In message , Lawrence Tierney
writes
Hi there,

Looking for ideas for organic slug control - my Ligularia is on it's last
legs. So far here's what I've thought of:

1. Beer trap (can you use lager?)
2. Crushed eggshells around endangered plant.
3. Pinning down a sheet of plastic sacking (i.e. bits of a J. Innes bag)
near affected plant in order that the wee blighters will think it's a cool
damp slug hotel - ready to be removed at my leisure.

So any other ideas, comments, recommendations?

Lawrence


1 and 2 haven't worked particularly well for me; in my experience (yes,
I have actually sat there watching this) the percentage of slugs
visiting - and drinking from - a beer trap that actually fall in and
drown is very low.

A variant on 3 has been quite successful for me - I keep strips of black
plastic along some of the edges of my vegetable beds and, especially
when conditions are dryish but it's moist under the plastic, slugs do
collect there.

As an alternative to beer (or yeast and sugar and water, which slugs
also find attractive), you might try bran. Whether or not it actually
attracts them I'm not sure, and the idea that they eat so much of it
that they explode is one of those myths, but they obviously like it very
much when they find it and tend to stay on it feeding. So a ring of it
around the plant you want to protect may distract or detain them
sufficiently.

You can combine the bran and slug shelter approaches by leaving small
piles of bran under cabbage or rhubarb (or any other large) leaves or
plastic. This might increase the numbers you find during the day.
Unfortunately the bran goes mouldy and loses its appeal after a few
days, so you need to renew it. Porridge oats can also be used in the
same way.

In the end, however, I'm afraid my main method of slug control is to go
out at night - some people say the best time is around 2 hours after
sunset - with a torch and a sharp knife. Over a period I find that you
really do get the numbers down. As anyone who has done this will tell
you, slugs also feed enthusiastically on the corpses of their fellows.
So if you resist the impulse to tidy these away you may find over a few
nights that you get quite a build-up of victims in certain spots. It's
nasty but it's certainly organic.

In an emergency such as you describe, I'd suggest combining nocturnal
sorties with a bran barrier - with luck when you go out you'll find a
lot of slugs feeding on the bran rather than your ligularia.
--
Max Wright
www.wys-systems.demon.co.uk/plotcrop