Hi there,

Looking for ideas for organic slug control - my Ligularia is on it's last
legs. So far here's what I've thought of:

1. Beer trap (can you use lager?)
2. Crushed eggshells around endangered plant.
3. Pinning down a sheet of plastic sacking (i.e. bits of a J. Innes bag)
near affected plant in order that the wee blighters will think it's a cool
damp slug hotel - ready to be removed at my leisure.

So any other ideas, comments, recommendations?

Lawrence

In article , Lawrence Tierney
writes
Hi there,

Looking for ideas for organic slug control - my Ligularia is on it's last
legs. So far here's what I've thought of:

1. Beer trap (can you use lager?)
2. Crushed eggshells around endangered plant.
3. Pinning down a sheet of plastic sacking (i.e. bits of a J. Innes bag)
near affected plant in order that the wee blighters will think it's a cool
damp slug hotel - ready to be removed at my leisure.

So any other ideas, comments, recommendations?


Layer lengths of fresh cut brambles round any plants which are being
attacked. Encourage slug predators to your garden - wild birds,
hedgehogs, frogs, toads etc. We do no more than that. We still have a
little slug damage but it is not enough to lose any sleep over.
--
Alan & Joan Gould - North Lincs.

In message , Lawrence Tierney
writes
Hi there,

Looking for ideas for organic slug control - my Ligularia is on it's last
legs. So far here's what I've thought of:

1. Beer trap (can you use lager?)
2. Crushed eggshells around endangered plant.
3. Pinning down a sheet of plastic sacking (i.e. bits of a J. Innes bag)
near affected plant in order that the wee blighters will think it's a cool
damp slug hotel - ready to be removed at my leisure.

So any other ideas, comments, recommendations?

Lawrence


1 and 2 haven't worked particularly well for me; in my experience (yes,
I have actually sat there watching this) the percentage of slugs
visiting - and drinking from - a beer trap that actually fall in and
drown is very low.

A variant on 3 has been quite successful for me - I keep strips of black
plastic along some of the edges of my vegetable beds and, especially
when conditions are dryish but it's moist under the plastic, slugs do
collect there.

As an alternative to beer (or yeast and sugar and water, which slugs
also find attractive), you might try bran. Whether or not it actually
attracts them I'm not sure, and the idea that they eat so much of it
that they explode is one of those myths, but they obviously like it very
much when they find it and tend to stay on it feeding. So a ring of it
around the plant you want to protect may distract or detain them
sufficiently.

You can combine the bran and slug shelter approaches by leaving small
piles of bran under cabbage or rhubarb (or any other large) leaves or
plastic. This might increase the numbers you find during the day.
Unfortunately the bran goes mouldy and loses its appeal after a few
days, so you need to renew it. Porridge oats can also be used in the
same way.

In the end, however, I'm afraid my main method of slug control is to go
out at night - some people say the best time is around 2 hours after
sunset - with a torch and a sharp knife. Over a period I find that you
really do get the numbers down. As anyone who has done this will tell
you, slugs also feed enthusiastically on the corpses of their fellows.
So if you resist the impulse to tidy these away you may find over a few
nights that you get quite a build-up of victims in certain spots. It's
nasty but it's certainly organic.

In an emergency such as you describe, I'd suggest combining nocturnal
sorties with a bran barrier - with luck when you go out you'll find a
lot of slugs feeding on the bran rather than your ligularia.
--
Max Wright
www.wys-systems.demon.co.uk/plotcrop

Thanks for the tips.

I'm glad the beer trap doesn't get full marks - I was always a bit
reticent about wasting good brew....

I think I'll definitely go for the plastic shelter idea (in
combination with some sort of irresistable slug snack treat). So, one
final question. Assuming the slugs do congregate under the black
plastic, what is the best time of day to remove them? Morning, after
their midnight feast?

Lawrence

On 27 May 2003 00:49:39 -0700,
(Lawrence Tierney) wrote:

Thanks for the tips.

I'm glad the beer trap doesn't get full marks - I was always a bit
reticent about wasting good brew....

We use H*in*k*n for a high mortality rate.
Slugs love it, they die laughing.
I can't recommend drinking the stuff though
--
martin

I find Guiness very successful, I manage to get away with watering it down
(50/50) to make one tin stretch to 3 jamjars...and they absolutely love it!

(However, if you leave the jamjars full of drunken slugs in the sun for too
long, they stink like something very undescribable...!)

Jo.

"martin" wrote in message
...
On 27 May 2003 00:49:39 -0700,
(Lawrence Tierney) wrote:

Thanks for the tips.

I'm glad the beer trap doesn't get full marks - I was always a bit
reticent about wasting good brew....

We use H*in*k*n for a high mortality rate.
Slugs love it, they die laughing.
I can't recommend drinking the stuff though
--
martin

In message , Lawrence
Tierney writes

I think I'll definitely go for the plastic shelter idea (in
combination with some sort of irresistable slug snack treat). So, one
final question. Assuming the slugs do congregate under the black
plastic, what is the best time of day to remove them? Morning, after
their midnight feast?

Yes, though they probably won't move around very much during the day.

Max
--
Max Wright
www.wys-systems.demon.co.uk/plotcrop

On Mon, 26 May 2003 21:14:03 +0100, Max Wright
wrote:

As an alternative to beer (or yeast and sugar and water, which slugs
also find attractive), you might try bran. Whether or not it actually
attracts them I'm not sure, and the idea that they eat so much of it
that they explode is one of those myths, but they obviously like it very
much when they find it and tend to stay on it feeding.

And there was silly me thinking that the effect of the bran was to gunge
up their sticky pads and they didn't like it at all!

Huss

Grow a little garden

spam block - for real addy, reverse letters of second level domain.

In message , Hussein M.
writes
On Mon, 26 May 2003 21:14:03 +0100, Max Wright
wrote:

As an alternative to beer (or yeast and sugar and water, which slugs
also find attractive), you might try bran. Whether or not it actually
attracts them I'm not sure, and the idea that they eat so much of it
that they explode is one of those myths, but they obviously like it very
much when they find it and tend to stay on it feeding.

And there was silly me thinking that the effect of the bran was to gunge
up their sticky pads and they didn't like it at all!


It looks to me as though smaller slugs can indeed get stuck in it,
perhaps because they can't produce enough mucus, or perhaps because they
seem to have a tendency to go right into it, whereas the larger ones
just stay on the edge feeding.

HDRA recently ran an experiment in which they asked members to plant out
two batches of seedlings, one protected by rings of bran and one not.
Members were simply asked to quantify the relative amounts of slug
damage over a period of (I think) up to three weeks. They found a
significant benefit in the first few days but much less so afterwards,
as you might expect if bran goes off. As far as I remember they didn't
come to any conclusions about how exactly this benefit was achieved,
though. Was it because slugs don't like (or are incapable of) crossing
(fresh) bran or because they do like eating it (more than they like
eating seedlings)?

--
Max Wright
www.wys-systems.demon.co.uk/plotcrop

In the end, however, I'm afraid my main method of slug control is to go
out at night - some people say the best time is around 2 hours after
sunset - with a torch and a sharp knife. Over a period I find that you
really do get the numbers down. As anyone who has done this will tell
you, slugs also feed enthusiastically on the corpses of their fellows.
So if you resist the impulse to tidy these away you may find over a few
nights that you get quite a build-up of victims in certain spots. It's
nasty but it's certainly organic.

I'll vouch for it - myself and a pair of secateurs dealt with 100 critters
the first night, 70 the second 50 the third, then 30 then 20 then 10,
finally
it was difficult to find them in double figures.
I finally snapped when I realised nearly all the plants I had sown
direct into the flower beds had been grazed into oblivion by slugs. I was
sat on a low wall an hour after sunset contemplating what had become of
my night-scented stock etc when I started to hear a rising din of slurping
noises. A torch soon revealed a whole squadrons of slugs and snails
emerging from those cool, dark, damp places they inhabit.
I do hear that if you leave suitable objects on the soil that give
shade
and a safe place to shelter, slugs congregate under them and save you the
cost of torch batteries and nocturnal prowling - I've yet to give it a try.

Andy.

Lawrence Tierney wrote:
Hi there,

Looking for ideas for organic slug control - my Ligularia is on it's last
legs. So far here's what I've thought of:

1. Beer trap (can you use lager?)
2. Crushed eggshells around endangered plant.
3. Pinning down a sheet of plastic sacking (i.e. bits of a J. Innes bag)
near affected plant in order that the wee blighters will think it's a cool
damp slug hotel - ready to be removed at my leisure.

So any other ideas, comments, recommendations?

I have previously posted here in high praise of Nemaslug.
However, it doesn't seem to be working so well this year as
last, and I have little idea why. A couple of my runners
that I've just planted out have been eaten, and a few of the
beasts got into my plastic greenhouse (where they were, no
doubt, protected from the nematodes) and attacked some
marigolds and brassicae and one of the courgettes.
Fortunately they got distracted by an envelope that was
acting as a label, which they seemed to like the taste of,
and I picked them off that.

Rhiannon