[Cheryl B]

Hi all

Okay, I have a massive thing against slugs (but which gardener doesn't..) mainly because they are of no use AT ALL and they eat our stuff. And they are ugly. This is my first year of allotmenteering, and I am determined to rage war on them but in a nice way - I would prefer not to use pellets, so all of your wild and wonderful organic slugfare advice will be gratefully received!!

[DavidT]

Pick them up and relocate them several miles away. Or use a liquid slug killer.

[mumofstig]

If you are not going to use slug pellets (there are organic ones you know?) then you have to accept that you will lose a good proportion of your crops.
Beer traps work a bit but not enough for me to want to rely on them.

[Missy1970]

Read in GW today about using used coffee grounds although they are not claiming any success it cannot do any harm - their words not mine

[Jamie Butterworth]

if your not using the pellets because you dont want to harm over wildlife like hedgehogs then put them in a half buried bottle and the slugs go in there eat them and die, then hedgehogs and birds cant eat the poison aswell.

[RichardA]

Ducks or chucks
R

[solway cropper]

Waging war on slugs in a nice way.....I suppose that's a bit like friendly fire

[viettaclark]

Late night torch-lit hunts....armed with scissors to snip them in half....very quick death....very green.....

[mumofstig]

and you call that nice......Y U K 

[blackbob]

this question comes up every year, no matter which forum you are on at the time lol.
i was akin to chemical ali 20-30 years ago.
now we know better dont we all.
if you have room get a pond installed,failling that get as much freshwater pondlife into your area as possible.simple things like digging a hole under hedges and covering it with pond liner.
get nature back into your growing area.log piles stacked neatly against a fence will encourage frogs,toads,stag beetles and all kinds of beneficial creatures.was out shooting one night and using night vision on the gun and spotting scope.a stag beetle jumped a frog right infront of me and tried to chow his head off lol.
nature at it's best,another good one is get a bamboo cane and gaffer tape a darning needle to the end of it.keep 5" extended out of the end of the cane,and simply go out and spear them with a torch once it gets dark.if you havn't used any slug pellets on the area.simply wipe them off on a bit grass.the birds and especially the fledglings will love you for it.
good luck bob

[blackbob]

and you call that nice......Y U K 

thats cruel lol.

[Cheryl B]

Late night torch-lit hunts....armed with scissors to snip them in half....very quick death....very green.....

Mmm, I might puke doing that.... No doubt it works though!
 :blink:

[Bluedave]

I was reading about nematodes the other day - anybody had any success with them?

[wighty]

We use Sinclairs 'Garlic Barrier'.  Apparentlly it makes the soil 'taste' nasty for the slugs and snails and also the plants 'take it up' and the aphids don't like the taste of the sap.  So one application does two jobs.  It is a bit on the expensive side, we retail it for £7.50 for 500g.

[unconcerned]

nematodes and beer

Then there is the nets against the catterpillas, flys etc. We grow and then we battle to keep what we grow