Slugs & Snails

Robert123 · Slugs & Snails

I am hoping that this years slightly colder winter will have an effect on on the slug and snail population, last year I got in early with the slug pellets around about March and it did have a good effect any one else got any tips on dealing with slugs and snails I did once hear about a liquid treatment that stopped them breeding anyone else hear about that product, it has got to be better than pellets

Guest1

Upturned grapefruit halves, or jars of ale will catch loads. Hedgehog friendly, too.

Robert123

We have not got any hedgehogs around here, lots of bloody seagulls, I have heard about those two methods, thanks, what i want to do is reduce the breeding population

wudja.cudja · snails and slugs

Hi Robert.. ..

For slugs i used a Nematode biological cure several years ago and ive not had a problem since.

Slugs continue to lay eggs virtually all year and you only see them when they migrate in the spring and summer. the rest of the year they're underground eating the roots.

Nematodes are tiny worms that feed on the slugs and kill them and one application lasts 6 weeks. it gets them underground as well and is safe to use with all wildlife, pets, children etc.

Cost me £9.99 for the whole garden two applications worth several years ago from my local gardening centre but, thats gone now making room for new housing.

Snails.. .. most effective way is by wearing soft topped trainers and go out hunting fort them day and night.. ..

when you find them.. .. drop kick them over into a distant garden

best if the neighbour has an outdoor pool as you get to hear the splosh .. .. .

Myself i use these.. .. >>

http://www.fort-delce.pwp.blueyonder.co.uk/piglets/

paul.. ..

wudja.cudja · Funny thing with snails.. ..

Just remembered this.. ..

When i first moved in here i thought i had the ghost of a sexy woman wearing stilletoes haunting my garden.. .. (just wishfull thinking on the sexy bit)

I'd wake early in the morning and i could hear someone walking around my bungalow wearing heels.. .. tap tap clip clip clip tap tap like heels go on a footpath..

took me ages to suss it was the speckled thrushes cracking open the snails around the garden.. ..

Robert123

Cheers for that, I used to thow them next door until I read that they have a homing instinct, so i tested it by painting a bit of tipex on a snail, and sure enough it came back

hbrac

Robert

What ale do I put down for the slugs and snails? There's too much choice in Tescos

Guest1

cheap ale.

hbrac

As I don't drink

which is a cheap ale?

chocaholicsanon

buy tescos cheapest ale in a can. that will do the trick, but dont forget to empty it. and you might get the hedgehogs a bit drunk.

madsue

I knew I should have looked on here first

I am absolutely plagued by slugs at the moment. Hundreds of them first thing in the morning, then they have gone within an hour of the sun really coming out. Where the heck do they all go???

I have just planted all my pots and beds up in one of my courtyards, and already the slugs are eating my plants

This morning there are lots of slimy trails, but I can't see the slugs! Have they buried themselves in the earth ready to pop up again later??? Obviously the ale thing isn't practical in such small places, and I am not keen on slug pellets. What about if I put salt crystals around the plants? Would that work?

Any other advice purleease, as I would love to keep the plants this year

wudja.cudja · Nematodes natural slug defence

Hi

Here's the stuff i used........

http://www.nickys-nursery.co.uk/seeds/pages/nematode_info.htm

Cost & shipping info UK Europe and rest of world.

http://www.nickys-nursery.co.uk/seeds/pages/nematode.htm

paul....

madsue

Thanks paul...........trouble is by the time it gets here all my plants will have been eaten

I have been busy with my torch tonight patrolling the pots and beds.........in fact it's time for another little lookey!!!!!!

madsue

Oh yuck, yuck yuck!!!!! I have answered my own question now. There are loads and loads, some coming out of holes in the wall, some coming up from inside the earth and some already on my plants. They look absolutely disgusting, so I went and got the salt and poured it straight on to them. That worked instantly, but it's still yuck.

Anyone know just how deep they bury themselves?

madsue

Oh dear I am now getting completely carried away on the Slug Watch

I am doing half hourly reccies, and so far must have poured salt on at least 30. I am even starting with the evil cackle as I pour the salt on them

No doubt I shall have nightmares about them when (if) I get to sleep tonight

madsue

Oh well, I see I killed this thread days ago

but just an update! Each night I do my Slug Patrol and they are getting fewer. However, last night I was out till the early hours. When I got home all my flowers were broken, or squashed

Not the slugs this time.......my ruddy dog had decided to lay in the flower bed

Guest1

Sue, im really surprised you get a lot of slugs there. i thought they were more for wet and damp climates.

madsue

It is very wet and damp up here in the mountains in the early morning guest. The island relies on the heavy dew being captured by the picon, to grow anything. The picon (black stuff covering the fields) captures the dew, and filters it through to the earth below during the day.

Guest1

I knew about the black stuff catching the dew (didnt know its name)..i still didnt realise it was described as 'damp' there tho.

madsue

Very, guest!!! This morning for example, the dew was dripping from my roof pipes and running across the courtyard towards my aljibe. And the car was completely wet. Oh dear, too difficult to explain really, you will just have to visit me when you come to Lanzarote!!!

You'll need to be here early in the morning though

Guest1

madsue

Please do!!!!

Aljibe = underground water storage. Incredible things to go down into. The way they are built is amazing. Some (very rich) people here on the island have converted them into houses.

Blimey, have even managed to go off topic from slugs

hilda

help with sanils...........or even snails....... no slugs this year but MASSIVE snails are after worl domination,,, ive got a litre of the most foul smelling slops form the local and they are just bathing in it and off again, they arent doing majour damage like slugs do but they are up me wall and on me path and last night my neigbour got a whole tesco carrier bag full from her front garden and shes only got a couple of small areas that aer planted as the rest is drive, she is a Sikh and they dont kill any living creature so she was asking how to "release then" in a non life threatening way!! i said the same as you lot.... let them have a birds eye view of the estate!!!

wudja.cudja

Hi Hilda.. ...

Here's just the thing to help you out. ...

Enjoy.. ..

Paul.. ..

hilda

:smt078
thanks

hbrac

I've been picking them out of the flower beds. I want my winter pansies to survive the winter. I chuck them into the road and wait for a passing car to send them to escargot heaven

Cyberia

When I bought the place where I now live, there were lots of slugs and snails about. Over a period of a month, I went around with a hammer, killing them and that was it. 14 years have passed and though they are still about here, I hardly ever see them as they are few and the birds keep their number down.

Colette

Snails............. cook them and have them for tea

Slugs & Snails

snails and slugs

Funny thing with snails.. ..

Nematodes natural slug defence