Talkback: Slug-proof plants - Page 2

I'm going to try the nematodes for slugs this year as I am fed up with my plants been nibbled to a stalk! Has any one tried this?

thanks Shazza1 for the garlic water idea, I'm definately going to give that one a try.

I had loads of slugs in my compost bin last year, the black ones are good for the compost bin apparently, prefering rotting matter to fresh green growth, so if I find any I put them in the compost bin. By the time the compost was ready the slugs had all gone. Had they died with nothing else to eat, or had they just buggered off elsewhere? Will my homemade compost now be full of slug eggs? I have a real problem killing any pests in the garden, even slugs. All the ones I find in the garden go into the brown council recycling compost bin, so go live at the dump. I am worried that I am just sending the problem elsewhere.

they dont have my cranesbill, euphorbia, iceplant, magnolias, roses, elephant ears, dicentra, or aqualegia, also leave the woodruff alone.  Also dont have the lavender and rosemary.  I've lost SO many plants to slugs over the years but these have been bomb proof for us.

I grow my petunias in hanging baskets to avoid slugs.  Coffee grounds work ok with some plants - but some plants seem sensitive to coffee and die.  I have grow hostas in big pots and put vaseline on the sides of the pots - slugs don't like crawling over it.  The hostas are still doing well after several years.

I love hostas but always had the problem of slugs and snails.  This year I planted new hostas in tubs and used copper tape.  I grouped the hostas together in a nice shady spot in the garder and put some rocks around the pots - looks quite decorative actually, but I also put little trays here and there with bird seed.  I also placed my bird bath in the same spot.  So far so good - I do not seem to be having too much trouble with slugs and snails.  I leave some apples about also for the blackbird and thrushes - who really like the snails and use the rocks to break the shells.

A problem this year is the wet weather and mild winter has created perfect slug conditions, so there are a lot more of them. I have found them eating lots of slug proof plants this year - Hellebores, Mahonia, Eunonymous and etc. Best pick them out at dusk with tweezers as others have said.

I think given half a chance slugs will have a go at anything ! I springle coffee grounds round my dahlias and that seems to do the trick.

As for slug proof plants I have found verbena bonariensis , achilleas and irises to be pretty slug resistant. The most slug resistant if not slug repelling plant I have is Aconitum carmichaelii not only do the slugs do not touch it , i expect this is due to the fact that monkshoods are really quite poisionous ( a proper gloves job when cutting back) . The weird thing is that i grow hostas near by and the slugs dont seem to come near them due to the presence of the monkshood !

Of the perennials in my garden I found the following quite slug resistent: aquilegias, hardy geraniums, centranthus (valerian), japanese anemones, lysimachia clethroides (chinese loosetrife), scabiosa, heucherella, polemonium (jacobs ladder), sisyrinchium.  Bedding plants: I don't grow many but I found fuchsias and lobelias resistent to slugs, although the slugs seemed to hide under the lobelias  but did not touch them.

I have nt seen anybody talking about a slug killer/ repellent that I have started using....Salt. Particulaly at this time of year when the slugs and snails come out in their herds. I sprinkle it on them and even if they are on plants the salt sticks to them. I'm trying it as a barrier at the moment, i appreciate there the obvious drawbacks but its working for me

It is so heartening to see that there are people out there that really do care about our wildlife and will not use pellets in their gardens to get kill slugs/snails. I do not know how people can live with themselves that use SALT and other INHUMANE ways to kill them - disgraceful, and audrey23 should be ashamed taking a perverse pleasure in stamping on them.  They are creatures that need to eat to live like all of us (and a lot of them do eat the rotting matter, etc. on the ground).  There are other ways  to protect young shoots and plants (e.g. planting inexpensive decoy plants, such as marigolds, until the plants become more established and humane ways to get rid of them.  Hedgehogs. frogs and birds will eat them and if you must destroy then using stout/beer iI believe is one of the kinder ways though still not very nice.  You can always gather them up and take them to woodland or a nature reserve.    

I personally do not kill the slugs, I sometimes pick them and throw them to the grass path next to my house, but I am sure they come back. I would love to grow lupins and delphiniums but Ihave given up because they get all eaten. 

I'm lifting my delphiniums for the winter and planting them in pots like I do with my lilies. I am also going to use nematodes next year because I do hate slug pellets.