slug pellets

Any good deals on slug pellets at the moment I need them by the bucket load!!!

Do you have a Wilkinson's near you-got a carton for a £1 last week

Please don't use them.  Birds and hedgehogs will eat the corpses and then die.  Try barriers like sand, grit and copper tape (even crushed up eggshells), or treat with something like nemaslug.  Try having a bit of the garden with long grasses and some logs, to encourage hedgehogs and frogs.  I've got at least two frogs in my garden, and seem to be having a lot less slugs recently,even though we've been having very wet weather.  The blackbird nesting in the tree at the back is also very busy!

You can get 'growing success' ones that claim they don't harm wildlife, I've used them in the past but won't any more, there are other ways of protecting prized plants.

The main reason slug pellets are undesirable is not that they kill birds and hedgehogs.

No it's because they starve the birds and hedgehogs by removing their food source.  Even wildlife friendly ones.

As already mentioned, Growing Success Advanced Slug Pellets are completely safe and kill nothing but slugs and snails, disintegrating into fertilizer after six weeks. More expensive than metaldehyde, but much more enviromentally and wildlife friendly if you're happy to use them.

Weejenny have you tried using the garlic wash? I have a real bad problem with slugs and snails but have used this over the past 2 weeks and although I still have some slugs/snails in my garden and yard I certainly dont have as many as I used to.

having recently bought some non organic slug pellets due to lack of being able to buy any organic ones (3 different shops in one afternoon and I was loosing plants by the hour due to slug damage) I have to say i was very impressed with the carnage in the garden after use. i know they are not nice for birds or hedgehogs but I have almost none in the garden as it is. 

With the difference in price and how tight things are here I am not convinced I am going to go back to Growing Success at the mo

phew I was feeling a bit guilty there obviously a controversial subject. I dont have hedgehogs in my garden were terribly bothered with rabbits so weve chicken wire right round. Do birds eat the big fat brown slugs a friend told me they dont.I do use enviromentally friendly pellets.Im planning some sort of natural water feature to encourage frogs Getting on top of my slug population is my aim this year. Im going out shortly to sort out a few more!!

I find birds eat almost nothing you want them to!!

No bird eats my slugs or snails - just my lettuces and cabbages - while watching the slugs and snails chew through all my sunflower stalks (- not just nibbling the leaves but through the bl00dy stalks!! ) 

(Several snails this morning got launched across 4 gardens on to the main road this morning in frustration! Bit squemish about picking slugs up in bare hands or they would of got a similar treatment!! ) 

i take great pleasure in launching snails. My latest thing is taking my old sissors round the garden and chopping slugs n half. I dont do bare hands either yukThey really take out the badness in you  I just discovered my violas(which i grew from seed) chewed up today

You do know that snails have a homing instinct? If they survive the flight, they will head straight back to your garden....

<span style="font-size: 12px; line-height: 18px; background-color: #eeeeee;">'You do know that snails have a homing instinct?'

To a point, about 90ft is the maxium range for a return, 300ft will be auf weidersehen.

they defo when more then 90'

Sorry -but to put things in perspective the amount of poison in blue slug pellets is enough to kill a slug but to assume that a bird or hedgehog will then eat the dead  slug is a big leap and that the poisoned dead slug will then kill that is an even bigger leap - the animal would have to eat a lot if these to even get ill.

They are unlikely to eat the pellet as is a cat, dog or anything else-they just aren't that attractive

To feel to be made like social pariah because you use blue pellets is in my view not fair-what we use in our gardens is a personal choice-personally I would continue to use blue pellets,chemical sprays etc as necessary as these have been shown to be the most effective way of getting rid of pests

Just my way of looking at it

Sorry if I've upset anyone, everyone has a different way of looking at things, and what works for one gardener won't work for another one.  I guess I'm just very lucky in having two (that I've seen) frogs in the garden, maybe more.  Let's face it, we're all trying to encourage Mother Nature to do her stuff, and each person has a different way of tackling it.  I hate both slugs and snails, and am just glad I've got something that will eat the little bu88ers, instead of them eating my plants!

Julie, I'm with you on this. There are obviously several reasons why hedgehogs in particular are declining in numbers, loss of habitat due to overly tidy gardeners and the concreters/gravellers of the world is one and poisoning/removing the food source is another.  It's a vicious circle because with the predators gone, the prey items flourish. Like you, I don't try to tell people what to do or make anyone feel guilty but hope to inform and persuade at least some that poisoning is not a great solution in the long run.

Thanks, FloBear, I wasn't trying to tell people what to do (cos this normally puts peopole's backs up and then they go and do the opposite), I'm very lucky in having natural slug predators in the garden, and hope they stay.  I can see why people use slug pellets, with this warm summer especially they seem to be all over the place (had to take evasive action with my pushchair to avoid a snail this morning, had I been wearing my wellies it would have been goodnight vienna), I just think there are better ways to deal with them than the pellets.  I have used the growing success ones in the past, and try to avoid them as much as possible.  If I see the slugs munching on food intended for my family, out come the garden scissors!

Surely all gardening is going against nature, we grow south american and south african plants and complain when they die. We train climbers to go where we want and force bulbs to flower at christmas. We complain about genetically modified food and also despair at people starving. We use chemicals and bees die, if we do not use chemicals harvests collapse. Are a few slug pellets such a major issue? We are all doomed.

Joslow, I think you may benefit from a wee drinky and a box of chocolates!  I'm not one to complain about genenetcially modified food, as we've been 'genetically modifying' plants and animals for centuries, except back then it was called selective breeding.  Now we can do it quicker by using genes, and do some pretty amazing things.

We have (in the western world) eradicated TB, rickets, smallpox, and lots of other childhood nasties.  We are not doomed to die if part of us packs up (kidneys, pancreas), or if we get cancer, or from an infection.  Our water is pure so we don't get typhoid or dysentry.  If we're lucky enough to have a bit of green space we can grow veg in, we can grow it how we want, with/without pesticides.  We can circumnavigate the globe, make energy from the sun, wind and waves.  We still have some fossil fuels left, and are slowly getting to grips with recycling things.

Am I alone in thinking we are living in a golden time?

Hi The allotments in Tenby Wales are all suffering from the same problem with slugs ,in the Midlands we used to get beer slops from our local ,then place jam jars or cut down plastic bottles in the ground around the plants then fill them with the slops,the slugs are attracted to the beer and climb in ,they die very happy,and this is not a joke believe me Good luck