Up date on Gastropod molluscs
By bramhallbill
12 comments
I have a few plants being eaten by slugs & snails this month & last. I have had a few suggestions that are funny, practical and somewhere in between.
1/ Plant a wood…..On the basis that birds eat them. Might be ready for my great grandchildren…..
2/Make a garden pond…….Ah!! Frogs eat them too. Bit too long term. Too many leaves will fall in.
3/Drink lots of beer……What? Oh hang on…Little dumpy bottles like those from Belgium. Sink them vertically leaving just half an inch of lip sticking (also stinking) out of the ground. An inch of beer will catch everything tiny. I tried it. Some slugs got bloated & I had to throw bottles away. Need to look weekly /10 daily….smelly, messy remedy.
4/Egg shells…… My dad would fry 10 eggs for breakfast at weekends when we’d visit. Sadly I now find it very difficult to down one. Oh sorry….where was I? Too small a quantity to work.
5/Grape fruit…… I actually eat half a day and boy does it work!! I actually thought the grapefruit was a deterrent! I put some down on stones & the drive in the front garden & boy oh boy they go nuts for it! Face down tiny slugs crawl in. Day or night. Big ones later at night. Upside down in the back big slugs climb in at night. Generally the shell is full.
6/Nocturnal slug hunt….. It does work. One of our neighbours was a nurse and after she saw me with a torch late at night they moved away…..Oh where was I? Removing slugs not neighbours.
7/Cut them in half……. I have seen this…..but left in situ…ugh. Gruesome.
8/Squash the snails……Need lots of rain to wash it all away. Rain brings slugs & snails out…..boo.
9/Throw them back over the fence or into the road….. I’d throw them onto the road once about 30 yards & thought nothing of it until one of my friendly neighbours once said " You know I just don’t get it? I keep getting snails going onto my drive in vast quantities. and I have no idea why." They divorced & moved away……Waaaah.Done it again!
10/Catch them & take them to a field….. It has to be 2 miles away or they will be back. Can you imagine? “What have you got there?” "Just drive " “Is it a picnic?” “Drive I said” Disappointing trip….
11/Remove hiding places.Clear leaves,debris,clutter of empty pots. Really catch a lot & you can see them better…
12/From the Daily Express Aug 20th. (Amended for fun) Leave a board or our damp newspaper on grass and they will fall asleep reading. Turn over in the morning et voilà!
13/ Is an alert…Most eggs are laid in spring but during a warm, wet summer like the one we are having a second generation of eggs gets laid in August.
14/Put in salty or soapy water might look ok but it will be plan 15 as salt damages the soil…
15/Put them in the green wheelie bin….. This must be a sporting chance. The ones you catch on wednesday will be emptied on thursday……Just off to check!!
14 Aug, 2014
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Comments
Very funny you should put the words to music lol. I have been very lucky this year, we laid down a lot of shingle around the garden and this seems to of deterred the slugs. I also have a couple of black birds that hop in and out the plants and eat the blighters. The Hostas in the woodland bit of the garden has been munched to nothing. I don't mind so much down there as the ferns are covering up the Hostas so it doesn't look so bad. The only real deterrent I have found in the past is to get up at dawn and go round the garden and pick them of the plants. It is knowing what to do with them that's the dilemma, I'm afraid they get flushed away down the loo!
14 Aug, 2014
If you can wait until later, hunt around for hibernating ones - they gather together in groups in sheltered spots, stuck onto hard surfaces. . You can then load them into a bag or bucket and dispose of as you wish.
Used to get hundreds where we lived before and put carrier bagfuls in the wheelie bin (trying not to think what would happen when the woke up)
14 Aug, 2014
Wendylongfc I have green pellets that are 20 yrs old.......in the shed...will look at the type. New stuff is ok for birds, cats n dogs.
A dawn hunt Teds is something I'm probably allergic to.
Snails sit in clumps on my 2 brick wall & hide under ladies mantle as it droops over from the border. They are bolted on. Food for thought Steragram.
14 Aug, 2014
Years ago, I was given a tip by a very old gardener who had an allotment plot next to mine. Plant garlic, either around 'special' plants, as a border arounds beds or just haphazardly. I remembered this tip this year and went for the haphazard approach. The result? hardly and snails or slugs and lots of garlic for cooking :) :)
15 Aug, 2014
Hi Waddy that sounds like a good idea - will try it next year. Thanks for the tip:
15 Aug, 2014
Ahhhhhh Just remembered someone said crush the garlic mix with water and spray the area........I chickened out
15 Aug, 2014
Well now, I guess you could interplant garlic with lettuces and have it popping up between hostas!
15 Aug, 2014
I did just that Stera. My Hostas didn't get so much as a nibble and the lettuce had only a little nibble here or there :)
16 Aug, 2014
Bramallbill, what a funny blog. It sounds like the garlic is a good idea. We have been fortunate this year and been reasonably clear of the beasties ..... Probably fatal to say that!
PS I note the "snail catapult", didn't get a mention in your thesis! Worth a try, I would say. You may get them past the the end of your neighbours drive.
17 Aug, 2014
Well now, might try that Waddy!
17 Aug, 2014
Gave up hunting every night. Too wet or too cold. Anyway the Delphiniums bit the dust....Other stuff is OK I think
7 Oct, 2014
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Very funny - a great laugh - take it you don't like using pellets
14 Aug, 2014