[alancas]

greetings,can anybody tell me if continued use of slug pellets will harm crops ?thanks

[mumofstig]

No it won't  can't say the same for the slugs   

[DD.]

In most cases, it's the discontinued use that harms the plants! 

[alancas]

thanks for replies

[A Reyt Tayty]

How long do the slug pellets work for after their application?

[RaptorUK]

How long do the slug pellets work for after their application?

Usually until the rain washes them away or they disappear due to digging or eating by slugs/snails.  You need a very light application not piles of them . . .  they attract the slugs and snails so maybe a dozen per sq meter would suffice.

[Spr0ut]

The poison in slug pellets is used up or washed out long before the bait decomposes so what you are sprinkling around your plot is in effect, slug food.

My approach is to leave plastic dustbin lids or slates or whatever you have in strategic shady places and visit them daily early morning to pick up the slugs that have checked in overnight. They then get bagged up and dropped in the local litter bin on the walk home where they get taken to the slug holiday park (the tip).

[Maarten]

Ferric phosphate pellets may actually be beneficial to the plants after they brake down, although you probably have to seriously overdose to see an effect.

Maarten

[Spr0ut]

There is a school of thought that if you clear all slugs from the plot you will cause the natural predators - hedgehogs, frogs, toads, birds,  slowworms etc. - to move away looking for food and make the situation worse.

So possibly another way that using slug pellets will harm plants if the natural predators migrate to better pickings elsewhere.

[Stewart P]

There is another school of thought that no matter what method you use; organic, chemical, biological or nuclear, you won't ever get to clear even but a small fraction of all slugs from the plot.  I'm committed to organic on my plot and this year I'm about to try pellets from the "Garden Organic" catalogue but I wouldn't be at all surprised if the horrid little slime-bags still trash my seedlings, grow fat on the organic pellets and stick two sluggy fingers up at me in mockery.   

[al78]

There is a school of thought that if you clear all slugs from the plot you will cause the natural predators - hedgehogs, frogs, toads, birds,  slowworms etc. - to move away looking for food and make the situation worse.

So possibly another way that using slug pellets will harm plants if the natural predators migrate to better pickings elsewhere.

That is an argument I have heard against using nematodes. I suspect that if it were possible to eradicate slugs on a single plot what would happen is the predators would migrate ten yards to the plot margins where there will still be plenty of slugs, then the slugs will gradually migrate back in to the plot with the predators slowly following.

[Spr0ut]

I agree al78

[cadalot]

Man vs Slug - Picture says it all

[Spr0ut]

- but that will leave bits of squashed slug everywhere - which other live slugs just love to eat! ewwww!

[Yorkie]

- but that will leave bits of squashed slug everywhere - which other live slugs just love to eat! ewwww!

If they're full of slug, they won't be eating plants ...