Getting rid of slugs ... create a moat?

[Satori]

I remember reading last year sometime an article on getting rid of slugs from a vegetable garden, and it proposed to surround the vegetable plot with lengths of guttering to form a square and fill this with water ... almost creating a moat around the vegetables!

I was just wondering if anyone here had heard of this, and if so had they tried it too??

Thanks

Satori

[Wombat]

Nope that's a new one on me. Sounds plausible though.

Nev

[wulf]

It would probably reduce the amount that get to your crops... some slugs travel underground though, so it probably wouldn't be a cure-all.

Perhaps if you filled the moat with beer to attract them in for a swim...?

Wulf

[Wombat]

Perhaps if you filled the moat with beer to attract them in for a swim...?

Wulf

Careful with that.............it may have the same effect on one of your neighbours

Nev

[Welsh Girls Allotment]

I saw this on somebodies blog the other day, can't remember whose and they had created a raised bed and attached guttering all the way around and I think they had filled it with beer when I find it I will post a link

[wulf]

Careful with that.............it may have the same effect on one of your neighbours

If I had neighbours who would hop over the fence for a gulp of stale beer from a muddy gutter full of dead (but happy) slugs I'd be a trifle worried... !

Wulf

[paradox]

Ive heard copper wire placed around your beds will deter slugs.
I have never tried it myself though.

[Rainy]

get yourself a couple of ducks - slug problem solved

[Welsh Girls Allotment]

It wasn't on a blog it was in a book by the Allotment Goddess Caroline Foley ! I re-read it whilst in the bath last night

[Wombat]

Careful with that.............it may have the same effect on one of your neighbours

If I had neighbours who would hop over the fence for a gulp of stale beer from a muddy gutter full of dead (but happy) slugs I'd be a trifle worried... !

Wulf

Umm, that exactly describes some of my neighbours.........

Nev

[digiveg]

Hmmm... and that's why I don't live in Sydney...

[mithril]

Apparently slugs won't cross a barrier of hair. They can't slide over it! So maybe it's time to shave the dog or yourself...
mithril.

[multiveg]

Well, have been going on molluscicide sprees recently - found a health food shop that does cheap wheat bran (38p it was for 500g) and I put that down. There are masses of slugs and snails where I put the bait down, so it is then easy to take sharp implement and deal with them. Have also acquired a bottle of cheap beer.
On another gardening messageboard, someone said that Lawrence Hills used a mixture of beer, water, and sugar as bait - reported in one year 60000 slugs killed - wonder what he did with all those carcasses. One year, we erm, left the beer bucket with slugs, for a while - what a stench!

[Rohen]

A neighbour on the plot put out melon traps for the slugs and collected 150 slugs


eeek

Going to have to build beer moats this year

[the.fee.fairy]

i went to a boot sale and got 16 slug traps for £2! Bargain!
So...slugs...the war is on.

I'm going to put cheap beer in them. Quite quickly as well probably, they've nearly eated my carefully-saved pepper plants.