[DeadlyNightshade]

I am just after coming out of the garden, I took a silly notion of going on a slug hunt (I had forgotten to top up the pellets)... and now I feel sick:

I must have cut about a thousand slugs in half an hour. I have a big dung heap piled up and I could not destroy them as quick as they started emerging and having a great time on top of it
And since last year there are nasty big red and black ones that I so far only knew from home- what a mess when you slice them open (and I suppose they do alot more damage than the wee ones!)

I am really frustrated right now and can't see me getting away without tons of slug pellets (in all fairness, the damage so far has been not too bad). And me trying to be as organic as possible!

I've put up a coin barrier but so far only partly and wire and ashes (ok, beds themselves weren't too overrun tonight), but I must have brought in the pests with my lovely dung.

What way is everyone else with them freaking (I hope this doesn't count as swearword) things?

Bell

[spud]

Hi Bell,

I'm the same, I've lost several complete cabbage plants now!  the beer traps do work as mine are almost full of slugs, I'm gonna put down several more.

Cheers

 

[compostqueen]

I can't cut em in half or tread on them. Now the sun is out we hopefully will see fewer of them  

Don't get fixated about slugs!  They are part of gardening as are weeds.  You can make beer traps which work well as long as you remember to top them up.  When you've eaten oranges or grapefruits you can put the half shells upturned on the ground near your brassicas etc then collect them up in the morning.  I make slug traps out of old plastic small milk cartons or those placcy boxes you get washing detergent in, make a hole in the side for sluggy to climb in (put some beer in if you want or yeast grains) that way the slug pellets aren't in contact with your food and can't be accessed by hedgehogs or dogs etc

[woodburner]

Don't kill the big ones, some of them actually eat the little grey ones! I'm not 100% sure which ones are the carniverous ones, I just remember 'big' 'keeled'and 'black', not necessarily describing the same slug. I do remember clearly that 'It's the little grey ones that do the damage.'

Also lots of slugs (not the grey ones) only eat rotting stuff so do no harm.

[kimT]

I know nothing about slugs except they eat my plants and make a mess on the carpet should you step on one!

I always remember slugs being black but the ones we have now are great big giant yellow things that come out at night and hang around the chicken mash so I have to get that in as soon as they have gone to bed.

Can anyone tell me what these are called and how can I get rid of them they give me the willies!!


Thank you.

[woodburner]

I know nothing about slugs except they eat my plants and make a mess on the carpet should you step on one!

I always remember slugs being black but the ones we have now are great big giant yellow things that come out at night and hang around the chicken mash so I have to get that in as soon as they have gone to bed.

Can anyone tell me what these are called and how can I get rid of them they give me the willies!!


Thank you.

"Another of the keeled slug group is the Yellow Slug. This animal is somewhat smaller and smoother than the Great Grey Slug. It is grey with a distinct greenish or yellowish tinge, and it has a yellow sole (the underneath part). The tentacles are steely blue. This species feeds on fungi and decaying matter and it can often be found crawling on the lowr parts of damp walls."
Learn to love them
I stepped on one once, in socks, it went pop, I retched for ages just at the memory of it :!: , so believe me I know how you feel!

Actually the memory is making me queasy even now

 :puker:

[compostqueen]

could you not feed the big sluggies, or little slugs, to your hens?  Mine eat them.  I have a plan, when my hens are more used to me, to take them for a nice day out to my allotment so they can eat slugs there  

[kimT]

Our girls won't touch them they run away and they won't touch those big fat horrible worms either and I don't blame them!

[compostqueen]

mine love worms anorl. I thought all chickens did  :?

[DeadlyNightshade]

I went this morning to see how many more slugs had succumbed to the slug pellets that I scattered after my killing spree and to check on  the bodies of my victims... something obviously took quite a liking to the killed slugs, next to none left (and there were hundreds!!)

On the other hand none of  the pellet victims had been removed. Looks like someone is benefiting from my hunt


Does anyone know a website where we could learn about the good and the bad slugs?

[DeadlyNightshade]

I've found one useful link for the time being

http://www.cardiff.ac.uk/biosi/staffinfo/wocs2.html

[agapanthus]

I tried 'advanced' slug pellets last year....they are supposed to be the organic growers dream!! They work well!!

[gobs]

'slugs starting to make me sick'

Stop eating them.  

[Sadgit]

'slugs starting to make me sick'

Stop eating them.  

urgh.. you really are awful

[weeeed]

Put heaps of used coffee grounds round the ones the slugs really like and relax. If the plants are healthy they will survive. If this sounds very polityically correct I put it down to sun damage today