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Slug control .............

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Slug control .............

Postby Linegeist » Thu Mar 03, 2011 3:20 pm

No, not the lead variety, I mean the 'orrible slimy freeloaders that scoff all your plant seedlings as they emerge (or before if they're feeling really mean....)

The problem I have is that I own a 160-year-old house that has drystone walls in and surrounding the garden. Slugs love these as they can live in the crevices and survive even the toughest winters. I've already seen the first slugs in my garden, despite having endured one of the coldest winters for decades. :kill:

This year I really have to bite the bullet (or slug if you really prefer) because the garden plan (aka What Herself Tells Me To Plant) calls for a lot of green-leafed vegetables such as Cabbage, Lettuce, Rocket, Mizuna and stuff like that. Left unchecked, the little beggars are going to have a field day at my expense, so I need to employ some method of getting the local slug population to regard Festung Craske in the same way as they regard a salt lick. Askance!

The question is - which method to use? I really can't bring myself to give the slimy creatures my beer in sunken jam-jars, even if it IS fatal. That, to my mind, is tantamount to buying your worst enemy a point before you entice him into an electricity substation and then chuck a bucket of water over the fence. Spearing them every evening with a sharp knife has its limitations too - when you get to fifty-plus a night, you start to dream of slimy things and slug-guts ....... ugh! I even thought of using them for target practice - but they're not much of a challenge are they .......................? :grin:

So I'm looking at Nematodes http://www.nemasysinfo.co.uk/slugs.shtml. Anyone on here used the stuff? Does it work as advertsied? How long does it take?? Can I water it every-bleedin'-where to have the maximum available slug-snuff-fest???

And what are the drawbacks ................... Do I have to apply it every few daYs? (At nine quid a pack, it'd be cheaper to buy the slugs a pint).

All advice gratefully received. :thup: ;)
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Re: Slug control .............

Postby flintlok » Thu Mar 03, 2011 4:17 pm

Perhaps it's time to consider hydroponics and let the little buggers all stave. ;) ;) ;)
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Re: Slug control .............

Postby mathspete » Thu Mar 03, 2011 4:23 pm

We tried it last year, but at the price we only treated the patio tubs as they were the most vulnerable, it worked quite well from what I can recall, we still lost some but not as many of the bedding plants. All veg and soft fruit is now in the raised beds and they don't seem to be hit anywhere near as bad as they used to be when just in the garden at slug level. Perhaps its the roughness and creosote soaked railway sleepers that puts them off. Before constructing these, I did a regular evening patrol with a kebab skewer :grin: thrust and flick, thrust and flick, very neat little puncture wounds, with no spillage of guts and the bodies land anything up to 50 plus yards away :grin:. You could always find a carp fisherman who would use them for bait. Best of luck with your crops and in the eternal battle against the little thieving sods.
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Re: Slug control .............

Postby Sidebyside » Thu Mar 03, 2011 5:26 pm

Buy 25kg of animal feed grade salt and make a perimeter line with it around your said vegetable plot , you have to keep topping it up but no slugs or snails will cross it and if they do it proves fatal , I have a 100kg of the stuff and it is a guaranteed solution to crop protection , if you want some PM me .
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Re: Slug control .............

Postby TheSquire » Thu Mar 03, 2011 5:47 pm

Why not grow slugs as a cash crop for carp fishermen and then use the cash to buy some railway sleepers? Or get some old snail shells and fill them up with slugs and sell them on as escargot for the Eropean market?

It's only a suggestion like ...
:grin: :grin: :grin:

Edit: You can also eat them! Slug eating looney!
Last edited by TheSquire on Thu Mar 03, 2011 6:04 pm, edited 1 time in total.
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Re: Slug control .............

Postby flintlok » Thu Mar 03, 2011 6:02 pm

Sidebyside wrote:Buy 25kg of animal feed grade salt and make a perimeter line with it around your said vegetable plot , you have to keep topping it up but no slugs or snails will cross it and if they do it proves fatal , I have a 100kg of the stuff and it is a guaranteed solution to crop protection , if you want some PM me .


If you use salt in such a manner, wouldn’t that cause the ground water salt (sodium) levels to increase? That may not be a problem if you do not have well water. As I understand nemotodes, they are attracted to the plant roots by the carbon dioxide that the roots produce however minuscule. Also nemotodes tend to burrow deep in a garden. Lime (calcium hydroxide) readily absorbs carbon dioxide and can be used to adjust soil pH. Excessive lime will “burn plants” but just might be useful to create a barrier under and around plants or small gardens to produce a similar effect as the salt on pests. It's a little like playing chemistry with your garden to defeat the little buggers.
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Re: Slug control .............

Postby flintlok » Thu Mar 03, 2011 7:59 pm

Cool discussion on nematode suppression.

http://attra.ncat.org/attra-pub/nematode.html
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Re: Slug control .............

Postby Sidebyside » Thu Mar 03, 2011 8:28 pm

Salt should not cause a problem in that smaller quantity .
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Re: Slug control .............

Postby Keef » Thu Mar 03, 2011 10:27 pm

Use a .177 and pick them off at will. A cheap night sight will sort out their nocturnal prowling.

Thus you will have no slugs plus some shooting!.
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Re: Slug control .............

Postby Linegeist » Thu Mar 03, 2011 10:31 pm

Keef wrote:Use a .177 and pick them off at will. A cheap night sight will sort out their nocturnal prowling.

Thus you will have no slugs plus some shooting!.


I tried that Keith, but I quickly got bored as there was no challenge as they refused to duck, weave or even take evasive action when under fire.

Can you get GT slugs perhaps? :grin:
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Re: Slug control .............

Postby parkyboy » Thu Mar 03, 2011 10:35 pm

How about an electric fence in the same manner as a cow fence but virtually on the ground held on pegs etc... if they touched it, lights out, or the field generated around the wire might detur them from crossing or crawling under etc.... just an idea mate ....
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Re: Slug control .............

Postby Keef » Thu Mar 03, 2011 10:47 pm

Linegeist wrote:Can you get GT slugs perhaps? :grin:


Yes, if you put salt on their rear end!

More seriously I have problems with them in pots and planters. My garden is what they term minimal maintenance as it's all paved but with planters and pots.

The slime trails are clearly visible, even up walls.

I resorted to slug pellets which stopped them for a while but it required regular laying down of pellets.

Whether I would want to use pellets near a food source is another matter.
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Re: Slug control .............

Postby Linegeist » Thu Mar 03, 2011 11:01 pm

Keef wrote:
Linegeist wrote:Can you get GT slugs perhaps? :grin:


Yes, if you put salt on their rear end!

More seriously I have problems with them in pots and planters. My garden is what they term minimal maintenance as it's all paved but with planters and pots.

The slime trails are clearly visible, even up walls.

I resorted to slug pellets which stopped them for a while but it required regular laying down of pellets.

Whether I would want to use pellets near a food source is another matter.


That's my thinking too Keith..................... those bright blue pellets donlt fill me with confidence when I think of my food absorbing their chemicals whenever they get sprinkled. :hmm:

I built a whole row of raised beds a couple of years ago out of cinder blocks, and this has deterred them up to a point ..... but I rather suspect I'm now getting mutant ninja slugs trying their luck as, after a year of little damage, the damned things are appearing alles uber the platz! :kill: :kill: :kill:

I'm going to order some nemafrogs and see what happens. If, as a result, I turn into a frenzied, blood-sucking zombie .................. nobody'll notice the difference. :roll: :grin:
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Re: Slug control .............

Postby Keef » Thu Mar 03, 2011 11:49 pm

If you put a length of guttering around the beds with the edges proud of the earth you could put the pellets in the guttering. Sluggy will have to climb into the guttering to get to your salad plants.

If he takes the pellets he turns to slime, if it rains the guttering keeps the chemicals in the pellets out of the earth around the food supply.

Just a thought.
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Re: Slug control .............

Postby Linegeist » Fri Mar 04, 2011 8:51 am

Damn! Why didn't I think of that ..............? :hmm: See what you've done?? I feel thick now! :( :grin:

So bloody obvious, and yet it never occurred to me to put the stuff outside the beds. :roll: I think I'll go and roll in nettles .................. :cry:
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