After Dark Slug Hunt

2011abc

Never saw as many as tonight ! Dozens ! Tossed far away rather than killed .Wear gloves .Their ‘slime’ doesn’t wash off that easily except with vinegar I found .Yuck ! 11pm slug hunts better and safer than a mountain of slug killer , copper strip , broken egg shells and beer traps .Bring a little tub , you will need it !

Tree

You need to take them a lot further than you can throw them. 20metres is no bother to them

fiacha

I do this regularily also (much to my neighbors bemusement ) I drop them off on the local green area. The local foxes and hedgehogs should find them before they make it into anyones garden.

While I'm out I also check the greenhouse / potted plants for vine weevil etc.

I was loosing entire plants to them overnight last summer so this spring I started putting out organic pellets regularily. It has made a huge difference, and hopefully I'll be able to control them this summer just by picking.

Jim_Hodge

I had years of hassle with them and tried all the pellets, beer traps, night gathering etc. I then went organic, attracted birds and left them to it. I now have hardly any damage from slugs or snails.

Grawns

I used to have loads, they got dispatched to the brown bin fur a final meal. don't know where mine have gone but I'm organic too. Birds must have got them.

I did this tonight must have cleared the bones of 70 slugs all differing sizes, like a zombie horde going for after my lettuces.

Thanks op real eye opener I gotta say I just presumed I had a couple hanging around

fritzelly

I have snails that come from a small green area, across the path through the small front garden and up and over the house to get to the good stuff in the back garden - 20m hmmph

Jim_Hodge

I assume all those picking up and removing slugs know which ones attack their plants and which ones are predatory and feed on slugs. I've seen people collect and dispose slugs by the dozen not realising they feed on the smaller unseen slugs that do the damage to plants.

magicbastarder

i don't know if slugs do it, but snails have a homing instinct - there was a BBC program a few years where they marked and relocated snails and they successfully found their way back to their home garden.

ellee

Jim_Hodge wrote: »

I assume all those picking up and removing slugs know which ones attack their plants and which ones are predatory and feed on slugs. I've seen people collect and dispose slugs by the dozen not realising they feed on the smaller unseen slugs that do the damage to plants.

Jim I wouldn't have the foggiest notion, did not even know that there were slugs that preyed on other slugs.



Have you any tips for identifying what is what?

Jim_Hodge

ellee wrote: »

Jim I wouldn't have the foggiest notion, did not even know that there were slugs that preyed on other slugs.



Have you any tips for identifying what is what?

There are several but the most easily identified is probably the Leopard Slug
https://rshg.org.uk/2012/09/leopard-slug/

others only eat dead matter and never touch living plants.

The Common Garden Slug and the Yellow Slug are the two main culprits for eating seedlings and crops.

ellee

thank you.

Tree

The snails are pretty easy to label with nail varnish to see if they keep reappearing