[hubballi]

Well, I planted out my careful grown Curly Kale plants and overnight they were stripped    I had surrounded them in coffee granules and finely crushed eggshells, garlic sprayed on the leaf (which works very effectively with other plants) and still they got them  I have used organic pellets which they just ignore.

Now what do I do ? Is it too late to sow more Kale ?

[mobilekat]

Are you sure it was slugs/snails??
Sounds like if they ignored everything else it may be something a tad bigger doing the munching...
It may be that you have a rabbit, mouse or vole visiting and a few slugs/snails, and they are doing a 'team-tag' attack on your garden
With the fluffy one eating most of the plant and the snail finishing it off, as while the pet safe slug pellets are not as effective as the traditional ones if they are spread out well they will normally eat them first.

[hubballi]

It's a terraced house walled garden and we have cats so no fury animals for sure. Def slugs.

[Ice]

Maybe the slugs were watching the olympics and learned how to pole vault over the traps.

[mobilekat]

I wouldn't be so sure its not a furry or feathered pest, we used to have cats and mice!

For all the plants to go in one night tends to mean a big eater- did you have them netted, or did a pigeon get lucky?

Either that or it was the SAS (Slug Attack Squad)

[shoozie]

It's a walled garden and we have cats so no fury animals for sure. Def slugs.

Glad to hear your walled garden is rodent proof Hubballi - ours, definitely, is not.  We have, amongst other things,  a lively population of mice, voles and the odd rabbit, all who are very able 'tunnellers' and 'climbers'.  Coming through, over and under the walls.  The voles, especially, are very active at the moment and have just munched a cauliflower to the ground.  I'm on 'carrot watch' daily, as last year they took off with most of our autumn kings by mining from below  

We've lost our young direct sown seedling kale to slugs - id be pushing my luck to try from seed now, but, if you've got some seed, then maybe it's worth a try as youve nothing to lose except a few seeds, or more likely source some young plants locally.

Best of luck - my old cats were mostly useless unless the rodents were already or nearly deceased  

[hubballi]

I never thought about it being a pigeon as we do have them. Mmm 

[Headgardener22]

The best solution I've found is a headtorch and a bucket of boiling water at about 9:00pm. After a couple of weeks the number of slugs starts to decrease. It also seems to reduce the number in subsequent years. The first year I tried it I could get 100 slugs per night. A bad night now is about 30.

[hubballi]

I collect them up and put them in the compost bin. They eat the compost and create more by their waste.

[Headgardener22]

I collect them up and put them in the compost bin. They eat the compost and create more by their waste.

I used to do this but then discovered loads of slug eggs in the compost so thought it better to make sure they didn't breed

[arugula]

I collect them up and put them in the compost bin. They eat the compost and create more by their waste.

Do you not fear them coming out of the compost and going back to your plants for better pickings? 

[mobilekat]

I go for creeping around late at night with head torch and trowel, (or iron bar) then put the bodies in the compost....

(please note referring to slugs and snails... before I get a policeman hammering on the door!!!)

The worms seem happy with what every I throw in!

the really big fat (dead) ones I leave- they keep the blackbird happy the next day!

[angelavdavis]

My lovely Dad, when he lived with me in London, used to sit in the garden in the summer having his late night ciggie and marvelled at the slugs.  Then he became a man with a mission and used to grab a 3L milk carton with a screw on lid and walk around with his torch and gloves, picking them up and putting them in the milk carton.  He then calmly walked the carton to the wheelie bin and despatched them.  

He did this every night for a whole summer and my hostas were fab that year!

Sadly, he has now given up smoking so no chance of him doing it now!

My 3 year old has been trained to become a fully fledged mollusc murderer at the allotment - he even offered to squash someone else's snails the other day!!

My chickens don't eat the really big fat slugs with the orange go-faster stripes down the side.  I wondered if it is because orange might mean "don't eat" to a chicken?  They don't eat carrots either!

I have gone back to the blue pellets used sparingly at the allotment as I have tried everything else.  My chickens are at home so no danger for them and I really can't keep up with the devastation if I leave them or use an alternative.

[khelashi]

Has anyone ever tried Copper spray? Does this work as well as wire? (Stupid question maybe but you never know... 

[JayG]

I'm assuming you are referring to something like Bordeaux mixture where the copper is in solution as copper sulphate - it won't work for slugs as the copper needs to be in its metallic form (plus copper sulphate is not something you want to be spraying everywhere unless you really have to as a blight prevention measure.)