Lawn Slug Invasion

[groovydavidii]

HELP!, lawn slug invasion, eradicable slug remedies welcome.

[french frank]

HELP!, lawn slug invasion, eradicable slug remedies welcome.

Saucers of beer! At least they'll perish happy.

[Dave2002]

I may have done something not so clever recently. Sometimes - and I don't know quite how or why - slugs appear on our kitchen floor, which is tiled.

I don't usually klll them, but fling them out of the back door. Maybe if I had a bird table that would be a good place to put them - birds might like them to eat.

What I did with the last one was put into our compost bin - thinking - and hoping - that it would eventually die and provide extra nutrients. However afterwards it occurred to me that it might lead to them breeding and producing even more slugs which will then escape and terrorise our garden.

[oddoneout]

I may have done something not so clever recently. Sometimes - and I don't know quite how or why - slugs appear on our kitchen floor, which is tiled.

I don't usually klll them, but fling them out of the back door. Maybe if I had a bird table that would be a good place to put them - birds might like them to eat.

What I did with the last one was put into our compost bin - thinking - and hoping - that it would eventually die and provide extra nutrients. However afterwards it occurred to me that it might lead to them breeding and producing even more slugs which will then escape and terrorise our garden.

Since the majority of slugs eat dead or dying plant material(they are detritivores) a compost bin is an ideal place to be! Whether you put the odd one in or not won't have any effect as they'll find their own way there anyway, and yes will doubtless breed. Whether they "terrorise" the garden depends on what sort they are.

[cloughie]

The title of this thread sounds like the name of a band or maybe an album title. There seems to be a large number of very large slugs around at the moment. I notice one demolishing a courgette yesterday and on the runner beans. The kitchen seems vulnerable from small slugs which I think must sneak in through the door frame, particularly when it is raining outside. Flicking them out is my answer also.

[Old Grumpy]

Hello slug - smell the coffee and don't wake up!

https://www.manchestereveningnews.co.uk/whats-on/whats-on-news/gardeners-being-warned-prepare-ahead-29846993

[Serial_Apologist]

If there is such a thing as reincarnation, I hope you all come back as slugs and find out what it's like to be flicked! The fact that they flinch when touched shows that they are sentient beings. My own solution to finding them sliding their way across our asphalt paths is to gently pick them up before they get trampled and deposit them at the furthermost end of the garden where the compost heap is, where they can happily munch away at the rough ground cover and not bother anyone or anything. That said, they are of course a nuisance to growers, and the recommendation I have seen as to surround your vegetable patch with fast-recovering Marigolds as their main food source, before they reach the lettuces etc. Another trick is to sprinkle sand around edible plants: slugs (and the equally disliked snails) hate sandy or loose gritty surfaces as they interfere with their means of slithering - which is in itself a thing of wonder, if you watch a slug or snail making its way over glass from underneath. What is sad is that slugs and snails never adapted to the coming of hard drying out surfaces - had they done so they would have borne in mind to calculate how fast their feet needed to pulsate to reach the next bit of dampness safely before the ground dried out.

[Petrushka]

Some may remember that earlier this year I was bothered about the occasional slug having the nerve to enter my home uninvited and leaving slimy trails all over the carpet.

Subsequently, a friend told me the best way to get rid of them from the house and anyone having them come in might like to try it.

It's really quite simple: as slugs are nocturnal creatures just leave the lights on overnight.

[oddoneout]

Hello slug - smell the coffee and don't wake up!

https://www.manchestereveningnews.co...ahead-29846993

For those who would like a rather more coherent and fact based article

https://today.oregonstate.edu/news/used-appropriately-coffee-grounds-improve-soil-and-kill-slugs

[Serial_Apologist]

For those who would like a rather more coherent and fact based article
https://today.oregonstate.edu/news/u...and-kill-slugs

There are grounds for grounds for grounds, therefore!

[oddoneout]

There are grounds for grounds for grounds, therefore!

Something that isn't addressed is what other lifeforms are/may be affected, a constant difficulty with the false "natural is safe" approach.The coffee drench eliminates slugs and in the context of commercial production the question of collateral damage may not be so applicable, especially in protected growing environments, given what the alternatives currently used may be. For use in a garden setting though, there are more questions to be answered.
Nicotine is a natural plant extract and effective at killing insects; that is factually correct, but doesn't mean it is either safe, or without damaging consequences that rule it out for general use.

[johncorrigan]

We had slugs attacking our courgette plants in the spring. The wee plants were a mess. A suggestion was crushed egg shells so we surrounded the plants with this - apparently they don't like the sharp feel. All I can say is that we had no more problem from them and have the best haul of courgettes ever. They and the rasps were probably the only thing that did well this year.

[Serial_Apologist]

Something that isn't addressed is what other lifeforms are/may be affected, a constant difficulty with the false "natural is safe" approach.The coffee drench eliminates slugs and in the context of commercial production the question of collateral damage may not be so applicable, especially in protected growing environments, given what the alternatives currently used may be. For use in a garden setting though, there are more questions to be answered.
Nicotine is a natural plant extract and effective at killing insects; that is factually correct, but doesn't mean it is either safe, or without damaging consequences that rule it out for general use.

[Mandryka]

I shall tell you my slug pellet story, whether you like it or not.

About 20 years ago I used to grow lettuce. Of course slugs were a problem, so I used pellets -- I'm not sure which type they were, I remember they were bright blue. They were effective.

One May day, sunny May day, I had a lunch party at my house. A real London bohemian bourgeois party, full of rich elegant witty intelligent sexy people making sparking conversation in the shade, sipping their drinks in the garden and crying "Oh how beautiful!" I was working the room, playing mine host. It was all quintessentially Surrey. I exaggerate not, actually -- that's the way it was.

And then suddenly, out of nowhere, totally unexpectedly, I heard an enormous piercing scream from a lady who had found her way to the pond.

I ran to the scene, not knowing what to expect.

On the pond, floating on the water, were three inflated dead frogs.

Presumably they'd eaten some slug pellet and kicked the bucket.

Anyway, that was that. No more lettuce, no more slug pellets. Finished, basta.

[Dave2002]

Hello slug - smell the coffee and don't wake up!

https://www.manchestereveningnews.co...ahead-29846993

According to one site I read recently that seems to be cruel and unusual punishment for slugs, though how the authors knew that I can't imagine. Seemed to think it was worse than using salt.