In article ,
says...
On Wed, 25 Jun 2008 22:55:49 +0100, Pam Moore
wrote:

On Wed, 25 Jun 2008 17:17:37 +0100, old perennial
wrote:


Read an Interesting article the other day about slug pellets. people
who use them are inclined to give it a bit more than it says on the
packet as they think it will o a better job - not so.

Slug pellets are a bait which should attract the slug and kill it. If
too many are laid down, they act as a repellent and drive them away,
probably to return again on a dark wet night when the pellets are less
effctive.

One should leave piles of pellets eitheras it has the same repelling
effect.

Has anyone tried bran as bait? I tried it once. I put piles of it
round by the edges of the lawn and in the morning went out and removed
the slugs and snails which gathered there.
I'd forgotten about it, but someone on our allotments has put lines of
bran around various plants. I shall watch with interest.
I gather that the slugs like it but it makes them swell up and feel
very uncomfortable. I remember I bought the bran in Tesco.

Pam in Bristol

I can remember in the 1950's, before 'blue' pellets were available, my
mother mixing oatmeal with crushed metaldehyde (the latter was
available as a fuel for portable stoves, an alternative to paraffin
Primus stoves). A forerunner to and just as effective as modern blue
pellets, although probably more attractive to birds. These days I use
the advanced pellets containing iron phosphate. They're more expensive
but very effective.


I was going to ask how people who have switched to these have got on, I
am still using up the old ones (we use them in the nursery tunnels not in
the garden) but will shortly need to buy more so am thinking I will
switch but its good to hear they are effective.
In the garden I am a fan of mulching with dead and dying plant material
it seems to attract slugs which are distracted from the plants by the
easy meal on the ground (and its a jolly good excuse not to cart stuff
off to the compost heap!
--
Charlie Pridham, Gardening in Cornwall
www.roselandhouse.co.uk
Holders of national collections of Clematis viticella cultivars and
Lapageria rosea