$%**&%$£ SLUGS/SNAILS

[jewelflower]

$%££"& **&*^^%  **(&&^?@ SLUGS, @@{**&^&% @@^^&%$%£ SNAILS &&*^^&%%$£ my baby melons  >:( , all my french marigold seedlings. :( >:( >:( >:( >:(

can you tell what's happened  ::) ::) ::)

keeley

[jewelflower]

[supersprout]

Oh grue keeley :'( :'( :'(
Did you get the culprits?

[lorna]

I expect you just said "Oh bother!!". How annoying, I did a bit of weeding this evening and found one or two of my flower plants had been eaten to ground level..
I was going to leave my melon and marigold seedlings out tonight but after reading your post they were put back in the greenhouse smartish!!
Hope you have got some back up seedlings.
Lorna

[saddad]

Some times Planting out looks like the first day of the Somme when you look round a day or two later.... our regime of Nematodes, midnight hunting with a torch and slug stoppa granules and beer traps has just about brought it under control! after five years.... how I hate overgrown plots nearby but I will not resort to the little blue pellets.......
:'(

[Rosyred]

Are those little blue pellets ok round veg we eat as they brake down in the end and go in the soil?

[Jill]

Our garden faces south; our neighbours' garden opposite faces north.  They have always had a problem with$%&^ slugs and snails, and we never have - until this year, that is.  Daffs, hostas, a whole brunnera and alliums (or should that be allia?) have all been chomped in our garden and them opposite are loudly and gloatingly boasting slimy critter-free.  Organic slug deterrent granules didn't do a thing.  May yet have to resort to the dreaded blue pellets.

[rosebud]

I went out yesterday to do another basket and i found what was left of a petunia just a stalk where a plant used to be, Lorna of course i said " oh bother".

My Alliums have been really eaten badly, i also am moving towards using the little blue pellets , just waiting untill the birds have finished with the nestboxes to be on the safe side.

[kevs plot]

Does anyone know of any pellets that are safe to other wild life (frogs/newts/birds) but work on slugs and snails?

[MollyBloom]

Rosyred, the blue pellets are (allegedly) safe for humans in the sense that we don't actually eat them whole. I can't really say what the hazards are when they break down into the soil and the residue is taken up by plants which we then eat (maybe someone else here knows?). The objection to using them is more about protecting wildlife. When birds, hedgehogs, slow worms (etc) eat poisoned slugs, they get poisoned in their turn. Also, some creatures will actually eat the pellets themselves. I use them (very sparingly - about a dozen pellets spread over one square metre) under enviromesh where the slugs can get at the pellets but other wildlife can't. My main way of controlling slugs is a nightly Slug Hunt (big jar of salty water, old kitchen tongs, goodnight Vienna...)

[cowpie]

We’ve been using ferric phosphate pellets. They are truly amazing. All our slugs are dead!

You can buy them in B&Q as “Growing Success Advanced Slug Killer”. They’re non-toxic to wildlife and they’re organically approved.

Has anyone else tried these? The results on our allotment have been spectacular.

[Jill]

Thanks Cowpie ;D.  Will try those before resorting to the blue ones.

[Rosa_Mundi]

Yes. Growing Sucess worked well for me = they break down into fertilizer.

[lottief]

Just started with the Advanced Slug stuff myself, they're brilliant!

[Robert_Brenchley]

I might try that; the only place I use pellets is in my cold frames, and I don't even like doing that. One slug in a cold frame can do a lot of damage though.

[loulou]

try kids lol  my two go out in the day time moving the stuff in the garden and when they find a slug or snail they pop it in to a plastic box with lid and for every on they get they get a penny in there money box (cheep i know but they come back with at least 50p worth a day each ) we then put then out for the birds r give then to the lad down the road for his chicks they get 50p from him too this week alone they have made 2.50p  they love it

[lorna]

loulou two entrepreneurs in the family ;D?

[supersprout]

brilliant wheeze loulou! 8)

[jennym]

The slugs around here are pretty ferocious and determined - planted out some courgettes, next morning this is what I found  :( despite grit and a beer slug trap.

[Doris_Pinks]

They have now eaten 3 trays of my lettuces, and that was on the top of a 6ft plastic, holey shelf, do they come with grappling irons or summit??
Jenny you have my sincere sympathys. :(

[supersprout]

oh lordy jen those pictures are really harrowing, poor you :'( :'( :'(