Slugs - will manually removing them ever work?

zagmund

First things first - if you want to attract slugs to one place in your garden then put down some water melon rinds. They love the stuff. Just don't put it too near your seedlings in case the slugs get distracted on the way to the melon.

Second things second - we have a habit of going out late at night to pick up all the slugs and, err, relocate them. On a "good" night we could get 30 or 40. On a "bad" night it might be 5 or 10. The way we view it is this is <x> amount less that we have to worry about eating out seedlings.

However I've no idea of the sorts of numbers you might expect in your typical Dublin suburban garden. Are we "boiling the ocean" here and removing 40 while there are 400/4,000/40,000 within 10 square meters or something?

I've no problem going out and clearing them away when the weather is fine - if nothing else it keeps me happy. But if it's ultimately going to be ineffective (due to the volume not removed) then I'd happily stay indoors on the rainy nights.

Can anyone advise whether this sort of manual warfare is effective in general terms?

z

redser7

It's very effective. Dealing with slugs is more a matter of 'management' than 'solving'. Manually removing them if you don't mind it will keep them at bay. Try beer traps too. But there will always be more. There are key times to deal with them before they breed, September is a good time as they lay their eggs to over winter and get you in spring.

amandstu

From my personal experience it is ineffective.That may be because we just have too much rain here (on the West coast) .In the past I have done it nightly for a month or 2 at a stretch and although it did help it didn't prevent bad losses.

Now I do all sorts of different things and have greater success since I started using ferric phosphate pellets (supposedly harmless to other animals).

Most every morning now I go around and look under the bits of carpet ,pieces of wood ,stones etc and that is a quick way of locating some of them.

Also I use nematodes (made them myself last year by gathering live slugs , keeping them until they died from disease and spreading the infected water around the plot) .That weakens and kills some of them too.

I had a theory that by killing the slugs in situ other slugs will feed on them (and so be less attracted to the actual plants) but I have never noticed that that worked(I had a picture of some kind of a slug canibalistic group orgy but it never happened)

I have tried coffee grounds and that was useless but I never got the hang of trapping them in pots with beer .Maybe that will work if it is done properly.With me it seemed to work really well for one night and much less well after that - I never persevered.

Ambersky

If you put out some dried cat or dog food in a little dish and mske sure to keep up the supply, the slugs will bypass tender plants to get to it and it also makes slug picking easier with so msny in one place.

Meso Harney

I'm using Vaseline and salt smeared on the rim of pots, working a treat. Have lost some sunflowers that Id planted out though

miss no stars

they keep eating my lettuces :mad:

tried coffee grounds, worked for a day but 2 snails and a slug chewed through 2 fcuking heads of it last night. THEN I found a baby slug in one of the tomato plants I'm hardening off. Beer traps here I come.


What's the trick to them? Just bury half full pint glass?

EAFC_rdfl

I am also sickened with slugs, I was trying not to use the blue pellets, was out cutting them as often as I could instead, but at the weekend they had got through 4 potato plants that are well up already. I couldn't believe it! so blue pellets it is now. Hoping it will slow them a bit. the problem I have is that the field beside us is no longer grazed and is growing for about a year now. I think it is a haven for them

miss no stars

Yeah we have a field beside us that's rarely grazed and heaps of trees. Loads of ground water so they're really very happy slugs and snails.

Problem I have with using pellets is the cats. Ours would probably be okay but next door have a very young cat who's terribly curious and brave and he likes to come into our garden. What's the situation with pellets? Will the cats go near them?

amandstu

miss no stars wrote: »

they keep eating my lettuces :mad:

tried coffee grounds, worked for a day but 2 snails and a slug chewed through 2 fcuking heads of it last night. THEN I found a baby slug in one of the tomato plants I'm hardening off. Beer traps here I come.


What's the trick to them? Just bury half full pint glass?

Don't bury them at ground level or anything can walk in -not just slugs.Just leave a little rim that the slugs will be able to go up and over but the curly wurlies will not fall in.

I also find that heavy (isn't it always heavy) rain will dilute the liquid and so a cover is a help.

This of course makes extra work-especially since I think you need quite a lot of the traps.

I think several smaller containers might be more effective than one large one (although I might be wrong)

SoapMcTavish

amandstu wrote: »

Don't bury them at ground level or anything can walk in -not just slugs.Just leave a little rim that the slugs will be able to go up and over but the curly wurlies will not fall in.

Curly Wurlies ?

amandstu

Beetles I suppose (curly wurly not entirely accurate I agree). They are slug predators (eat the eggs I think).

But whatever gets in apart from the slugs is a pity .

That is another anti slug technique btw.
I leave piles of stones lying around and encourage beetles' habitats that way.

I don't know how effective it is as the slugs also get under there but I don't imagine they will have much success laying their eggs in the vicinity.

baaba maal

You can buy cheap beer (slug) traps in garden centres and occasionally, Lidl. I got four of them for about €4. Just bury them up to 2/3rds of the way, half fill with beer and put the top rainguard on. Interestingly, I found Dutch Gold etc. worked well:D but cider was completely ineffective (i.e. they weren't attracted to it at all). Depending on weather, I will tip out the slimy dead slug mess every 3-4 days and add a bit more beer. It doesn't get every slug but it seems to be more attractive than the pea and bean plants nearby.

evolving_doors

Anyhow here's a handy tip for any of yous out the countryside. It's a case of 'build it and they will come'. My aunt put down a rockery and pond and she said that once it attracted in the frogs she hasn't seen any slugs since! Don't know if frogs are so abundant these days though!

There's also the sacrificial marigolds idea! We tried it once... nothing looks sadder than loads of half-chomped marigolds... and half chomped veg along with it...

If yer going to go for the beer traps route you may as well do up some homebrew beer and save a bit of money. Big glass for me... little glass for them.. big glass for me... little glass for them..

Must look into this nematode harvesting idea..

Edit: Here's a LINK for the Nematode harvesting if anyone's interested... They say to put in the brew into a watering can and add tap water but I think maybe In Ireland there might be issues with Chlorine,Flourine, Water too cold and whatnot, so maybe use water from your waterbutt to keep the critters alive

Timmehhh

Hello,

While other people will have the good solutions,
regarding, well lets say some pots you have :: and the slugs keep getting at them :: try putting the small pots on a metal, from my understanding slugs don't like metal.

E.G :: Sunflower seeds at germination, having them on the Barbecue (on the lid of course) in the Garden, if of course its metal and will stay up, and as a plus the back+metal will help reflect some of the heat/light onto the flower... ???

josip

I have recently discovered this.
Don't know if it's any good yet.

Souness

I have found night picking to be quite effective. The first few nights I was picking over a hundred from around my veg beds and now more like 10 a night on the nights that I still go out. I have not used the beer traps this year but know they work well. I worked on an organic farm before where the owner used the yeast sediment from her home-brew to the same effect, saves wasting good beer I have used bran in weatherproof traps also with good results, makes for easy morning pickings if you dont fancy the night hunts.

maringo

Thanks, will try that nematode brew - think its good for vine weevils too.

Cork boy 55

Night Patrol (best method,)
The best nights For the night Patrol is a wet night after it was not rained for a few days i.e. the first wet night after a dry spell, The whole population will be out and about. Before the night you can leave out some bait to lure them into a killing ground remains of a old lettuce head or an apple core or other dead slugs

Expulsions
If you are expelling(as opposed to liquidating) the slugs/snails you must move them a distance of over 20 metres don't just dump them over wall.

Scientists found snails placed within a 20 metre (65 feet) radius can use a "homing instinct" to find their way back to a a patch of ground while those moved further away almost always failed to find their way back.

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/gardening/10834071/Throwing-snails-20-metres-away-may-save-your-plants.html

Fortify
Fortify what you want to protect.

Plant Dummy Crops
Plant Dummy crops or easy pickings to feed on instead of your lettuce
If you have the space and time. This will buy some time (bribing them)

Leave Traps
Deploy traps along infiltration routes

Daytime Habitat raids
These can be quiet effective if you know where to look
also rather than disturbing your garden leave out fake Habitat on known
infiltration routes easy to lift or example a small plank of wood Flip it over every day kill the sleepers

Counter-gang strategy
Attract their natural enemies into your garden (leopard slugs, frogs, hedgehogs birds)
By providing habit, water and food for such , Bear in mind excess food particular for birds will feed the slugs. (The birds you want to attract would be (starlings blackbirds thrushes IMO)
Under an at the bird table and feeders is the ultimate Slug killing ground for night patrol

miss no stars

Would a mixed pile of timber posts/chunks/planks be a slug and snail habitat? If it was on gravel?

redser7

Anything that keeps them out of daylight will work. Some people use upturned grapefruit halfs that have been scooped out.

The Pheasant2

Armelodie wrote: »

Anyhow here's a handy tip for any of yous out the countryside. It's a case of 'build it and they will come'. My aunt put down a rockery and pond and she said that once it attracted in the frogs she hasn't seen any slugs since! Don't know if frogs are so abundant these days though!

Can't stress enough the value of having a frog in my garden - literally never have problem with snail/slugs thanks to what I call the guardians of my garden!

Seriously guys if you're going to go through the bother of making traps/picking them off manually you may as well invest that time digging yourself a decent pond.

Making the pond gives you a nice side-
hobby, along with the best pest control service there is courtesy of some very fascinating amphibians

magicbastarder

we found beer traps to be effective in the sense that they got rid of loads of slugs - but the slugs just kept coming anyway.

zagmund

When you include Leopard slugs (which I'm taking to mean the yellow-grey ones with stripes) in the slug-enemy list, do you mean they are good at eating other slugs and not at eating my plants?

If so then I should probably stop disposing of them and leave them to eat their buddies.

Thanks to everyone for the ideas & suggestions. Keep them coming.


z

Cork boy 55 wrote: »

Night Patrol (best method,)
The best nights For the night Patrol is a wet night after it was not rained for a few days i.e. the first wet night after a dry spell, The whole population will be out and about. Before the night you can leave out some bait to lure them into a killing ground remains of a old lettuce head or an apple core or other dead slugs

Expulsions
If you are expelling(as opposed to liquidating) the slugs/snails you must move them a distance of over 20 metres don't just dump them over wall.

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/gardening/10834071/Throwing-snails-20-metres-away-may-save-your-plants.html

Fortify
Fortify what you want to protect.

Plant Dummy Crops
Plant Dummy crops or easy pickings to feed on instead of your lettuce
If you have the space and time. This will buy some time (bribing them)

Leave Traps
Deploy traps along infiltration routes

Daytime Habitat raids
These can be quiet effective if you know where to look
also rather than disturbing your garden leave out fake Habitat on known
infiltration routes easy to lift or example a small plank of wood Flip it over every day kill the sleepers

Counter-gang strategy
Attract their natural enemies into your garden (leopard slugs, frogs, hedgehogs birds)
By providing habit, water and food for such , Bear in mind excess food particular for birds will feed the slugs. (The birds you want to attract would be (starlings blackbirds thrushes IMO)
Under an at the bird table and feeders is the ultimate Slug killing ground for night patrol

Cork boy 55

Now would be a best night for night patrol
First wet evening in about 10 days at least if not longer
They will all be on the move early.

zagmund

I've already been out for round 1 this evening. The last few days were slim pickings and I thought I had them beaten, but tonight while still bright there was a whole new wave of them as expected with the rain today.

Round 2 will commence shortly. Round 3 may follow.

In the longer term I'm going to investigate the pond/frog approach. I imagine it's a winter sort of project though, so it's off in the distance for the moment.

z

josip

To the battlements!
I'd also come across a guy beating rush hour traffic at 7pm
Out now and I've only seen 2 more.
Cutting the neighbours ivy "hedge" at the top of our wall a month ago has dramarically reduced their cover it seems

Pat_Planky

magicbastarder wrote: »

we found beer traps to be effective in the sense that they got rid of loads of slugs - but the slugs just kept coming anyway.

I'll add my two cents to that, beer traps work well, but there are always more

Key is strategic placement

Grindley

I think slugs and snails best love to chomp on young plants. Copper tape works but is expensive. What I now often do - is low tech saves me some money (and is practical recycling). I get a (empty) two litre plastic bottle and slice off the top and bottom. The remaining bit of the bottle I cut in two. I then have two plastic rings. I then cut each perpendicularly? so that they can be would around a baby plant (and pressed down into the soil). When I have the plastic strips in place around the plant I stick a ring of copper tape around the plastic plant protector. Seems to work fairly well. I have found though that you need to be careful making the first cut into the bottle as the knife etc tends to bounce (and it wouldn't be money saving to pay for a trip to the doctor/emergency department).

Grindley

I think slugs and snails best love to chomp on young plants. Copper tape works but is expensive. What I now often do - is low tech saves me some money (and is practical recycling). I get a (empty) two litre plastic bottle and slice off the top and bottom. The remaining bit of the bottle I cut in two. I then have two plastic rings. I then cut each perpendicularly? so that they can be wound around a baby plant (and pressed down into the soil). When I have the plastic strips in place around the plant I stick a ring of copper tape around the plastic plant protector. Seems to work fairly well. I have found though that you need to be careful making the first cut into the bottle as the knife etc tends to bounce (and it wouldn't be money saving to pay for a trip to the doctor/emergency department).

evolving_doors

Pat_Planky wrote: »

I'll add my two cents to that, beer traps work well, but there are always more

Key is strategic placement

Theres always more because the slugs from other gardens hear about the party in your gaffe.

Just to continue from my nematodes multiplying suggestion.. Instead of dumping slugs, collecting in traps in one location or throwing them into the neighbours... If you chop up the slug with spade and leave it where it is to rot, the nematodes will disperse into that area of the soil thus increasing the chances of infecting more slugs passing by. Whereas if you isolate/remove the carcass from the ground then you are missing out on this opportunity.

josip

Armelodie wrote: »

Just to continue from my nematodes multiplying suggestion.. Instead of dumping slugs, collecting in traps in one location or throwing them into the neighbours... If you chop up the slug with spade and leave it where it is to rot, the nematodes will disperse into that area of the soil thus increasing the chances of infecting more slugs passing by. Whereas if you isolate/remove the carcass from the ground then you are missing out on this opportunity.

Sounds like a plot for a straight to DVD horror move.
I waited up until 2am last night in case the snails/slugs had become used to my midnight patrols. Nothing new at 2am.
Do woodlice take bites out of sapling leaves?