Only sensible answers please, I've got a massive problem with slugs?

Question

It's taken all year to get the garden full of flowers,and now the slugs have come and started eating them all.

I have been out and bought copper strips to put round the planters this dident work slug pellets they just turned to fungos, and salt again made a mess.

How can I find out where they are comming from if this isen't possible then I'm taking up all my flowers and I'm mooving, is there anything else i can try

Answer 1

Never heard of the slug-pub?  A can of beer, poured into a few saucers, and they will head for the beer, drink themm-shellfs Sil-llyy, HIC! and your plants will be ok.

Answer 2

I have it on good authority that bran filled jars or yoghurt pots are the answer.

Get cheap bran from supermarket/health shops and half fill your  container.........the slugs love it and gorge themselves,  its drys out their innards and then the birds eat them........healthy option for the birds.......you get rid of your slugs.........and its environmentaly friendly.........the problem with slug pellets is you cant control what eats them or the dead slugs afterwards..........many birds are killed by eating a dead/dying slug whos eaten poisonous pellets.

Hey Michael, I see your a big B & Q fan  Do you have shares? LOL

Answer 3

Beer, in flat containers, just like the answer before me

Answer 4

Ok pick them up to one corner of the garden and give them beer or just kill them or give them to some French people.

Answer 5

Go out when it rains with a plastic bag and gloves and pick them off your plants , as they come out in the dark and rain.I then put the bags in the bin so they go away to the dump as i haven't the guts to squash them , although one day i did find my eldest son setting them all free from the bin when i wasn't looking, good luck

Answer 6

Beer traps really work, also picking them off and dropping them into a bucket of saline. Another way to trap them is under half grapefruit skins, you get to eat the fruit and make an environmentally aware trap!

Encourage slug eating wildlife into your garden: thrushes and blackbirds eat them, so feed the birds, install a hedgehog home and dig a dewpond to attract frogs and toads.

Good luck!

Answer 7

get along to B&Q they have pellets that dont dissolve when it rains,i have some,but there are a lot of dead slugs around,still its better than no flora.

Answer 8

Beer traps & pellets do the job but you must be persistent. Other than that, put your rubber gloves on and go slug/snail hunting by torchlight after dark.  Collect all that you can (yeuch) and put them in a (sealed) bucket - when you have a good number - pass them on to someone who keeps chickens as they love them  (alternatively drop the blighters into strong salty water which will kill them).  Encourage birds and frogsinto the garden; mulching the beds with gravel, shredded holly or pyracantha, egg shells, or anything spiky or abrasive will also discourage them. I found that a ring of 'Deep Heat' around pots this year has saved my Hostas.  Good luck :-)

Answer 9

Just put a couple slices of watermelon here and there then go back the next morning, take a plastic bag with you and throw them away.

Answer 10

the pellets i use are,asda slug killer blue mini pellets £1-97 800g,mould resistant,they have worked for me,ive also been told about the beer in a plate,and a piece of raw meat in a tin can pierce holes around a tin can,put the meat inside cling film over top elastic band around cling film, place away from plants and its supposed to attract the snails and keep them away from your plants,

Answer 11

i know beer  kills them, but can be very mess!

Answer 12

Insomnia is correct.I bury a jam jar up to its neck in the earth,half fill it with beer, and hey presto,they cant keep away from it. got to be real ale tho,i think they love the yeast. Also put a bird table up to encourage birds to your garden.Thrushes really love slugs.

Answer 13

several ways u can deter them, introduce some frogs into your garden they love eating them, if ur plants are in pots put vaseline round the thick bit of the rim, & 3rdly boil some garlic cloves, then dilute the liquid with plain water then water your garden with the liquid slugs hate garlic

Answer 14

well, i haven't tried it yet, but they all say it helps - take a bowl, dig it in near your flowers and put beer in it. bowl should be as deep that slugs drown in it and won't be able to get out. they love the smell o beer, they will come from everywhere and drown in bowl. do not ever put salt on soil - it makes soil too saulty and flowers can die. if they haven't yet. good luck

Answer 15

Listen to everyone!  Use the beer trap, its cheap and easy!  Works every time!  If not, try getting the Seven powder and dusting your plants too!

Answer 16

After years of struggling with slug pubs, grape fruit peels, pellets, etc I gave up and bought some nematodes.  It's expensive, but well worth the money.  For the first time, I've got hostas!  I'd forgotten they were there because they are usually eaten to the ground.  I've been slug free for about a year, although the are now starting to return.

Look in a gardening magazine for suppliers.

Answer 17

The only thing that I have found to work is to go out at dusk, with a torch and pick them out one by one - its a gross job but its the only effective way. You can either then salt the buggers or seal them in a bag and chuck them in the bin. You do look a little like a wierdo while you do it but it is strangely addictive once you get going.