Forum Topic

slugs in the garden

Has anyone got any tips on getting rid of slugs in the garden, I've got hundreds of them! I hate them I cant walk up the path without standing on them. I had loads last year and they must've been busy reproducing. Yuk  they crawl up the glass doors leaving a slimey trail, gross. I've got a cat so dont want to use pellets (someone actually told me that would attract more??) and apparently dangerous if a cat/dog eats a slug, not sure how true that is either. If anyone knows please let me know I dont want annother year like last year, the slightest bit of rain and I cant sit out there. I do remember years ago something about beer in a plastic cup - that attract them then they fall in (p***ed I presume) and drown! Old wives tale or true?  

Marie Shelny ● 4771d18 Comments

And frogs - they eat slugs as well.Unfortunately, there is a critical shortage of frogs, toads, and hedgehogs in the Ealing area!

Tony Colliver ● 4769d

You're right.  Evidently they can do some bother to groud-nesting birds, but, on second thought, Tiddles might win that race :)

Charles Campbell ● 4769d

Don't hedgehogs eat baby birds, the suck their insides out or something?  They normally have fleas too which will get onto the cat.What about toads?  They eat slugs?

Bernadette Clover ● 4769d

What would be really nice for your garden would be to locate somewhere several hedgehogs to adopt.  They evidently eat up to a hundred bugs or slugs a day.  As Tony says, slugs can cause lungworm disease in dogs - can't find anything about cats though.

Charles Campbell ● 4769d

So either the slugs get it or Tiddles dies, no pressure there then!Fox's eat slugs, do you think thats why they always look so manky?When you put salt on slugs and come back a few hours later, they are usually gone, no trace, do birds eat them?  Is it a treat for them?  Sort of like salted crisps?

Bernadette Clover ● 4769d

Slugs can carry a worm which is dangerous to pets - well certainly to dogs though I am not so sure about cats.This includes the slime which alone is sufficient to infect a dog with a parasitic worm for which there is currently no treatment.It's a nasty way for a pet to go, so you may want to take that into account since you have a cat.

Tony Colliver ● 4770d

Poisonous to cats & dogs - allegedly.If anybody wants any I have 7/8 of a large container of them lying unused.

Tony Colliver ● 4770d

What's wrong with pellets?

Keith Iddon ● 4770d

Depends how much salt you use, but it wont do it much good.Slugs as far as I know, won't kill you, but unless you actually do something about them, they won't go away will they?  Asking them nicely to leave simply won't work.Tip salt on them and let them fizz or drop them in salt water, you can use a trowel to collect them.  I've already suggested "Circle of salt" to ease your karma.  Putting Beer or oatmeal in a jar will bring them all out in a 100m radius, but it will work.  Pellets are a no go for you.Oyster and egg shells are more used to protect growing plants rather than kill slugs.You could always collect them and eat them?

Bernadette Clover ● 4770d

I Know. I need to 'Man up'. Drink the beer thats for the slugs, to give me courage. And pick the slimey fat disgusting things up! But I'll be alright for this weekend the sub zero temperature will keep them away 'til at least wednesday. I've only got grass would the salt kill that?

Marie Shelny ● 4770d

Salt all over you garden would kill everything in your garden.You are going to have to pick them up at some stage.

Nigel Brooks ● 4770d

oh yuk. I was hoping for a less hands on remedy. I'm a wuss, couldnt pick them up even with tongs. I did pour salt on one once but I felt awful as i watched it sizzle. I have heard about them not being able to walk/slither accross egg shells which would be good to put a ring of them around a certain area but unfortunatley mine are everywhere in the garden, and I only eat about two eggs a week so I'd never have enough. So I supose its the beer in cups, and lots of them. God knows what I'm going to do with umpteen cups of dead slugs, I dont fancey picking them up either. I wonder if I sprinkled salt all over the garden would that work? I'm guessing that they live in the ground, so when they try to come up they will get touched by the salt? And die? Although some of them are hugh and might take more than a few grains of salt to kill them.

Marie Shelny ● 4770d

The beer thing works great.Best method is removal, so get yourself out there at night, use a torch and each one you spot, pour salt on it.If you feel guilty about doing this, draw a ring of salt around it, that way Sluggy chooses to end it.

Bernadette Clover ● 4771d

Crushed broken eggshells (preferably free range)sprinkled with salt. The shells both rip the slugs 'foot' and they are affected by the calcium and salt.Why free range? The shells tend to be thicker and more sharp than powdery when crushed. About 90% effective on my previously 'munched to oblivion' Hostas last year.

Nigel Brooks ● 4771d

Dig a small hole and put a pastic cup or the like in it and fill it with beer.They can't resist it...have caught hundreds using this method.

Keith Iddon ● 4771d

Torch, old barbecue tongs e.g., and container of choice.  Not a great evening pastime, but somewhat effective.  Your choice of disposal or dispersal.

Charles Campbell ● 4771d

I dont grow anything in my garden, Its really just that they are horrible pests, and I couldn't really say they have an area, they are everywhere. I dont have a fireplace but i certainly can burn a few things in the garden and spread the ash about. I presume this doesnt kill them, just deters them? I have had a few frogs in the garden, which i supose is their natural predator but the cat got the frog.

Marie Shelny ● 4771d

When I used to have allotments at Ascotts(behind St Mary's church), I never could deter slugs with the beer in a jam jar routine.  More sucessful was ash from the fireplace spread around the slugs area.

Gerry Tan ● 4771d