode approach has drastically reduced the amount of traditional pellets I use. Which has to be a good thing?

[love-my-plot]

Thanks Fletch... so far I haven't used anything except picking them off and into a bucket of salt water .... but am tempted to use pellets. If the organic ones don't work, then I MIGHT go for the other ones if it gets bad! Slimy gits!

Does anyone else use the organic pellets & do they work?

[potatopotato]

I tried some organic pellets from Wilko and they were useless and I ended up losing loads of brassicas I'd put in a frame.  Some folks say they have found organic ones that work so I think I must have been unlucky with the brand I got.

Hope not to be committing libel here but I never buy gardening stuff from Wilko's anymore - except for trays and propogator tops - everything I've ever bought from there has been unsuccessful including seeds, bulbs and greenhouse nuts & bolts.

I've put rolled oats around absolutely everything in the ground this year and it seems to be working so far. I did beer traps last year but they were only successful within a certain radius (ie. I would have needed dozens of them to protect all of my plants) and I didn't have the time to keep up with them. Coffee grinds didn't seem to work last year. I am liking the rolled oats so far. But we'll see if it continues to work once it starts raining.

[polly nator]

Quite honestly I feel sick just reading all this. I'm off!!!
(PS I am trying the coffee grounds - makes the garden smell really nice)

[cozzcov]

I've tried the ground coffee, with very little success.  (Even the smell doesn't deter the local cats)  So this year I am using Growing Success's 'Advanced Slug Pelletts' which seem to be working, but like Fletch says you don't see the slimey mess or the dead beasties so you can't really tell if being successful, but so far my plants have been damage free. So I think they are working.