Snail & Slug Trouble

Seth Brundle

Our garden is overrun by the buggers so much so that I could try and kill several hundered each week. I can go out and salt them, throw them at walls (snails only!) and still there are loads. I used beer traps but choke at the stench the following day when emptying them. Also beertraps are not ideal in a small garden where a young boy is playing and likely to find them!
We have a large clematis on one side of the garden and a large passionflower on the other and between these there are plenty of places for them to hide.

I don't want to use any metaldehyde poisons so what are my options?
conbtinue to salt them? requires persistence!
Caffeine - apparently of little use!
Copper strips? How common/useful/expensive/available are they?
Nematodes? How common/useful/expensive/available are they?

Im in Leixlip if that helps in terms of recommending useful garden centres.

Alun

I'm plagued with the things too, both slugs and snails, although I have to say I'm less bothered with the snails for some reason.

Anyway, I go out with the salt shaker every night and probably nuke about 20-30 slugs every night. Funny thing is they're all gone next day, eaten by something. It seems to make a small impression on them, but they're back every year. Snails get picked up and dropped into a small bucket of salt water ... fizzzzzz

Beer traps work quite well, as you say, but emptying them is a PITA.

I tried the nematode route, and it didn't work at all primarily because you have to water them onto open soil rather than onto plants, and our garden, being the jungle that it is, doesn't have much of that.

hansov

kbannon: The ones you thought you got rid of are visiting me in Lucan. Seriously though, I am plagued with the buggers as well. Put in a new flower bed about two months ago, on a Sunday. Mrs. hansov asked me the following Friday where were all the plants gone :eek: . Every leaf was eaten down to the soil level. If I hadn't checked I would have said somebody robbed the plants. Have to say that Woodies had a very early customer Saturday morning and I have been firing those little slug pellets at those guys since . At the start the aim wasn't great :rolleyes: but soon got the hang of it . Then last Friday night mrs hansov was hanging out the washing and called me to show me what can only be descibed as a sea of these creatures on the grass. I have never seen as many slugs in my life :eek: . Back to the pellets . Wonder can you get a pellet gun to fire the pellets :rolleyes: :rolleyes:

Seth Brundle

The problem [allegedly] with the pellets is that poison affected slugs/snails are eaten by birds and other wildlife. I don't want to kill them!

heffo9

the salted-to-death slugs also kill the birds. too much sodium.

tenandtracer

kbannon wrote:

Nematodes? How common/useful/expensive/available are they?

Have tried the beer traps - they work, but then your neighbours slugs gatecrash the party!!

Have just started using Nemaslug nematodes. I think it's beginning to work, I sprayed it on the flowerbeds and compost heap on Saturday. There's quite a few dead slugs in the garden tonight - maybe it's the heat though. However, it worked very quickly in the compost heap.

You can get it from Mr Middleton in Little Mary St, €19 for one application of 12 million worms - enough to cover 40 square yards (http://www.mrmiddleton.com/pest_control/nemaslug.php). In the shop they recommended spraying the nematodes on to your flower bed and then planting a week later.

Slugs really piss me off big time!

gregos

This link might help you. It's from the Royal Society for the Protection of Birds, so all the advice it contains will be safe to use, including the slug-killing chemicals.

As regards useful garden creatures, the most effective I know of are ducks and hedgehogs, but these wouldn't suit everybody's garden.

Eve1

I heard that crushed egg shells, pistachio shells, coffee granuales or old cds works if you put them in the flower beds as they can't crawl across them. If they are getting into your plant posts you could put vaseline on the bottom of the pot and they cant climb up. I think there was info on BBC's Gardeners World last week. Their garden is organic so they might have tips on their web site.
Eve

Alun

heffo9 wrote:

the salted-to-death slugs also kill the birds. too much sodium.

Well, all I can say is that by morning the slug corpses seem to have virtually disappeared. Some observation immediately after the salting reveals that the main culprits appear to be other slugs (cannibalism?) and woodlice, so there's nothing left for the birds to eat.

luckat

gregos wrote:

As regards useful garden creatures, the most effective I know of are ducks and hedgehogs, but these wouldn't suit everybody's garden.

Little idea for a business there: RentaDuck...

luckat

Incidentally, not all kinds of slugs gobble up your plants. The big leopard-spotted fellows eat waste material, and are useful. It's only the little black keeled ones that really eat a lot of plants, as I understand.

*In general*, a good method is to raise your plants to a decent size before putting them out - then they won't be of interest to slugs. But they'll always mob a plant that's under strain; they completely ate two full-grown courgette plants I was given, which were under strain from transplantation and drought.

Seth Brundle

I have also tried grit around plants but I think this needs to be raked regularly as the rain smoothes it all and then doesn't bother them.

Anyhow, thanks for all the advice. I presume nobody has any hedgehogs for sale!
I'll give the nematodes option a go as the shop is only around the corner from work!

Beruthiel

I have just moved into a new house, as I planted about 500 quids worth of plants I wanted to make sure the weren't eaten. I first put out the slug pellets, but there were so many dead bodies the next day it was horrible! not to mention they attract flies and can harm birds if eaten (the pellets that is).
Anyway, my new next door neighbour has a garden to die for and he recommended me 'garlic feed', it is an organic liquid which you add to water, the plants absorb it and apparently the slugs hate garlic, I am going to try it this week.
I live in Celbridge and bought it in the Orchard Garden Centre on the Dublin road to Celbridge. It's a huge garden centre btw and even has it's own restaurant.

Alun

I'll give the nematodes option a go as the shop is only around the corner from work!

Let us know how you get on. I tried that route (getting them mail order from the UK) and had little success, as I said, because you apparently need to water them onto bare soil which I have precious little of. They're fussy things too regarding temperature and wetness of the soil IIRC.

tenandtracer

I put Nemaslug on my garden a week ago (see previous post). There is definitely a marked reduction in the slug population. Some young Dahlias I planted this week have not been ravaged by slugs thus far, I've even gone as far as planting out some Basil. I have found plenty of slug carcasses around the garden, these do attract flies though. The pack size was for 40 square meters, but I used it all on about 15ish square meters of flowerbeds. I do get the feeling from reading around that you have to apply the nematodes on a monthly basis.
So overall, it looks encouraging.


Here's a list of slug resistant plants from the Beeb

http://www.bbc.co.uk/radio4/gqt/slug_resistant_plants.shtml

Cheers
Steve

Seth Brundle

thanks again guys.
I'll also try the garlic stuff. The orchard is a great GC and also nearby and have been using it for years.

MorningStar

Get a hedge hog. I left food out for one and it kills all the slugs and snails in my front garden on it's regular visits. It's nice to see too.

Seth Brundle

MorningStar wrote:

Get a hedge hog.

ebay?

CJhaughey

Get a big sheet of black polyethylene, and spread it on the ground at night next morning turn it over and go about your business while all the birds feast away.
continue.

MissRibena

Hi everyone

I've just moved out the country and am plagued by the tiger slugs coming into the house! :eek:

Almost every night (some nights are worse than others for some reason), they come in under the back door (there's no visible gap but I see them do it). They then slime their way into the kitchen (all following the same route AFAICS) and I've seen their slime trail on the sink, in the oven when I moved in :eek:, on the floor. Usually they are gone in the morning but I nearly had a heart attack when I got up for a glass of water in the dead of night and there were three of them on the work top.

Last night there were so many coming in that I put down slug pellets inside (so the birdies wouldn't eat them) and nuked a few but it's a total gross out getting rid of them.

They aren't eating my plants and I don't really want to be killing them. I just wish I could stop them coming in.

Thanks
Rebecca

rooferPete

Hi rebecca,

Would it be possible to fit a piece of sheet copper at the doorstep ?

I am not a gardener but I have been asked for copper by lots of people who are in the snail fight.

.

FranknFurter

Attract large birds such as crows and magpies to your garden by putting in a bird table full of every type of food, put a bowl of water for them to drink from nearby at ground level, when they land to drink they will also eat snails and slugs, my mother was plagued with them, salting hundreds daily, wasnt working, then a pair of magpies nested in one of her apple trees, now its almost slug / snail free!

joseph brand

We have a whole civilisation of them at home due to thefact that my Da leaves scraps out on path for our cats. This attracts many a slug.

I found a hammer to be ideal. Also, a face mask comes in handy to avoid the 'Splatter'.

StaggerLee

I found a couple of slugs in my house too the other night and was not impressed, disgusting little bleeders, what does the copper around the door do to keep them out?

Seth Brundle

Apparently the copper reacts with their bodies and therefore they don't cross it.
Just googled and found this :-

Copper barriers are effective against both slugs and snails. Slug and snail slime apparently interacts with the copper to produce an electric shock. Copper was more than 95 percent effective when the top edge of the strip was bent down to form a flange.

Copper strips or screening can easily be attached to raised wooden beds. Copper screening can also be buried in the ground at least four inches deep with two inches protruding above the soil. The top should be bent over forming a flange. (See the drawing at the bottom of the page for details.) Clearing the area adjacent to the copper barrier of all vegetation will prevent inadvertent vegetation bridges over the barrier. Copper barriers also keep resident population inside the barrier. So you'll want to concentrate regular handpicking efforts on the protected bed Finally, copper strips and screening can have sharp edges, so use them carefully.

Lex Luthor

I'm not too far away from Leixlip and don't seem to have a problem with slugs or snails....there's the odd one, but that's it. I have a tub of slug pellets in the shed that I used to use a few years back but it's not really that bad. I have been using Lawn sand Feed & Weed in the garden the last 2 yrs and since then, they seem to have vanished. Maybe there is something in the formula that they don't like....worth a try
Plus you'll have a great looking lawn.

Kbannon, how's the 5? Did you fit the interior mirror yet?

Seth Brundle

Lex Luthor wrote:

Kbannon, how's the 5?

I have a stalker! Toxic?

Lex Luthor wrote:

Did you fit the interior mirror yet?

not yet!

Lex Luthor

kbannon wrote:

Toxic?

Yip

MissRibena

Thanks everyone. I've scattered some Lawn Weed Feed and Seed and I really like the copper idea too so will try to find a little strip. They haven't been around the last couple of nights but they seem to come in droves when they do appear.

Thanks again
Rebecca

GreeBo

let us know where you get the copper!