"sam" wrote in message
...
Tesco Express are doing a nice line in fresh oysters
No,I'm not OFF TOPIC,
and my January King cabbages are just skeletons.
We have had long heavy frosts lately, and I don't
think the destruction is due to caterpillars. More
likely the slugs.
I seem to remember that crushed eggshells deter
then, and I was wondering if I took a hammer to
the empty oyster shells and crushed them , then sprinkled
the fragments around the cabbages, would it deter
the slugs.
And is the shell harmful or beneficial to the soil.
Any help would be appreciated by me and the cabbages.

Sam.

Regret to inform you that the oyster shells do not work. Totally crushed and
powdered they would add a bit of calcium to the soil FWIW. There might be a
minor change in soil acidity for a few days.
There is a newish product appearing in the UK market, which is an
environmentally friendly effective slug killer based on Ferric
(pyro)phosphate. Both the iron (Ferro) and phosphate are beneficial to the
soil.
Still rather expensive but it will be cheaper next year.