Kitchen Garden Forum

In the June issue we have Edwin Oxlade and Bob Sherman talking about their preferred slug and snail control methods. What are your favourites and how well do you find they work?

TNT

For the last few years, I have used the "Growing Success" organic slug pellets.
Safe for pets and wildlife, but the best bit is the slugs crawl away to die. You don't get loads of corpses

Last June or next June?
I don't want to rake over old ground but one of the reasons I let my subscription lapse was because the issues arrived about six weeks before the month stated on the cover.

My slug patrol are so cute, six indian runner ducks, they have free run of the garden all winter and are excellent predators of slugs and snails .... but I keep them away from my lettuce, they are rather partial to lettuce!

My ducks have now been banned from eating snails - I'm hoping to start making anti-wrinkle cream

http://www.thesun.co.uk/sol/homepage/ne ... Milan.html

Like PJ, I have used the "Growing Success" organic slug pellets almost since they appeared and "Growing Success" nicely sums up their effectiveness.
My main defence though is to remove hiding places and avoid having vulnerable plants. I do the first by not using mulches and keeping bare ground between plants hoed and I have concrete rather than grass paths. I do the second by doing very little direct sowing by raising most plants in modules, bigger plants can tolerate the odd nibble. The pellets come in mainly for the roots like Carrot, Parsnip and Swede that I do sow direct.
I do sprinkle a few pellets in with the seed Potatoes, not sure if they are supposed to reduce keel slugs but I do seem to have had less trouble. You can use Nematodes against keel slugs but frankly I think they are too expensive to be worth the bother.

Just to reply to Stephen.
We did ask this question of readers whether they preferred their mag earlier. At the time the general concensus was people liked it this way so they could plan ahead so we didn't change it. However, we have recently been looking at this again. As far as the editorial team are concerned we would prefer to be a bit more in 'real time' as we are working on the June issue now and this makes it difficult taking pictures. We sometimes have to take seasonal pictures now for use next year.
Changing the magazine 'on sale' date is also more tricky than it sounds for many technical reasons but it can be done.

As i didn't get my reply printed in K.G magaazine, for favourite tools, ( i suppose this was down to Lady Lettuce not wanting to keep showing me favouritism) , i will try again.


I just like to keep things simple regarding slugs and snails.
Just place bits of wooden board, slates or tiles around several places on your plot, slugs and snails love to hide under these.
So just check them at regular intervals, and deal with your findings however suits you.
This isn't a total control, but it certainly keeps the numbers down.

LOL Alan, yuk I do feed slugs or snails I find to my ducks but hate the feel of that slime.... yuk yuk yuk!
I read today that they are attracted to wilted comfrey leaves, I also put organic pellets on wilted lettuce leaves - before I plant any tender plants, catch them before they can do any damage !

Dear OH, you are so naughty giving poor Lady Lettuce all those editing jobs!

I use the Growing Success and found it absolutely wonderful last year as that was my first real attempt growing and therefore trying to control the pests. I shall be making excellent use of it again this year.

And for the record, I would prefer the magazine in the appropriate month so I can get on when inspired by an article rather than worrying about if the author was writing for the month on the front, or the month we would be reading it...

Wellies and a torch. I go out every evening and jump on them!

The only problem this year is I'm working away from home and my OH (Lyndon) doesn't share the same approach, so we (he) may resort to alternatives during the week, but the blighters will be caught short at weekends!

Thank you everyone for your great replies and OH I have made sure your reply is being published this time. Was remiss of me last month to leave you out! As Brucie says on Strictly come Dancing... "You're my favourite"

Torch, rubber gloves and bucket. If I'm feeling kind I take them for a walk to the end of the road and tip them over the railings for them to take their chances with the hedgehogs and song thrushes. If I'm feeling cruel I half fill the bucket with water with a good squirt of washing up liquid in it. They drown very quickly with the washing up liquid in, whereas if you just use water they try and climb out.

I had to quickly check what remiss meant, not a word we use very often out in these sticks.