Wednesday, July 23, 2008

Dealing with slugs

Since we got frogs, I can't put down slug pellets any more. Returning from our week away, we were ravaged by slugs in our absence, so we have declared war.
We have been baking egg shells in the over, and surrounding seedlings - seems moderatel successful. Also trying broken mussel shells - but we have seen slugs crawling over them. Stapled copper tape on the raised beds - and have seen slugs crawling over that too.

So the best solution has been to go out at dusk, and pick them up, and throw them over the wall to the green area behind the garden. Or else add them to some salted water. The weather nhas improved in tandem with this, but the number we have caught on any given night has reduced sharply since the first few nights, where we were finding more than 100 per night. And the plants seem to be doing better, though dwarf sunflowers seem to be particularly susceptible.

Next year we are resolved to go slug hunting from March on...

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2 Comments:

At 4:06 p.m., Anonymous Anonymous said...

Hi - try using used coffee grounds, it seems to be working for me, luckly? my OH is friendly with the local landlord who saves them for me

 
At 7:58 a.m., Blogger Anna Bee said...

We have used coffee grounds in the garden for about a year now, we collect every week from a local restaurant (Gallery 29, in Mullingar). However, they are not a guaranteed way to deter slugs, in our experiecne, though they are great for a mulch, and the worms really love them.

 

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