Saturday, 31 May 2014

Slugfest

The annual war has begun- we plant courgettes ( and other tender plants) and the slugs attack.This year we are armed with coffee grounds and ground egg shells.We garden organically so no nasty slug pellets are allowed. We shall see who wins. Jan put some barrier stuff round her antirrhinums which we bought today - evidently it is rather absorbent too.We shall see who wins us or the slugs...
By the way what do you chaps use?
On the subject of invasions I picked this uptown for a fiver-
Published in 2013 and remaindered I fear.
Looks an interesting read and inspiration for some games I fear...
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7 comments:

  1. Springinsfeld31 May 2014 at 20:56

    Slugs, and indeed snails (the latter seem to be more destructive as they can climb) are a right pain. We are keeping ours at bay using hen power, but realistically little else works. Those wool based thingies you are using seem to be the only organic remedy, although copper tape is a winner on potted plants. Perhaps make a plant collar out of a cut up plastic bottle and add copper tape to keep the blighters off.

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  2. Fitz-Badger1 June 2014 at 02:25

    I've heard some people use beer to deal with snails. Not sure how that works. Some sort of trap that the snails fall into, I presume. Maybe the same idea would work for slugs?

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    1. Springinsfeld1 June 2014 at 09:52

      and you can drink the beer afterwards...a no waste solution.

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  3. Kaptain Kobold1 June 2014 at 03:34

    "By the way what do you chaps use?"

    We use a duck and chickens, but they eat the plants as well :(

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  4. A J1 June 2014 at 15:59

    We tried the beer trick, but to no effect. Crushed eggshell works well as a fertiliser and slug deterrent. To a slug or snail it's like trying to crawl across broken glass. It does need to be refreshed from time to time, and we found it gets used up quickly.

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  5. AlFront1 June 2014 at 22:35

    There is only one method that works - napalm ! This year, so far, I have already lost all, yes, all, my runner beans on the allotment. Napalm !!!!

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  6. Jiminho4 June 2014 at 12:23

    Family tradition here has two answers for slugs. First is beer put out in a shallow dish, such as a jar lid. I think that the effect is that they have trouble maintaining the proper water pressure inside their bodies for movement and vital functions after having absorbed the alcohol ( I could be wrong but that made sense!). The second is diatomaceous earth sprinkled on the soil around the garden. This is simply the microscopic exoskeletons of blue-green algae. They are made of silicon dioxide (like glass, diamonds, quartz etc), are bumpy and sharp and are no doubt highly irritating to animals that move and eat by sliding on their soft tongues across the ground.

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