Gardeners' Enemy Number 1 - Slugs
Post categories: pests
|10:48 UK time, Thursday, 4 June 2009
Slugs. I hate them. One day you're admiring your dear little plants as they peek up through the soil, the next it's devastation; leaves eaten away, stems snipped in half and everything covered in horrible snotty slime trails.
It often happens just when rain follows a nice bit of sun. The sun brings the plants up, but once it rains, all the slugs come oozing out in their hordes to scoff that new growth. So, how to stop them? Here's a few tips.
Barriers. Slugs hate crossing anything dry, powdery or gritty, so surrounding your plants with things like coffee grounds, wood ash, smashed eggshells and the like will put them off - but usually only until it rains heavily. Once your barrier is washed away or soaked, they'll be back munching through your plants.
Another thing they hate crossing is copper tape, which many people swear by, and I've even seen a mini-electric fence designed for anti-slug use. Maybe good for pots, but try doing a whole garden!
Biological.
Or why not encourage some wildlife onto your plot to help deal with the slugs? A small pond with some rocks to hide in will give slug-munching
frogs and toads somewhere to live. Wild patches and woodpiles make your garden hedgehog friendly.Traps. Slugs are right old alkies, and can't resist the lure of beer. Bury a tub full of old ale, and they'll queue up to drown in it. I've actually bought beer for my "slug pubs"
, but you could try asking the landlord of a local pub for a bottle of "slops" to save money.Grapefruit halves also attract slugs, and if you leave one out you can return at your leisure to scrape and squash the little blighters gathered inside.
Pellets. There are several different types of pellets on the market - cheapest are based on metaldehyde, which isn't very toxic, but can sometimes poison birds. Less toxic are ferrous phosphate pellets, which are approved for organic use, but far more expensive. Both types are little blue pellets, made mostly of a cereal bait that slugs find yummy. I've also seen bran pellets, which work by expanding inside the slug after being eaten, and popping it to death. Any bran, or oats, will work for this.Oh, and don't be fooled by snails. They may look nicer, but they are just slugs with a coat on! There's more on slugs here.
Everyone's got their own tips and tricks for dealing with the slimy blighters - so let's have some of yours in the comments.
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