On 23/08/2010 15:10, Mentalguy2k8 wrote:
I've had enough of getting up every morning to find big holes in all my
plants... I've tried rounding the snails up at midnight by torchlight,
dumping them a few hundred yards away but I've just noticed a couple of
my plants have literally dozens of tiny baby snails stuck all over them,
and I've had enough. It's them or me!!

I've put my humane compassion aside & put down some of the metaldehyde
pellets in the obvious places, taking care to cover them or put them in
inaccessible (for pets) places like down the side of the shed and
underneath, and in all the potted plants that are off the ground.

Question is, does anyone have any experience with dogs or cats sniffing
them out and eating them? I don't think my dog (and the neighbourhood
cats) can get to them, but would an animal work hard to get at them? I
get the feeling I'm going to need another application within a week or
two, but I don't want to risk putting them in the best places if the
stupid dog is going to eat them.



I have a similar problem with pets and slug treatments. Rather than use
pellets, I use liquid Slug Clear by Scotts (250ml bottle makes 75 Ltrs).
This is watered on and kills snails, slugs(esp. small soil-dwelling
slugs which do a lot of damage)and their eggs. For a day or two after
application, I check the garden for lingering poisoned corpses
(snails/large slugs) and dispose of them before birds or hedgehogs eat
them. I find the result most effective and more long-lasting than
pellets. Furthermore, it seems to have the added benefit of deterring/
killing pests (inc. aphids, Red Lily Beetle, etc) which feed on
poison-drenched foliage.

Naturally, one needs to be careful with edible plants. My husband (RG
on this group) prefers to use pellets on the veg patch. However, these
need reapplying after rain so, presumably some of the poison is washed
into the soil.

My neighbour used the nematode drench on her garden last year, even
though she said it was expensive. She wasn't that impressed last year,
but *this* year she hasn't seen any slugs and is wondering if the
nematode has multiplied and been more effective. It would be great if
this was true, but I have a feeling that the nematode treatment is
temperature-/season-sensitiive (perhaps someone else on urg can
comment?), in which case the glacial winter we've just had would have
killed off the nematodes.

My best advice would be use liquid Slug Clear in the ornamental garden
and trial some of the organic deterrents on the GC shelf, or use sharp grit.


Spider
from high ground in SE London
gardening on clay