Foolproof slug/snail eradication????

witch way? · Sat Mar 29, 2008 8:40 am

O.K. beer it is. I suppose if you've got to go .....

maggienetball · Sat Mar 29, 2008 10:14 am

justskint wrote: Slugs don't like soot & sawdust, so I am told. At the moment I am using large glass coffee jars as cloches to keep em off, they have eaten 50% of my spinach seedlings.

Use a glass jar with no air hole and the seedlings will probably overheat and die. You could try the top half of 2 litre water/cola etc bottles. They have a hole in the top and act as protection and a mini green house too.

They tried soot and sawdust in the GW trials and neither worked as a deterent. They didn't try the plank method though.

justskint · Post: # 92478Post **justskint** » Sat Mar 29, 2008 7:14 pm

Use a glass jar with no air hole and the seedlings will probably overheat and die. You could try the top half of 2 litre water/cola etc bottles. They have a hole in the top and act as protection and a mini green house too.

OOOOOh Thanks for that. Suppose I raise the jar slightly off the ground with spacers, Will that work?

multiveg · Post: # 92552Post **multiveg** » Sun Mar 30, 2008 11:09 am

Went out armed with torch and penknife. Carnage, well, maybe not that much as it started to rain again, so 40 slugs lost. I read somewhere that a slug can lay 500 eggs a year, so an early start on slaying.....

Enormous Sage · Sun Mar 30, 2008 11:55 am

justskint wrote:Use a glass jar with no air hole and the seedlings will probably overheat and die. You could try the top half of 2 litre water/cola etc bottles. They have a hole in the top and act as protection and a mini green house too.

OOOOOh Thanks for that. Suppose I raise the jar slightly off the ground with spacers, Will that work?

I do that - people collect plastic bottles for me to use as cloches.
I normally put a light sprinkling of slug pellets around the base of the plant and put the half plastic bottle on top.
It worked very well for the lettuces last year.... the local bunnies enjoyed the results very much.

maggienetball · Sun Mar 30, 2008 1:43 pm

justskint wrote: OOOOOh Thanks for that. Suppose I raise the jar slightly off the ground with spacers, Will that work?

I'm not sure. Hot air rises so I don't think propping it up at the bottom will help - just let the slugs in! Also glass is a massive insulator and in such a confined space I reckon your seedlings will die. I would swap the glass for plastic bottles to be certain.

Re: collecting slugs after dark...If you use the plank method you don't need to go out with a torch. Just collect from the plank in daylight. Minimum effort - maximum harvest.

justskint · Post: # 92563Post **justskint** » Sun Mar 30, 2008 1:49 pm

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Re: collecting slugs after dark...If you use the plank method you don't need to go out with a torch. Just collect from the plank in daylight. Minimum effort - maximum harvest.[/quote]

Hi Can I ask what the plank method is? appart from me that is!

maggienetball · Sun Mar 30, 2008 3:37 pm

It would be quicker for you to read this thread from the beginning rather than explain again.

missie moo · Sun Apr 06, 2008 8:57 pm

i use a torch and scissors. you have to be quick with the snails and snip their little heads off before they go back in their shells - the crunching of shell is just too unpleasant. also, don't look too closely at what comes out of the slugs (especially if you catch them on your strawberries).

i also had a slug bucket last year, with salty water in it, but i ended up with an awful gloopy mess and i didn't really know what to do with it (because of the salt); much easier just to leave the bisected corpses around the garden for the night creatures to look after.

jane