The slugs are at it!

[vrdiver]

As the early evenings have been mild the last couple of days, I thought I'd do a slug patrol around the garden, although I wasn't expecting to see more than maybe one or two on a rotting tomato or such-like.

To my horror there were as many visible as I'd been finding back in March and April, as well as eggs and a couple of slugs caught in the act of making some more!

I don't like to use slug poison, so apart from picking them off wherever I find them, is there anything else I can do to decimate their population before we get to Spring and they become ravenous destroyers again?

VRD

[bungeejumper]

Beer traps are always worth a try. It's doubtful whether mine catch even 5% of the slugs in my garden, but they do help me to feel a bit less helpless. All you have to do then is walk around the garden breaking the ice from time to time.

Do you really still have rotting tomatoes in your garden? My plants went into the green bins at the beginning of November, once the dreaded blight had arrived.

Otherwise, order a delivery of thrushes and blackbirds from Amazon? I gather they're going cheep at the moment.


BJ

[madhatter]

Did you notice which species? I understand we have something like 20-odd species in the UK, with even a few carnivorous ones!

Most of the usually seen ones are from just a few species, and some go for living plants like the big brown ones I see here (with orangey frills) while others like the grey with black speckles Leopard slug prefer dead plants, dead animals including slugs and snails, and other food detritus.

It certainly seems early to have to worry about slugs, though on Christmas Day I saw a pair of Robins within two feet of each other and not fighting, so that is another sign of spring.

[Mike4]

Beer traps are always worth a try.

I'd like to trap some beer, where do I get these from please?

[vrdiver]

Not sure of the species - big brown / orange frills and also some smaller ones with black tops and orange/yellow underneath. Some bright orange eggs, and a couple of light yellow/white adults, so three different species and some eggs. I also get the green snot-like ones (some quite large!) and a few leopard spotted ones, but didn't see any of them this time around.

Our tomatoes spectacularly failed to ripen this year, so quite a few green ones fell / rolled and only as the vegetation dies back do they become easily visible. I grew the plants in a bed, rather than growbags and sometimes leave a few fallen tomatoes to self seed for next year if I have a bit of spare space. Not sure it will work with green ones?

I did used to use beer traps, but a) our dog drinks from them and b) somebody mentioned that they will attract the neighbours' slugs over into my garden. Not the result I was hoping for!

Looks like I'll just have to stick with the gardening gloves and the slug patrols. I'm putting a raised veggie bed in, so will have a play with an electric slug fence as well; thin copper wires stapled to the vertical side of the railway sleeper and hooked up to a 9V battery...

[todthedog]

We used to let the chickens into the veg patch in autumn, picked off slugs and weed seeds, added manure, win win.

[scotia]

We dug a pond, and soon frogs arrived, and slugs disappeared. Then grandchildren arrived, and the pond was filled-in as a safety precaution. We extracted about 20 frogs and re-homed them. We now have slugs everywhere.

[madhatter]

I have a pond, and frogs, and slugs. (Millions of the bleeders!)

There is however, a lot of ivy and quite a few logs, where the diameter is such that the garden waste scheme wouldn’t accept them. I suppose either or both would create moist microclimates where slugs would loiter.

On the plus side, I have Stag beetles.

[vrdiver]

We also have a pond, not in the garden but nearby. There are plenty of frogs in the garden, but they don't seem to make much inroad into the army of little perishers that destroy anything succulent.

Admittedly there are plenty of slug-friendly areas (mulch, log piles, paving slabs / railway sleepers) that the slugs can shelter in where maybe the frogs can't get them.

If I see a hedgehog during my evening walks with the dog I think I might kidnap it and see if that makes a difference!
(although I don't think I would - couldn't risk taking a new mum and having a starving brood on my conscience...)

VRD

[kempiejon]

We also have a pond, not in the garden but nearby. There are plenty of frogs in the garden, but they don't seem to make much inroad into the army of little perishers that destroy anything succulent.

Admittedly there are plenty of slug-friendly areas (mulch, log piles, paving slabs / railway sleepers) that the slugs can shelter in where maybe the frogs can't get them.

If I see a hedgehog during my evening walks with the dog I think I might kidnap it and see if that makes a difference!
(although I don't think I would - couldn't risk taking a new mum and having a starving brood on my conscience...)

VRD

I used to have a pond and I had slugs taking the soft veggies, after I filled the pond in and re landscaped the slugs ate my peas. A few years back, there were a couple of hedgehog that used to cruise my back garden, I certainly heard them snuffling about in the undergrowth. I had the same problems with slugs. A fella I know has a partner who is keen on hedgehogs and has little hutches to encourage them to overwinter in the garden and they have slugs eating their produce.
Found this

Summary
Slugs and snails do feature on the diet of hedgehogs and there are examples of captive animals readily eating a hundred or more during feeding experiments. How many slugs are eaten varied with the individual, season and the availability of other prey items. Moreover, it tends to be the very small slugs that are eaten, sometimes in considerable numbers, while mature slugs appear to be taken more rarely. Behavioural observations suggest that hedgehogs often struggle to handle the mucus produced by slugs and snails, particularly large specimens, and this may deter them from eating large gastropods. Molluscs are also a carrier for the lungworm parasite and thier consumption is considered to be a potentially significant route of infection for hedgehogs. There is no evidence that hedgehogs have any discernible impact on slug numbers in gardens, but many gardeners nonetheless consider them allies in “pest control”.

https://apply2.mbna.co.uk/sales-content ... bna.co.uk#!

[SteMiS]

Has anyone tried nematodes? - https://www.gardenorganic.org.uk/nematodes

[vrdiver]

Has anyone tried nematodes? - https://www.gardenorganic.org.uk/nematodes

I tried them last year. They worked well for about six weeks, then the slug population recovered. It could work out expensive as a repeat treatment, but might be a way to significantly reduce the slug population over longer periods if applied both to the garden and surrounding areas?

VRD

[ReformedCharacter]

Has anyone tried nematodes? - https://www.gardenorganic.org.uk/nematodes

Yes, I've used them over a number of years. It's very hard to give an accurate answer as to efficacy but I'd say they work well for a couple of months.

RC

[richlist]

The slug problem has been fixed in my garden today.......it snowed heavily and tonight it's gonna freeze.

[vrdiver]

The slug problem has been fixed in my garden today.......it snowed heavily and tonight it's gonna freeze.

But, as Arnie would say.... "They'll be back!"