[loopy]

I know this has been done to death..but how how can I stop the critters munching into my bulbs? They've already eaten a row of tulip bulbs I've tried coffee grounds, egg shells and slug pellets. I know there are beer traps, would these work? Also its shallow ground ie i've a weed control sheet down and bark on top so i cant 'dig' into the ground if you know what I mean?

[Liparis]

Well, I use copper wire in the greenhouse, but that's not pratical in a garden, sharp gravel would work, people use cinders from fires etc. The only other would be salt around the plants but that won't do your soil much good. Beer traps work, you can make your own from the bottoms of soft-drinks bottles, then sit on the doorstep with a crate of beer. It usely starts off with one for you, one for them then gradually gets to three for you and one for you
Bill.

[medieval knievel]

not an organic solution, and only for pots, but cans of WD40 claim that a spray around the outside of the pot keeps the slugs at bay.

[loopy]

[medieval knievel]

i assume it's the 'taste' left on the pots.

[MuddyWitch]

If you want to keep the little blighters off pots, vasaline works too, so I'm guessing it's the slipperiness?

MW

[richardwil]

Hi

I sometimes think I grow all my vegetables as slug food as they eat more than I do.

I have 2 methods. Slug pellets but the specialist ones from Growing Success which are classed as organic. They do work but not very fast.

The other is to go out at night and pick them off plants. I wear a head torch for this and latex gloves and drop them into very salty water although I have heard that you "should dispatch them in very hot water and put them on the bird table". Do this every night and in 3 or 4 days you will have depleted the population a lot.

Also nematodes are supposed to be good and can be ordered online. I also feed the hedgehogs I see in the spring to autum and encourage them into the garden as they are suppose to eat slugs but never seen this happen. I put cat food out for them but only when I know they are about. Never give hedgehogs milk as this upsets their stomachs.

Hope this helps.

[walltoall]

Hey Loopy. I'm absolutely fascinated by the fact that slugs have eaten a line of tulip bulbs in February. Presumably a warm spell in Ireland has brought the critters out? Essex ones are still supine. But how did they get a line of tulip bulbs? Cocaine yes but tulips? In February tulips should be at least three inches down in the soil and should have been there since October. My tulips are just starting to put their first wee shoots above ground. I bet I'm missing something here and I don't think it's my can of WD40.

Ric Wiley is correct about the hedgehog. Mine is currently hibernating but since he's been resident I don't get no slugs. You could always plant Hosta around the plot as a sacrifice plant. Slugs love it and if instead of putting sand or salt around it you put pellets and beer traps you should be away

[foxroxks]

[Liparis]

I use that fine copper wire you can remove from electrical motors. I'm hopless with technical stuff, there's miles of it wound round and round. I take enough to wrap around the pot, it gives of very mild static electric curent. The slugs can sense it and won't cross when they climb the sides of the pots. Not 100% guarranteed because they can access that special plant, on ocassions, from above at times. I have toads which over winter in my greenhouses due to the very high humidity and are active right through, so I worry about them gobbling up slugs that have had a doze of pellets.
Bill.

[walltoall]

Read all about it. Best paper I've read on the slugject

http://www.geocities.com/~marylois/archiv85.html

and listen carefully to Liparis. Don't mix chemical warfere with natural methods. Slugs full of slugtox can make birds and animals sick. I mean how would you like your steak with DDT in it?

[Liparis]

You must be quite a googler, walltoall First time I've read that paper and very interesting reading.
I actually have theory about beer traps and slug pellets. Put them down on staging etc and the slugs can be seen going for them. It makes me wonder if using pellets and beer actually attract slugs into our greenhouses/gardens to a greater extent than would be normal. My slug damage is always in the greenhouses. My veg plot is next to my rough wild land and to be honest, the only pest that bothers me are caterpillars.
Of course, my theory may be off the wall
Bill.

[walltoall]

Hi Liparis
I have a background in journalism and I make Google work AWFUL hard for its living. I'm very pleased if that industry can then be passed on. Especially if it gets to young people who are often a generation or two removed from the soil itself.

I read somewhere long before internet that SNAILS are 'territorial'. If you pick 'em up as you find them and fire them off into a nearby field (or next-door's garden if you are having a neighbourly feud) its "obair in aisce go leor". They simply crawl back to their original location overnight.

I don't know about slugs but from that paper it seems they hatch underground.

As for attracting them to the glasshouse with the beer-trap it's possible. But I would favour the idea that the glasshouse would provide an ideal environment for the propogation of slugs if they incubate and hatch underground.

As an aside we had a Dutch Lights glasshouse in the late 50's about 12' x 18' and we used to move it to a new site every three years. I don't know if a modern glasshouse can be dismantled and rebuilt in the four hours it took me and me brothers!

[James Kilkelly, was GPI.]

[loopy]