Hedgehogs and slugs

Joined : 18 Jan 2008 Posts : 154

This isn't at all Avebury related, but is a bit related to the Orchid thread so I'm hoping no-one will mind too much.

I have a huge problem with slugs in my garden and was wondering if anyone had any tips. I am determined not to use slug pellets as I have a pond with frogs, toads etc and many visiting birds and am trying to garden organically.

So far I have tried:
Making a hedgehog house (the mice have moved in instead)
Putting out beer (too many slugs, not enough beer in the world!)
Eggshells (they just slimed all over the jagged shells)
Gravel (same as eggshells)
Sand (same as gravel - they haven't read the books!)
Copper impregnated weed suppressing fabric from the garden centre (expensive and the slugs still ate all the plants)
Copper tape around the rim of a pot (this did actually work, but no help for flower/vegetable beds)

The tips I haven't tried yet because I'm too squeamish are:
Going out at night with a sharp stick and collecting them by hand
Going out at night and mowing the lawn (my son's personal favourite, but sounds messy to me!)

Do you think Hedgehog sanctuaries let you borrow hedgehogs to eat your slugs for you? And how would you stop them wandering off to other gardens?! Pete, can I borrow the ones in your garden?

Can anyone out there help me to save my poor garden?

Question

Subject: Re: Hedgehogs and slugs Sat Jul 12, 2008 10:09 pm

no sorry, it took me years to get them into my garden
I insist slug pellets are the only thing with this epidemic...

I have bats flying around the garden this evening.
Damn hard to photograph tho!
PeteG

Joined : 18 Jan 2008 Posts : 154

Its not fair! I'm trying so hard to make a chemical free wildlife welcoming garden and all I get are more slugs when you've used loads of pellets and have lovely sunflowers, strawberries, and hedgehogs galore!
I'm going to sulk now! No, I'm going to have a G&T instead!
My only solace is that you are allergic to strawberries and have such a good crop!

lol!

Subject: Re: Hedgehogs and slugs Sat Jul 12, 2008 10:19 pm

your neighbors use pellets so they all come into your garden.
I have a friend in Devon who won't allow shooting on his land.
Everytime a shoot starts his cottage gets surrounded with pheasants.

I have a lot of grapes on my vines to make up for not being able to eat strawberrys.
I can have a good wine instead
PeteG

Subject: Re: Hedgehogs and slugs Sat Jul 12, 2008 10:31 pm

I had a house in London with very bad slugs - the huge black and orange ones. I got rid of them in 4 years by going out with a torch almost every night and killing them. I used a hand trowel - I put them on a flat stone and sliced them in half!
Hard but fair - that's me.

Joined : 12 Jul 2008 Posts : 321

I had this problem and though i hate slug pellets i use them every second or third year to keep the problem to a manageable level.
One of my customers has a liquid treatment that i cant remember the name of at the moment, you use it on the beds and it kills the eggs but isnt the solution for adult slimeys as it takes a few seasons to see the results.
when i use the dreaded pellets i try to clear up the dead ones every morning to prevent them being eaten.

Subject: Re: Hedgehogs and slugs Sat Jul 12, 2008 10:41 pm

the other option is to dig a large ditch around the garden 10M deep and use the spoil to make a bank.
Then erect a circle of stones to ..... oooh eeek!

PeteG

Subject: Re: Hedgehogs and slugs Sat Jul 12, 2008 11:12 pm

It's important to keep your plants happy,
PeteG

Subject: Re: Hedgehogs and slugs Sat Jul 12, 2008 11:22 pm

Bet they sleep well, though.

Joined : 07 Jan 2008 Posts : 471 Location : Wiltshire

Happy birthday for tomorrow Steve (almost today).

Have a brilliant day

best wishes

June

Joined : 07 Jan 2008 Posts : 471 Location : Wiltshire

This one is more sluggy!

Subject: Re: Hedgehogs and slugs Sat Jul 12, 2008 11:48 pm

Lovely pictures June. The Arthur Rackham one is brilliant.

Subject: Re: Hedgehogs and slugs Sun Jul 13, 2008 4:50 pm

do slugs eat fairies then?
I've seen one in my garden...

PeteG

Joined : 18 Jan 2008 Posts : 154

Thank you everyone for your input.

Megadread, I think the liquid you're thinking of contains Nematodes, which according to a 'slug problem website' you water onto your bed and the tiny creatures swim through the soil eating the slugs. I didn't realise it didn't do the adults though and I also don't know where you'd get it or how much it would be.

Steve, I'm too squeamish to kill 'em, even though the buggers are eating EVERYTHING! I did the salt thing once and felt terrible watching them melt.
Apparently handpicking is very effective for Prince Charles, but he has a team of dedicated gardeners! Unfortunately I'm a bit of an intermittent gardener!

I think I'm just going to have to give up and only plant things they DON'T eat - any suggestions? The only things left in my garden at the moment are Foxgloves, Snapdragons, Lobelia (although they liked some colours better than others!) and Pinks, although they ate the Carnations.

confused

Joined : 18 Jan 2008 Posts : 154

Joined : 12 Jul 2008 Posts : 321

Rose its not a nematode treatment. Theyre very expensive and usually useless.
Im working there tomorrow, i'll look for it if i remember and get back to you.

Edit: just found this but havnt had time to read through it.

http://orgprints.org/10232/
http://www.slugitout.co.uk/slugbattleplan.htm

Joined : 07 Jan 2008 Posts : 471 Location : Wiltshire

Thanks for posting this topic Rose, it is a subject on which I have a lot of experience - the slug/snail bit anyway. I have a small walled patio garden with flower beds around the edges. When I first moved in I planted away but the slugs ate everything. They particularly like the colour yellow - I tried everything (except slug killer) but they always got the better of me. I've given up now and just plant shrubs and herbs in pots. The slugs/snails easily climb into the pots and the only things they don't seem like are rosemary, lavender and bay - I have had those for a few years now. So my little garden has gone a bit wild with honeysuckle, jasmin interlaced on one side, ivy on the other and blackberries growing in from the bottom - I do try not to tread on the snails when I go out there but I sometimes hear the odd crunch coming from underfoot.

Hope you like the picture by Arthur Rackham - taken from a facsimile copy of Alice in Wonderland. I thought it tied the slug/poppy theme in quite well. (I may have to re-size it as I think it may be too big).

Subject: Re: Hedgehogs and slugs Sun Jul 13, 2008 9:07 pm

Terrific pic June - thanks!
Surely, that's me in my reading glasses...
Lovely illustration, but I can't figure what mushroom that's supposed to be. I always assumed that in Alice In Wonderland it was supposed to be Amanita Muscaria - the Fly Agaric:

There's supposed to be a 19th C written account of someone taking Fly Agaric mushrooms and hallucinating being very big and very small. Rev Dodgson is supposed to have borrowed that idea after reading it. Unfortunately, I can't remember any of the details - but it's true.
Trust me, I'm a musician.

Subject: Re: Hedgehogs and slugs Sun Jul 13, 2008 9:12 pm

Going back to the slug problem - you can use 'sacrificial planting'. Slugs seem to like Hostas more than any other plant, which is bad news if you like Hostas.
On the other hand, if you don't like Hostas, you can plant some of them in pots and move the pots around to where the slugs are - the slugs will then eat the Hostas, instead of the plants that you want to keep.
Probably.

Joined : 12 Jul 2008 Posts : 321

An old man i used to know swore the best solution was to scatter chopped lettuce round the back of the borders out of view, never tried it myself but sounds like it may work. May also just fatten them up and attract more. !

Joined : 07 Jan 2008 Posts : 471 Location : Wiltshire

And now for something completely silly:-

Have taken a day off work waiting for the very wonderful British Gas to come and fix my boiler. Someone turned up about an hour ago but without the necessary parts which, it turned out, hadn't actually been ordered. What a shower (I wish).

Subject: Re: Hedgehogs and slugs Mon Jul 14, 2008 2:55 pm

very good June

Subject: Re: Hedgehogs and slugs Mon Jul 14, 2008 6:40 pm

Joined : 12 Jul 2008 Posts : 321

Here's the product june, not compatible with organic gardening though and cant be used on edible plants.
Active ingredient Metaldehyde

Edit: That should have read heres the product Rose.
Sorry for mistaking you for a slug killer June. What a Face

Joined : 07 Jan 2008 Posts : 471 Location : Wiltshire

Wonderful sunflower picture Pete (and also the poppies - I didn't notice the smiley faces at first).

Thanks for the information Megadread but how could I when my garden is full of these

I just have to avoid treading on them, which is quite hard.

Joined : 12 Jul 2008 Posts : 321

??? They're just as bad.

Subject: Re: Hedgehogs and slugs Mon Jul 14, 2008 8:04 pm

a council workman was watching a snail when an old lady walked by he suddenly grabbed his spade and promptly flattened the snail.

The old lady went mad yelling, "your a thoroughly horrid, despicable man!"
to which the council workman replied
"he's been following me All Day!"

Joined : 12 Jul 2008 Posts : 321

St fiacre Says

Joined : 18 Jan 2008 Posts : 154

Megadread, thanks for the tip, but metaldehyde is one of the poisons in slug pellets that I'm trying to avoid. Apparently a lot of vets see ill dogs because of the two main slug killing chemicals although 90% of a slug pellet is dog biscuit in order to attract the slugs so I'm not surprised. They made them bright blue to deter the dogs, but dogs not being the brightest creatures in the world still eat them.

I might just give up on plants and acknowledge that I have a slug sanctuary in the making - I've counted at least 5 different species so far!

Joined : 12 Jul 2008 Posts : 321

did you see this link Rose.
http://orgprints.org/10232/

Joined : 18 Jan 2008 Posts : 154

Oooooh I like the sound of that ferric phosphate stuff - where do you think you'd get some?

Will my plants get rusty after application though?!

Joined : 12 Jul 2008 Posts : 321

ferric phosphate pellets
D'ya want me to come and apply them as well. Wink

Joined : 15 Jan 2008 Posts : 850 Location : Surrey

Had a word with Gina and this is how to make 'Garlic Juice'..

Boil one whole head of garlic for ten minutes or so in a pint of water..

Let it cool... Crush garlic down until in mashed..

Strain juice into a plastic drinks bottle.

Add two cap-fulls of juice to one gal of water and water plants..

Tony

Joined : 12 Jul 2008 Posts : 321

Sorry to turn this into gardeners question time but i have a question for tony.
I have a small patch of red thread on one of my lawns, been told it hasnt been fed this year other than 1 treatment of lawn sand in late april. To me it appears to be mainly a bents and fescues mix with minimal rye on a sandy bed, i'm informed its been top dressed for many years with a 70/30 mix and its very free draining. Im guessing the almost constant rainfall we've had in the last month is the cause plus lack of nitrogen. But i'm no expert.
Any comments. ?

Joined : 15 Jan 2008 Posts : 850 Location : Surrey

Joined : 12 Jul 2008 Posts : 321

Thanks tony.
My greenkeeper left just as i got this customer and its the biggest 'quality' lawn ive had to date. I picked up a little lawn knowledge over the years, probably more than i think really but it's always reassuring to hear it from an expert in the field.
Im pretty reliant on off the shelf stuff at the moment as im in dispute with Ri**y Ta**ors over a delivery charge. Do you know any other companies who supply bulk dressings and lawn products up't narth. scratch

Joined : 15 Jan 2008 Posts : 850 Location : Surrey

I haven't dealt with Rigby's for years...

My last contact was with DFL sheerwater. But, for me it was about Service... The Man did what He said He would do... Plus 10% off book price..

It would have been greater, but I only had a £2500 budget..

Tony

Joined : 12 Jul 2008 Posts : 321

Cant seem to find any thing about them on the net, do you have any contact details.

Joined : 15 Jan 2008 Posts : 850 Location : Surrey

Joined : 12 Jul 2008 Posts : 321

Thanks again tony. Will give them a ring when the need arises.

Joined : 18 Jan 2008 Posts : 154

Joined : 18 Jan 2008 Posts : 154