[tippben]

We all have to do it. Picking up slugs, holding a torch, getting slime and slug guts all over our fingers, clothing and footwear. Yuk!

I've started using a (Petzl) head torch, available from outdoor/camping shops, and a bamboo barbeque skewer. You have both hands free, and after stabbing the slug, it can be cleanly wiped off on any handy rock, the side of a raised bed, or even the ground. Much cleaner, and much less yuck factor, and actually more dead slugs.

[Keith g]

Hi Ben, why don't you try the old beer trick, just get a bowl and
place it level with the soil, then fill with about 200mls
of beer !

I promise tomorrow morning there will be a good few of them
in there, at least they'll die happy

Keith..

[kindredspirit]

You're terrible, Ben. Decimating Ireland's wildlife.

[Greengage]

All this killing of snails and slugs why? what are their function in the ecosystem probably more important than ours or a few heads of lettuce. relax live and let live you are not depending on the litle you grow to save the world.
read more here. http://www.actionbioscience.org/biodiversity/parent.html

[medieval knievel]

beer traps seem to work well, but the blighters never seem to drop in number.

[mariafp]

I bought Slug Stop. It's just a physical barrier and it works pretty well. It doesn't kill them and it's ok with children and pets.

[tippben]

I like to eat my vegetables. Some weeks, we only have garden veg and rice to eat. Of course, slugs are the ultimate recyclers, and I certainly don't want to eradicate them! Beer traps 2" above ground level (to stop the beetles falling in, who eat slugs), work ok, but I literally can't afford to buy beer, hence the stabbing strategy.

[honeybunny]

im sure we would all like to not have to harm them at all Greengage, i know i certainly wish i'd never had to, in an ideal world they'd just munch a couple of leaves here and there not decimate whole plants nightly like they did regularly in my garden, i'd hardly have something planted before it was eaten away, the snails were normal sized i just had tones of them but i also had these monstrously big slugs? that just went through everything and anything i put in my garden, it was soul destroying to say the least!

im a softy at heart and hate killing anything so when the slugs n snails became a real problem i looked for other organic options that wouldn't kill them (turns out not many)...i even resorted to collected up absolutely zillions of snails in shoebox's and setting them free in forests and parks...i did this more times than i wish to admit i tried rings of salt and coffee grounds around plants oh and copper wire which all simply didn't deter them at all, in despair i opted for the dreaded beer trap which initially worked as it would be literally full of bloated slug bodies every morning (so incredibly gross ) ...but after a month or so i'd only find the odd one from time to time...dont know why they stopped falling for it...but alas still i had thousands of them everywhere!

then lady luck shined on me and i got a visitor, a hedgehog just happened to find his way into our garden, he must have thought he's died and gone to heaved, all those snails and the giant slugs never knew what hit them LOL a couple of years on and he's decimated the whole population, i hardly see a single one now...and he's still here living in the nest he made in the greenhouse

[Greengage]

Great luck you, I read a post on the RHS website where the same discussion took place and a gardener had a hedgehog in her garden after eating all the slugs and snails it couldnt climb over the wall and starved to death another got an inner ear infection and kept going around and around in circlles cost her a fortune in vet fees to cure him.

[honeybunny]

poor hedgehogs, thankfully there's no fear of our boy ever starving as he 'knows' we will feed him, if we are in the garden he'll follow you about and often waits at the backdoor for us to go get him something nice to eat lol, such an amazing little guy, the poor little fella with the ear infection was lucky to recovered completely, they can often be left with permanent balance problems.

hey i just checked out that forum you mentioned, it looks fab, i've just joined, cheers Greengage.

[Greengage]

In Gertrude Frank's book "Companion Planting" ISBN 0-7225-0694-5
she says suggests the following for controling slugs and snails.
1. drop slugs and snails into boiling water
2. let it stand for few days until it smells strongly
3. water around endangered crops
She also suggests to lay the dead bodies between the rows as a deterrent, effective for several weeks as they decompose.
If this works I wonder could you bottle it and make a fortune.