General Chat

Why don't slugs like weeds???

I mean, if they liked weeds, then they and us could live in perfect harmony, learn to love each other, even.

But no. They like plants, delicate young, tender, plants... I have saved the plants, but only by mass murdering the slugs and snails... and it does go a bit against the grain... in one little spot there were over 30 of the creatures this morning, in various stages of demise... yuk!!

So now I feel like Attila the Hun!!

Love

Daff xxxx

Hi Daff, Did i read somewhere that they like beer
or was that my husband asking for a can while
watching footie. Emmax

Hiya Emma... yes, to both, probably, lolol... I have tried everything.... but the pellets are best... they are ones that break down in the soil, and are bird and wildlife friendly... I know we have thrushes, so I have even collected them, and put them in the garden near a flat stone as a sort of thrush fast food outlet, lol.... I gather the eggs from the bottom of pots and put them on a saucer... the blackbirds and the robins fight over those... but still they flood into my garden.... Grrr!!!

And please don't get me started on caterpillars..... they have already started the munching!! The poor Horse chestnut has already been hit badly, and it has only just thrown out it's flowers! By June it will look like it is Autumn, with brown leaves and conkers only half formed.

Love

Daff xxxx

Daff,I don't know why but we have never had a problem with slugs.Not that I'm boasting or anything lol.We have the odd few but no major probs.

Aha Daff what a sweet nature you have. I have committed mass murder this week also and have been happily picking up dead bodies and dumping them in the bin....lolol....well, it is them or US!! BC XX

I do feel for you Daff and remember when I had a garden
it was my pride and joy, a labour of love and the best hobby
ever. Nature is a wonderful thing slugs an all. Emmax

Slugs and snails do eat weeds and decaying greenery in the garden.....but as long as we keep supplying them with the equivalent of " caviar " ( in the form of succulent tender new nibbles ) then it's not much surprise that they go for it ........lol

I've resorted to the dread pellets in the odd area of the garden ( my hostas and my pea seedlings ) . It's a war we can never win but have to carry on fighting or give up........and I'm not a giver upper..............lol

Wmsl at Jane..... oh no, not boasting!! Well, next meet, I'll bring you some, lolololol ;¬)) I like to share!

BC.... I would fill a wheelie bin with these, lolol.... I have been scooping up the bodies and chucking them over the fence.... it is woodland, and there is nothing there they fancy, lol.... In my last house, I tolerated them, they weren't too big a problem, and I did as Lord Titchmarsh suggested and threw them into the compost... they eat worms, but there were lots of worms and only a few slugs,and snails, so a balance was kept... plus they were helping in the composting as well.... but here they have found their own way into the wormeries and the compost heaps and in such large numbers that the worms would be decimated, so I have to scoop them out.... they even get brought into the house attached to Hermie's fur.... gross!

Emma, it is worth the angst for the pleasure of the garden, I have to say...

Love

Daff xxxx

~~~~~~~~~ to Amanda.... well, I wish they would concentrate on all the tender young weeds shooting up!! xxxx

That's very kind of you Daff.I'll swap a few of your slugs for some of my Chuggy Pigs,that seem to love my lounge.I have no idea where they come from.

i envy you all with your gardens. picture this front garden
tarred back garden slabbed.easy to keep now for two not
so able folks.we do have plants in pots scattered about
which is lovely but to be able to look out and see all
your hard work giving so much please.priceless.emmax

our mam slug hunts, armed with salt and a torch on a night its so funny, ya go over hers on a morning n there is salt all over were she has been out late at night getting the little bligters lol xx

Now, Jane... are those the little armadillo type thingies which curl into little balls?? We call them Wood Lice... don't have any in my house yet, but there are loads outside.... I am not sure whether they are naughty or nice in the garden... but they are in the wormeries, too.......

Lolol Stray... I don't use salt here... far too many, but would have done so in the past, until Saint Alan said to chuck 'em in the compost if there aren't too many...... they will love you for it!

Love

Daff xxxx

daff get pond,,,slugs dont last long with frogs an toads,

mind I dont let spawn develop I throw it out..:}}}}

or do some yeast in a jar below ground level.......plop.!!

Yes Daff,they are Wood lice.I think they may get in through the air bricks and then get up through the edges of the carpet.I find them dead all over the places ,especially under the settees and chairs.Little blighters.I actually quite like them ,but just not in my lounge lol

Kay, it's strange you should say that... hubby and I were just discussing it.... this area is a haven for frogs and suchlike... when we were digging over the bit that is now our vegetable garden, we actually found some newts... we moved them over to the boundary with the woodland... our house is built on reclaimed marshland.... and we virtually border a protected wetland conservation area. We have even made sure that there are gaps under the decking, as we seem to be part of their migration path. We have deliberately put in a woodland area, in one corner, as the scrub behind the fence there is very marshy..... and we get loads of frogs there in the early summer..... I also think there are a couple of toads, as well... they were definitely bigger and uglier than the frogs.

We also have 3 hedgehogs, they do the rounds every evening... ignore us, and walk straight past us, lolol

I reckon it is just something I shall have to get used to....... it is the nature of the area I live in.

Love

Daff xxxx

Lol Annie.... sounds like a good idea... I only have one hosta... it managed to survive most of last summer with lots of vigilance and blue pellets, lol.... however, one night.... well, it was got at!!

I didn't throw away the pot it was in, I was very lazy about *tidying up* the garden last autumn..... and yesterday.... there it was, unfurling in all it's splendour!! I have now placed the pot onto a good dosing of pellets, and also put a ring of it around the outside... as well as a sprinkling on the soil itself.

*sighs happily*

Island, I don't have neighbours of that type, lolol.... on one side, I have lovely neighbours, who have such a high hedge of Clematis Montana that nothing can get over it... except my cat Jethro, but that is another story... and at the front, well, he is sort of 90 degree angle to me, so my front border is along his house and back garden and driveway... but he is into wildlife conservation, and also has a Koy Carp pond - I know... we have wondered ourselves how that contributes to natural wildlife- that extends along most of our boundary... and half a massive Horse chestnut the rest... but even if it was, it is the wrong area as the problem is at the back and the side, not the front.

But... at the side and the back of us is woodland and rean (drainage ditch, but very pretty, lol) and masses of trees, ... plus lots of spots which collect water run off... parts not boggy also have estuary clay.... so I think that the habitat is conducive to slugs snails, toads, frogs and newts.......

I think I shall just have to grin, bear it, and conduct a bit of Guerrilla warfare!!

Love

Daff xxxx

It sounds a great place. I love loads of trees,have
been called a tree hugger in my time at least i
think it was tree hugger. Emmax

I love it... the trees aren't mine, they belong to the local authority, although they are an absolutely beautiful *borrowed landscape*.... and hide the massive pylon really well in the summer, lolol!!

Love

Daff xxxx

NOOOO don't use slug pellets. Especially if you have hedgehogs in your garden. They eat slugs, even if they've eaten the pellets, so you'll be poisoning them too. Birds eat slugs too.


Grit usually stops them, and beer, they love beer, they crawl into the cup and drown in the stuff. Just pour some cheap lager into some clean yoghurt pots and sink them into the soil near your plants.

TW I promise, these are safe.... they have to be, as I have the cats.... they bring in all sorts, and Hermie has slugs clinging to his fur a lot.... I took all the proper advice!!

Also.... hedgehogs get some sort of nasty bug from slugs and snails, which can kill them... it would seem that it is better if they have alternative food sources available, according to a site I was reading up on last year....... and so, guess who gets cat food in the summer, lolol.... Mr and Mrs Tiggywinkle and their podgy offspring!! I caught Mr with his snout in the catflap a week or so ago.... lolol!!

Love

Daff xxxx