Originally Posted by Pete Hurst

I have a large sunflower which i recently repotted into a far bigger pot. (There's nowhere good outside to plant it)

The very next morning after repotting it, some chunks were missing from near the base of the stem, it looked a little like someone had taken a knife and scraped two slices off. There were some trails nearby so I assumed snails/slugs.

I bought copper tape and stuck it around the pot, but this morning even more had been nibbled away and a fresh trail was visible just near the plant.

I've read that slugs can move underground. Is it possible that there's one living in the compost of the pot itself? This sounds strange but I couldn't see a trail on the side of the pot, only right next to the stem base, leading a short distance away from it then disappearing.

If this is possible, does anyone have any idea what I can do, other than using pellets?

Pete Hurst

Originally Posted by Granity

Yes they will bury themselves in the compost. Last year had some compost that had been rotting down for several years and I used it to mix with potting compost and put it in troughs for my runner beans. The next day found that something was eating the beans. There was no way they could get into the troughs from out side so I scattered some slug pellets in the troughs and lo and behold lots of deceased slugs the next morning didn't have any problems after that.