 Anonymous wrote: | |
My garden seems to be a nightmare for slugs - last night alone I collected up 62 of them.
i've only just planted out my lettuce and runner beans and already they're having a field day
i set some beer traps but I worry it will actually attract them from elsewhere
Have you got any advice?
|
|
Hi anon,
Slugs love the moist warm air we have been getting lately as they need to keep their exterior moist. Molluscs are prone to desiccation, drying out, so dry or absorbing surfaces will help. Ways to help deter rather than kill generally include dry or sharp surfaces such as fine sharp gravel or broken eggshells. These stick to the slugs underside, making travel difficult ,but unfortunately slugs are very determined!
Deterrents that distract or provide an alternative would be beer traps, soaked bran and upturned grapefruit halves, empty ones. They all draw the slugs to them and allow you to collect the pests before they can lunch out on your treasured plants so need to be placed carefully away from your priceless collection but near to places where they hide during the hot sunny daytime. These methods won't all kill them but only act as a meeting place of sorts, so, unless you collect and dispose of them regularly, they will still be there to attack when they get hungry.
Beer traps, plastic cups such as the types dispensed by office drinks machines,are sunk into the ground so that only a small lip stands proud of the soil, and filled with stale beer will draw slugs like magnets and the slugs fall in and bloat up. Generally this will eventually kill them but some still manage to slither back out, given time, so again, persistent collecting is required.
I am not so gastropod friendly and will happily kill slugs on sight or by pellet control, although I do use organic, animal and child safe pellets.
If you decide to follow this route too, please remember that molluscs, such as slugs and snails ,make up a large percentage of bird and mammal diets, so either collect the corpses and dispose of safely ,or use pellets that won't poison the natural predators if they do consume the dead.
Alternatives start to approach scientific levels with copper tape or rings being praised in trials and many people are now starting to try them out at home but bands of copper can prove expensive, especially if sited miles away from sight on an allotment plot!
Copper causes a sharp electrical reaction between the band and the slug's mucous membrane, giving the pest a quick shock and repelling it.
As I say, try the traps but empty regularly, if you use pellets, go for the safe ones and finally, keep weeds down and space the plants well apart so that there is less cover for the slimey creatures and more open ground for the birds, frogs and hedgehogs to spot and eat them!
The Green Knight
|