Talkback: Slugs

I can't help laughing at all the articles I keep reading on slugs and snails and what people do to them, I've not give up and I think some people {nieghbours} may think I'm mad in and out at night and half grapefruit skins between plants all over our garden because the slugs in the garden at the moment love them I collect between 4 and 6 each night these are what I call monster slug size and then the odd snail and 3 or 4 small ones I have collected up to 9 some nights but they're easy to see because the grapefruit skins are so bright.These seem to work any weather unlike garlic spray which is no good with all this rain, the only thing with grapefruits is you have to keep replacing them so I do buy a lot of them but slugs have never been so easy to catch,the big ones stick to them and the small ones go under them I lift them up to look under them in the daytime and always get a few so give them a go I have them in the flower beds as well as next to peas.

Oh gosh, please don't give up. It took me four years to gain the upper hand on slugs and snails. Slug pubs are great, but they need to be placed a good distance away from your yummy plants, you want your unwanted guests to die before they dine. Make a wee umbrella lid for the slug pubs using the top of a carton or whatever comes to hand. I go out every evening and despatch any slugs and snails I come across, either by stamping on them, salting them, or spearing them (pin taped to a stick) and dropping them in a wee container of salty water. Some peope report success with coffee grounds, I have not yet tried this, I am waiting for more info on how it might affect the soil conditions. Garlic wash is another thing to try, the recipe will be available if you use a search engine, it does not leave a lasting taste in crops but it does put slugs and snails off for a while. I use it every ten days. Keep the very surface of soil ruffled up to expose any small slugs or eggs. Birds will soon come in to look for them or on dry days they will dry out and die. I garden for wildlife, but even caterpillers drive me up the wall at times, I relocate them to a nettle patch across the road :0) Do some lateral thinking and please don't give up. XX

I am so glad I am not the only one suffering with slugs. I was out in the garden earlier this evening and bearing in mind most slugs do nto show themselves until twilight/dark I was amazed by the sheer quantity. Everywhere I turned there was another slug and they are huge. Normally this time of year I cannot eat courgettes fast ensough, this year the slugs are beating me to them.

Far away here in Southern California I feel your pain! Except mine comes with shells, I am completely overun with snails. Here, we get your magazine a month late, and recently I burst out laughing reading Alan Titchmarsh's July article about his war with snails. I bought expensive copper rings which didn't even slow them down. I let the nasturtiums grow over a portion of the yard just for them - it did nothing but turn into a snail party central, from which they could plan their attack. I put overturned plastic juice bottles over saplings, worked great until I removed them and found the carnage the very next morning, not one of $100 worth of dahlia tubers survived. Trying to stay away from poison I gave in and bought a ridiculosly expensive container of preditor snails which are supposed to eat the brown ones I have. I think it was like putting a band-aide over a bullet wound. I tried coffee grounds, and find the potency of the coffee only works for about a day or two. Starbuck's here in the US gives away 'Grounds for the Garden', which is their used grounds, and I pick up bags quite often. It smells great and feeds the soil but I think I just end up with caffinated jittery snails. I have 3 small children and together we wonder at the marvels of nature and the seemingly peaceful exsistence of garden critters so killing them is out of the question. I throw hundreds in the green waste bins each week and figure I am giving them a 50-50 shot if they can escape from the municipal composter. They eat everything BUT the weeds. So, I too have given in. I won't stop gardening, but I have no idea what to do next except await the next issue of your wonderful magazine.

Like Jane Moore the slugs on my allotment are HUGE! Our two resident toads are so fat with trying to keep the population down they can hardly move! It is so disheartening to have whole rows of lettuce devoured in the space of hours but I won't give up, just keep on replanting and replanting and replanting!

Hi i find slugpubs good ,but whats better is flower trays just leave them laying around,turn them upside down in daylight find a thousand slugs. dispose of as you wish

My daughter came back from school having been taught the rhyme "If it's brown, grind it down, if it's black put it back" regarding slugs (apparently black ones tend to eat dead plant material). Does anyone know if this is good advice?

I hate to kill anything and do use beer! but I find the best deterrent is my kids, I have 5 and have trained them to pick up slugs (with a dock leaf) and snails and take them to the bottom af the garden or across the road onto the field to get them away from the veggies! keeps them all busy! :)

I sympathize with you all. I have these massive brown slugs and two residential hedgehogs which look like they are ready to explode because they have eaten soon many! At night my back garden path looks like something out of a horror scene. Even my little Jack Russell who likes a slug/snail or two has gone on strike!!!

How do you dispose of the dead slugs? Do you leave them out for the birds to eat or just bury them in the garden.

I have also had terrible problems with the slugs eating my flowers this year but I was then told by a friend of a way she and her partner use in their garden to keep the slugs away and she swears by this method so I tried it but you have to remember to re do this process after it rains - basically I was told to scatter bran around the areas of the garden that are affected by slugs, the slugs then apparently eat the bran and get fat from eating the bran that they are unable to move to eat your other plants and flowers and then when they are fat and juicy from the bran the birds spot them and swoop down to eat the fat juicy slugs!

Most if not all of you have probably already heard about this method but I've only just heard about it and before the deluge of rain started I purchased a few bags of bran ready and I'm just about to start putting it around my garden now that the rain has stopped for now!

I have the most enormous slugs rampaging in my garden. I have even watched them as the contort themselves through the fine wire netting to get into the tortoise run. The tortoise wake up to find they have rivals to their succulent lettuce etc. I now have a bucket of salty water nearby and drop the slugs into it. I figure that at least the same slugs won't produce anymore offending offspring.

The slugs in the garden looks like their at this years leeds pop festival. There are so many they have crawled up the stems of the flowers and arrived at the hanging baskets full of tomatoes, DO THEY EAT THE GREEN ONE'S NO. they feast on the lovely red once before I have time to go and pick the crop.They have invaded the greenhouses this year and decided to have a go at the plants in there as well, and this is the first time that this has happened. Someone please come up with a solution for next year quickly.

has anyone tried crushed egg shells, i save egg shells let them dry out then use the rolling pin to crush and ring plants or just scatter them about, i still have some slugs but the egg shells r good for the garden anyway

I did the egg shell thing last year Jan working in a bakery I can get hundreds which I did but it made no difference the best thing this year so far has been a very strong garlic solution sprayed on tops and backs of leaves and the pots done often but the best so far is the grapefruit skins they just can't resist them, this is my plan for next year. Has anyone any idea when they die off or hibernate how long do they live for? I know snails hibernate.

I have recently taken on a small plot and found that slugs and snails were out in force i had my whole cabbage crop completly destroyed even though i used beer traps nematoads hand picking. has any other people suffered in the same way or did the countr's snail and slug population descend to my plot for a big cabbage fest

my garden is a complete mess.slugpubs,copper rings,and everything else is refusing to work because of the sheer numbers that the slugs and snails have.Any advice?

I watched a large hedgehog approach the remains of our cats' supper on our patio. A large slug was already tucking in. This should be interesting, I thought. The hedgehog ate up to one side of the slug, moved round it and ate the other side! Then it went on its way. The slug continued eating!