anyone got a 12 bore then?

Just been out to water my broadbeans and half the plants of dissapeared.. !

Unfortunately my garden space that I've picked to grow them in doesn't lend itself to leaving egg shells out and the covers I've got are probably making spreading slug pellets around impossible (as they can climb up it from where they touch the walls and fence etc..)

I'd rather not be spraying anything on, it there anything else I can do ?

Steve

Egg shells.

Mum's friend gets loads from chinese restaurant where she works and rinsed and crushed they make a great slug deflector. Sprinkle a boundary around plants, slugs won't cross it as too sharp plus stays put even after rain.

they are against the wall and fence so I'd have to cover the whole outside rather than just around them !

thanks anyway

Steve

Leave a couple of beer cans around with a bit of beer in the bottom. Snails n slugs love it. They die happy. Much happier than salt.

Cheers

Steve

Some gardeners swear by beer, but leave it in something like old saucers. They love it and drown in it from inside out! Wild life safe snail and slug pellets also work.

Mamta

well they've eaten my beans might as well give them a drink ! lol

thanks

Steve

One good slug deterrent are hairs, i guess stubbier the better, it sticks to the slugs and annoys them. So visit the barber shop ASAP.

At this rate the grandchildren with think a drunk has been run over by a gritting wagon ! LOL

Steve

Poor slugs! Do they know people are laughing at them?

LOL!!

Mamta

Hugh Fernley Whittingstall (River Cottage) is catching slugs with beer traps and is looking at eating them !.... has he been reading on this site ? lol

Steve

Ps they have purged them for a week !

Steve

I saw it, made me nearly sick just looking at all that slimy stuff!

Mamta

considering how unappetising Hugh Fearnley Whittingstall made them look on last nights episode of River Cottage, I don't think I'll be giving slugs a go...ever !... LOL

Even they struggled to eat them... which says a lot... lol

Steve

Beer works for snails too by the way. I have heard of people putting the snails to work instead of killing them. They catch them and put them in their shower cubicles to give it a good clean. Apparently they love the mouldy stuff that gathers inbetween the tiles. Ive never tried it though!

Cheers

Steve

You will have to let your shower get to the mouldy stage first, yuck! LOL!!

Mamta

I'm sure it would be easier to clean the mould off with one of the many household products rather than cleaning the sticky slime off that the slugs leave....

Steve

I think we can use the slugs in our compost bins besides earthworms as they are voracious feeders of vegetation and will degrade vegetable matter to compost much faster.

I must buy on of those compost bins, I haven't place for a whole big pile in my garden! I keep forgetting to but it when I go to garden centres :-(!

Mamta

Mamta,

I haven't got those compost bins --the reason-- nobody in my house (except me)will bother/remember to dispose organic waste into these bins, they still are not sure what stuff goes in green and brown bags..ha ha...talk about environment friendliness.

I need th bin, because I have alot of 'green' garden waste. It goes in Council's brown bin, so does get composted somewhere, but I could use it in my garden, if I made the compost.

just don't put out the brown bin to be emptied and use that?... lol

Steve

remember if you put slugs in your compost you will end up with hundreds of them when they multiply then raid your garden on a major scale

they are coming from somewhere... I've put out about 4 pints of beer over the last few weeks which is taking its toll on them but I still keep finding more and more....why didn't they touch any of the other plants before?.. its only the ones I want to eat that they seem interested in !

By the way, I keep spraying the tomato plants with diluted washing up liquid as advised and it does seem to be keeping things away... but it doesn't seem to bother slugs...!

Steve

I don't have many slugs, it must be all the crushed egg shells that I keep spreading over the beds!

It is rainy season here, good time for slugs and weeds. I just use slug pellets on the circumference of the planted area and green house, and this wall keeps them away.

My tomato plants in green house have gone crazy and were pushing against the roof which is 5.5 foot, with heavy heart I chopped the top of the plants today.