Kitchen Garden Forum

I've just lifted the flattened out manure bag which was acting as a protective cover over my oldest compost heap. I've counted about 25 small black slugs and about 15 of the big brown monsters all clinging to it. They're now on my bird table and I shall make a point of checking this regularly in future to prevent them migrating onto my nearby vegetable patch. By the way, does anybody know whether tadpoles eat slugs when they're still at the swimming stage? If they do, they can have these nice big juicy steaks. I know frogs do, but unfortunately they usually lurk in the undergrowth which is precisely where I don't want to place these tasty morsels.

Primrose

Tadpoles survive on green algae round the pond edges and nibble away at pond plants. They won't eat slugs until they are fairly big frogs.

Thanks Alan - that's as I suspected. Still the birds have had a feast, especially the magpies.

Reading Primroses post, this is a good way to keep on top of slugs, leave some items about on the soil like slates or the like, check every so often and sqash any slugs you find hiding, it's surprising how many you can get over the growing season.

I had my first nocturnal slug hunt the other night and caught two bucket fulls including about 5 different types of slug, striped snails, small ramshorn type brown ones and lots of golf ball sized brown snails.

The daffodils were the worst damaged plants, I got 27 slugs off one clump, and then the Arabis and Aubretia seemed to have lots of baby ones.

I took the slugs for a walk along the road and tipped them down a wooded banking in the hopes that the hedgehogs and song thrushes will find them and have a good feed, and hopefully they won't find their way home.

Would it be impossibly mean to take a pair of scissors out with me and cut them in half?

hi poppingjay my hubby has a pair of scissors by the back door specifically for this purpose YUK! I by contrast have a pair or somewhat battered solid silver sugar tongs which I keep in the same place, they're the perfect tool for picking up slugs and snails which i toss in the frog pond(don't think they can swim?)
I'm not posh I just don't take sugar.

Hi MM,
And there was me visualizing slimy Sugar!
JB.