Garden Invader

Jammyd

Hi, A quick one hopefully someone here can identify this invader we have.

I'm a novice gardener so slight background on the issue, we put a new lawn down (roll out turf) about 18 months ago and about a month - 2 months in I noticed we had 100's of these guys all over the lawn every day particularly once it rained, the pic with the small bucket is one of my attempts to collect as many as possible off the lawn.

The lawn then started dieing in patches, I tried to look them up to figure out what exactly they were and showed the pics to a couple of garden centre staff but they had no clue, I treated the lawn with Vine Weeval killer last year and it had zero affect so this year I treated the entire lawn with Nemaysys which kills leather jackets etc, again no joy and they are still everywhere.

In the pic they look like slugs but they bury themselves into the soil and make little holes everywhere so I wasn't sure if they were just slugs also alot of them don't have the antenna piece like the other pic i've shared.. they also move very quickly.

Any guidance to get rid of them is welcome - and also what exactly am I dealing with... thanks in advance

magicbastarder

they look like slugs to me?

Jammyd

magicbastarder wrote: »

they look like slugs to me?

They definitely do in the first pic but in real life they don't look as much like slugs as you'd think more like these whiteish pods, would it be normal to have a super infestation of slugs and do they normally burrow in lawns? they are gross! :eek:

New Home

They're slugs. Their colour vary enormously. There are even some very large, bright orange ones.


https://i.pinimg.com/originals/39/fb/3b/39fb3ba4ac80ab31e7ad29689f3e9796.jpg

Here are some white ones.

Beer traps are extremely effective and don't harm any other animal (aside from snails, that is). Otherwise, Guinea fowl and ducks would make short work of them. Please don't use pellets. Please.

Jammyd

New Home wrote: »

They're slugs. Their colour vary enormously. There are even some very large, bright orange ones.


https://i.pinimg.com/originals/39/fb/3b/39fb3ba4ac80ab31e7ad29689f3e9796.jpg

Here are some white ones.

Wow - thats definitely a slug education!! makes sense why all the other treatments didnt work, I never knew they burrowed or could move so quick.. Is there any effective treatment people would recommend to get rid ?

A number of plants and lawn patches have died over the last year i suspect they are the culprit. I've done soil tests and its decent in the areas we've planted plus all the planting was done with sunlight etc taken into consideration..

New Home

Jammyd wrote: »

Wow - thats definitely a slug education!! makes sense why all the other treatments didnt work, I never knew they burrowed or could move so quick.. Is there any effective treatment people would recommend to get rid ?

A number of plants and lawn patches have died over the last year i suspect they are the culprit. I've done soil tests and its decent in the areas we've planted plus all the planting was done with sunlight etc taken into consideration..

Again, beer traps. Bramble branches and copper bands may create a barrier to limit their access to plants. There's also a product called "Slug Stoppa" that helps a bit. Do a search on the forum, it's been discussed quite recently. Or, like I said, if you're in a position to keep them, ducks or Guinea fowl would make a big dent on their number. Chickens, not so much.

Jammyd

New Home wrote: »

Again, beer traps. Bramble branches and copper bands may create a barrier to limit their access to plants. There's also a product called "Slug Stoppa" that helps a bit. Do a search on the forum, it's been discussed quite recently. Or, like I said, if you're in a position to keep them, ducks or Guinea fowl would make a big dent on their number. Chickens, not so much.

Cheers, sorry I missed all the suggestions originally was too en-trawled with the number of different slugs trying to find my guys on the list. I'll look into some of the suggestions. I tried a beer trap last year but had no success but perhaps it was too raised to do any real damage might give it another go for starters!! Thanks for all the help

GinSoaked

New Home wrote: »

Again, beer traps. Bramble branches and copper bands may create a barrier to limit their access to plants. There's also a product called "Slug Stoppa" that helps a bit. Do a search on the forum, it's been discussed quite recently. Or, like I said, if you're in a position to keep them, ducks or Guinea fowl would make a big dent on their number. Chickens, not so much.

Your right chickens don't like slugs so much but they love slug and snail eggs so they get them in the end.

ECO_Mental

The simplest way to get rid of slugs and can as humane if you wish depending on how you want to dispatch them is to go out and pick them up yourself. I used this myself in my back garden and worked a treat.

Go out to your garden on a damp evening just after it goes dark with a flash light and you will see them everywhere on the grass. Pick them up with doggie bags or what ever, easy peasy! You will have to do this for a couple of nights, but every night obviously the numbers will be less and less and after 2 or three nights there will only be the odd one left and your slug problem will be sorted...

New Home

Yes but how do you dispose of them? Dump them in your enemy's garden? :pac:

New Home

Jammyd wrote: »

Cheers, sorry I missed all the suggestions originally was too en-trawled with the number of different slugs trying to find my guys on the list. I'll look into some of the suggestions. I tried a beer trap last year but had no success but perhaps it was too raised to do any real damage might give it another go for starters!! Thanks for all the help

I've seen slugs that were heading towards lettuce turn around and make a bee-line for the beer traps. Make sure the beer doesn't get diluted by the rain and change it regularly because it does get gross. I used to open the cans with a can opener and bury them with only a quarter showing. Also, they have a fine palate, so the more expensive the beer the more slugs you catch!

New Home

BTW, while they would affect flowers, trees plants and grass are usually safe enough. For the grass especially I'd be thinking of leatherjackets.

Jammyd

New Home wrote: »

BTW, while they would affect flowers, trees plants and grass are usually safe enough. For the grass especially I'd be thinking of leatherjackets.

Cheers!! We have leather jackets for sure I dug 2 small holes and found one in each