Lawn Slug Invasion

[oddoneout]

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.

I think the idea is that the caffeine is neuorotoxic(as it is for humans in quantity) and produces a violent reaction that leads to death. Whether that is worse than substances that dehydrate the molluscs (metaldehyde and salt) is questionable in my view, however if killing slugs is the aim then there are a number of factors to consider, not least is collateral damage, which is why metaldehyde was withdrawn.
Interestingly I've just come across a suggestion that the ferric phosphate pellets being marketed as metaldehyde replacement may not be as safe as is claimed. In order to be effective they contain an ingredient that makes the iron bio-available which has implications for toxicity to other creatures.

[french frank]

No more lettuce, no more slug pellets. Finished, basta.

I think it's the blue pellets that are problematic. You can get organic pale green ones (Doff?) and some sort of repellent which you pour round the plants and which make it hard for slugs and snails to cross.

[groovydavidii]

“Saucers of beer! At least they'll perish happy.” – Yes, FF but some slugs must’ve taken the ‘no alcohol temperance’ pledge and committed their suicide drowning in the small wildlife pond, quite unpleasant netting them out, meanwhile have tried the nematode approach, too early to assess results.

[oddoneout]

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.

They might have died of other causes, there are diseases that kill frogs. Many years ago I had frogs in both the main garden pond and a belfast sink water garden on the patio succumb to redleg, and they inflated and floated to the surface after death.While it confirmed that I had large populations in both places(12 in the sink at one stage) that was not the way I would have chosen to find out.

[oddoneout]

“Saucers of beer! At least they'll perish happy.” – Yes, FF but some slugs must’ve taken the ‘no alcohol temperance’ pledge and committed their suicide drowning in the small wildlife pond, quite unpleasant netting them out, meanwhile have tried the nematode approach, too early to assess results.

A family member was puzzled why previously successful saucers of beer didn't seem to be doing the job - and discovered that the latest can of brew had been a non-alcoholic one...