"Chris Hogg" wrote in message
...
On Fri, 2 Jun 2006 08:07:52 +0100, "Charlie Pridham"
wrote:




I used iron phosphate bait around vegetables (the second round -- the
first was largely consumed, many before even showing themselves) and
then went hand picking every night with a flashlight. I had to replace
the bait several times because it was all getting consumed in just a
couple of nights. It gave me odd pleasure to see a snail chowing down
on a pellet.

With the hand picking I was gathering maybe fifty to a hundred on an
average evening. Totally sickeningly gross.

I also started clearing out the various piles of junk (and some plants
with dense foliage) that gave them daytime hiding places.

Things are much better this year -- knock on compost.

Iron phosphate is very good and I am going to switch over to it. It
apparently works by stopping them eating, its not a poison and the crawl
off
and die of starvation some days later, so no corpses :~)

I've never heard of it outside a chem.lab. Does it work on slugs also?
I presume so. Is it commonly available, e.g. in garden centres? I
imagine it's fairly weather-proof, as it's not soluble in water, IIRC.


--
Chris

E-mail: christopher[dot]hogg[at]virgin[dot]net

I know Iron Pyrophosphate is used in the medicinal world as an iron tonic.
Not actually certain what form of iron phosphate is being used in slug bait
but it does appear to be very good. It is for sale in the USA but I have not
seen anything for sale over here yet.