Here's a great way to get rid of pesky salad munching slugs and snails without the use of chemicals.
Crush up eggshells and sprinkle them around the stems of plants, you can cook them in the oven for a while to dry them out first if you like.
Sprinkle used coffee grounds in the same manner and you can also use ‘Cosse de Sarrasin’ which is supplied as a pretty up your pot mulch but has a similar effect on critters as it’s light weight and dry.
Soft bodied pests like slugs and snails hate these things as they stick to their bodies and prevent their progress.
It's working like a charm and my courgettes, aubergines, chillis and basil are very much happier for it!
It also helps to water in the morning as they like wet ground and come out at night.
How are you managing to keep them at bay? Any other tips?
Take an old jam jar and bury up to its neck in the ground.
Tip in a small amount of beer.
Fill the jar to 2/3rds with water.
The only two issues are;
a) more beer is more effective but it kind of hurts to serve beer to pests so I dilute mine
b) having to tip away the resultant mess of slugs when the jar is full.
Having tried every natural deterrent I’ve heard about (including the above) and also resorted to using the (totally useless) slug pellets recommended for organic gardening, a friend told me yesterday about something he’d tried as a last-ditch effort to save his lettuces. It worked brilliantly, apparently, and I was wondering if any of you other keen gardeners had given it a go and could comment.
It’s polenta
The story is that the slugs eat it, swell up inside and explode. Sounds fanciful to me but since I have some in the cupboard and neither of us can stand the stuff, I was thinking of trying it…
Have found that rather expensive Nematodes work. I had a major slug problem in Scotland, after a few years of using the nematodes I had considerably less slugs/snails in my vegetable beds. Then used them only every other year and still had relatively few chewed veggies/potatoes/strawberries.
Nematodes are only dangerous to slugs/snails. All other wildlife and pets and kids are safe.
As I said expensive, but well worth it. Have started using them in my French vegetable plot last year and this year and it seems to work a treat over here as well.
P>S> I don’t mind the odd nibbled plant… I only use them in my vegetable plot, not the flower garden.
Reporting back on the use of polenta against slugs - jury is still out. Can’t see much depredation but can’t see any evidence of dead (or exploded!) slugs either
Diatomaceous earth is totally useless once damp, so not recommended in the garden. It can be used in the fur / feathers of animals to help treat fleas or, God forbid you should need to, it also kills bed bugs, but anyone who’s experienced that problem will probably laugh in the face of mere slugs.
I imported a bed bug from the filthy garret where poet friend of mine was living the Chatterton life [but not death]. I’d wake in the morning dotted with bites all over.
A bed bug’s day [or night] begins when the bed warms up when dinner has tucked in. One night I waited 20 mins and then, holding the duvet tight under my chin, drawing my knees up to create a tent, I loosed off a whole can of Raid.
However, I am going to try the stuff I have and let you know…
