Thank you, this is a really good video, the best I have seen. I can walk out and slide on slugs there are so many, most the size of the palm of my hand ! I will move away the smaller ones, but not the invaders. (My husband won't let me have his beer :) Also I agree, it harms benificial bugs. We have never used chemicals at all. Cannot buy the natural product anymore as it seems one is able to make bombs with it !!! I know my method is awful, but it is free, just requires a bit of effort. I am afraid I chop them up with scissors. Just as humane. I do not enjoy doing this. Thankfully the glow worms deal with the snails. I loose count after 200 slugs or so. By the morning other slugs have eaten the bodies. i Imagine I would need a beer barrel to cope here :) Most of the enormouse ones are not indigenous to France anyway. Our area is humid and wet. At present it is impossible to even contemplate a vegetable garden :( I long for a wildlife pond. Though we still have lots of frogs and toads. Thanks again, and good luck everyone.
Same we had in Ireland just so many. Collecting them and dumping them a few hundred meters away does work well and you do not have to feel bad about killing them. Just be mindful of the people down the road :) Make sure to collect all the baby's.They will hatch once the mothers do not put a slime on the eggs. They can eat a lot as you will all of a sudden have 10 times as many for a few weeks. But just keep collecting and in no time you will have broken their cycle. I usually start collecting 4 -6 weeks before planting. Every other day.
hii, what natural product did you meant by "Cannot buy the natural product anymore as it seems one is able to make bombs with it !!!" what method you meant by " I know my method is awful, but it is free, just requires a bit of effort." what do you meant by glow worm deal with snail ? didn't get you. " Thankfully the glow worms deal with the snails. I loose count after 200 slugs or so. By the morning other slugs have eaten the bodies." i am in germany, it is march now, wet and cold.. slugs are building up population now feasting on weed and whatever i hav planted thanks andrew
human can't win slug war.. that's why God created helpers.. like chicken , duck, frog... by pure human effort, it is back breaking. i did picking for 1 month at night till 2am in the morning.. after 1 month of resting.. they came back with vengeance. andrew
@@workwithnature I'm trying to find some information on the lifecycle of the slugs and the idea that the mothers are putting hatch-inhibiting slime on the eggs. Where can I read more about this? Does this apply to all slugs, or a specific variety?
@@workwithnature only thing that actually works are the iron phosphate pellets. Beer traps, hedgehogs and handpicking can only get rid of individual slugs. Mechanical barriers dont work at all. There are enough videos on youtube of slugs that just move over copper, egshells ect without problems. BTW: Iron phosphat is usually used in combination with EDTA which is toxic for earthworms.
Im glad I found this video as it proves to me that Im not the only one mad enough to go out late at night with a torch and spoon. I dont want to kill them. Everything has its place. Ive built some 3 ft high raised beds this year so Im going to try the method of connecting copper wires to a 9v battery. Happy growing :)
A good way I have found to collect slugs is to lay news paper in an area near the garden dampen the paper then lay a piece of ply wood over the paper. The slugs will hide under the ply wood each morning where you can easily collect them.
I love how your favorite method is the most labor intensive, but you prefer it because you don't have to kill them. Like oh my gOD you're so preciously cute!!!
You can also attach two metal wires half centimetre apart all around your raised bed and attach the wires on to a low voltage battery. as soon as slugs or snails go over the wires they get electrocuted and immediately turn back. It is 100% effective. You just need to put the battery in a small weather proof plastic container. Even a small 5 volt battery will do the job.
We've found that egg shells crushed up are really effective as a barrier. We have a strip several inches wide around the perimeter and also under our pots. If you let your friends know you need egg shells you'll get lots. Just put the used shell back into the egg carton when you've cracked it and before you know it you've got a dozen shells to use. They don't wash away easily and they add calcium to your soil. But our most effective barrier is sheeps wool. It's covered in lanolin which makes the wool greasy but it burns mucous membranes so slugs and snails won't go near it. You can put it under pots or around your fence once you've gotten control of the slugs in your garden. Lots of farmers will let you collect scraps when they're shearing or even buying a bad of raw fleece is cheap. It'll be a bit smelly but it's just fertilizer on the wool. Weigh it down with rocks or make a nest under your plants. Let me know how it goes for you.
You are so kindhearted, it shows on your #1 choice, I tend to be nauseated 🤢 at the end of picking a lot of them so I’ll use iron phosphate this time. I had used DE last year, it didn’t seem to work for me on my raised bed. Thank you for an informative video.🌷
An ammonia/water spray ( 9pts water to 1 pt ammonia) sprayed around the leaves and bases, heavily, early in the season and often, at dawn and dusk will greatly reduce the numbers. Like with all methods you have to keep it up occasionally .
I've discovered just by chance. After using baking soda powder with water mix for fungal diseases for once a week for a few weeks, all the slugs were gone for about three years (I guess the acidity kind of hurts them somehow), and now I have started to get them back again. So 2 Tbsp of Baking Powder per Gallon of water and spray on the leaves and on the ground around them / The stem + Coffee Grounds (whenever possible) which I mix in a bucket of water to water my plants with.
Leane Garden Is it baking soda or baking powder? I'm confused because first you say baking soda powder and then baking powder when you give measurements. I have a big problem with slugs and need help. Thank you!
Baking soda makes the soil alkaline and coffee makes it acid, they might not like the ph to high either way. I'll try baking soda for my plants that don't like acidic soil and coffee for the ones that do.
@@purrrrson What will and won't work, depends on your soil type and weather. In California, the citrus growers make bands of copper foil to go on the tree trunks.
Thank you for lots of great info on subtracting the 'bane of my gardening experience' at our little farmhouse. How wonderful it would be to have hedgehogs here in N. Carolina😍
Love this video and am enjoying the comments from across the pond! I live in the U.S. and slugs and the brown garden snail are pests in our gardens. I just released decollate snails to eat juvenile brown snails. They also eat slugs, but not always. Copper bands are also often applied to fruit trees in California so as to discourage the snails.
I've tried several of these things. The best solution that I've found is collecting by hand. It turns my stomach 🤮, but it works very well. My garden was completely covered in slugs a few years ago. I went out when it was dark, with a spoon and a container, and collected 100 slugs!!! The following night I got another 100!! They then went "on holiday" to the edge of the wood, about 300-400 yards away. The numbers haven't been that bad ever since, although there has been quite a lot this year, so I did another night collection. That was a few years
slowly roast the eggshells first then crush them in a pestle and mortar, then they are a fine mix of rough and powder and it really works then, but wait until you have saved a lot of shells for maximum effect
thanks this was just great.I am just starting using the mulch method and can see that slug control will be a challenge .but with the weed control alone i think its worth it.cheers
Wow that is really interesting. Thanks for sharing. I would love to try that too. Slugs can be such a problem when I use mulch. But I always use it as it has so many other benefits. I guess the wool would add a lot of nitrogen too.
I have never tried the needles and pine combs. Sorry can't help you there. Straw does attract slugs. They love nesting in it. I always think. It is more important to add a layer of cover like straw, than to have less slugs. I take the straw off on my beds, a month before planting and that does the trick ;) Hope that helped David.
Another good method to round slugs up for capture is to place your used corn cobs on the ground. Slugs find them irresistible so it's just a matter of getting the torch and scooping them up. Best Wishes, Brendan.
Many thanks for the information. I particularly love your idea of using shrub bramble clearance and then placing it around the base of the individual plants. For potted seedlings using a rim of copper wire around the whole tray that the individual pots reside within is another idea. Both ideas acceptable for Buddhists or those who would prefer not to purposefully and unnecessarily kill.
This is a great compilation- thank you. I think it is the best discussion of this topic so far. I have heard that ducks are super effective and unlike chickens, don't destroy a lot of what you are trying to protect! :) Of course, you have to protect ducks from foxes at night. Toads are also mega effective but the trick is that they sometimes wander off. I will try more pellets this year. One thing you haven't mentioned is nematodes. Apparently they are very effective and target the slugs and snails, as opposed to earthworms and other beneficial creatures. They are more expensive to apply across large areas. There is no one method and a little more work is usually needed to produce better results in most things. ;)
Hello Nature Boy, Yes I encourage the visiting hedge hogs, (two hog bunkers, but no babies) I feed with cat food in early spring to give them a boost. I also have a breeding frog colony and I believe they eat the slugs too. Still too many slugs, so I do the night time thing with a torch - neighbours laugh! but I am afraid I tie they up to die in a plastic bag, revenge for all the havoc they've reaped! I crush any snails and leave they on the path as I believe the early birds will feast on them.
nice tip for plants in pots, mix handfull of table salt with a jar of vasaline, and spread the vasaline salt mix around youre pots, snails wil leave the plants in the pot alone.
Slugs absolutely love oats and bran. They gorge on the stuff - but they can't digest it very easily, and it swells in them and they die of indigestion! Safe,ecological (birds, frogs and hedgehogs love 'em!) and very effective! Renew every couple of days, particularly after rain, as the water makes the cereals swell, then it's obviously not effective.
Righty-o I'll try some of each. Do you suppose I can train them to come for breakfast when I call them or ring a bell? That would be cool. I might even like them if they could learn something. For now, I'll appreciate the American Robin that hangs out on my porch roof when s/he sees me in my yarden (front yard converted to food garden). That robin has learned I'll toss slugs onto the road for her to feast on. I truly hate these slimy strawberry eaters. Bleccch!
Here in Oregon, they travel well over a mile at night!...the slugs we have here are almost 8" long! Now to get them to stop off at the Boring Tavern for a few beers, will solve a lot of problems! I don't salt em, I slice em!
Horror Slug story: One time my little daughter (about 3 years old) comes into the kitchen, from the back door to the back yard, where she had been playing, with a brown snake wrapped around hand! Luckily upon closer inspection it was only a very large slug.
I use two different methods from those you've outlined. Unfortunately for the slugs, I shoot to kill. 1. I screen some mature compost through 1/4" hardware cloth (screen) then spread about one cm. thick around my emerging beans etc. The slugs crawl onto it, can't lay down a slime trail because it coats their body and they can't crawl away - out comes the sun - et voila - escargots. This is quite effective and only has to be done while the plants are tiny seedlings. If there is heavy rainfall, I will go and gently stir the packed down compost to loosen it a bit. 2. This method kills most any bug it touches, but since it is a contact killer, it won't harm the bees. Mix 1 part household ammonia (actually liquid nitrogen) with ten parts water and spray on the ground around the plants. I've never burnt any foliage doing this, and have never tried to wash off any overspray. If there are slugs on the plant, I spray the plant too. great for earwigs too and army worms and tent caterpillars. Also use for Leek moth on my garlic - and I use BTK here as well. This is also good at the end of the season when my hostas have died down. I take up the dead leaves, then spray the ground around the plant crown and out a distance. It kills the eggs. If you don't take up the dead leaves, the eggs won't be exposed. You can put the dead leaves back for "chop and drop" mulching, but I compost them,
I like that you don't kill the slugs .. I think I would cover the seedlings at night especially. What about surrounding the soil around each plant with coffee grounds and/or orange peels? Would they still eat them?
Yucca extract and peroxide will work on some. Pot feet and a moat will work, as will hanging plants if your area is dry enough. If I had an issue with seedlings pots etc, I'd put them up on racks with each foot of a shelf in a moat. Those wire shelves orchid growers use would work well. You'd only have to put a small piece of wood or something in the moat to keep the metal out of the water.
Great ideas. I use slug pellets, beer traps, and now and then at night drop snails into beer traps. chickens soon, I will save for their breakfasts. I saw video copper wire stapled around whole raised bed attached to 12v battery. lasts well over a season. protect battery in plastic container.
You are much kinder than me - I agree a night-time hunt is the best method - I take a torch and a container of salt water to put the slugs in - this method plus copper tape works wonders.
My Granny always kept an old baking tray in the oven that all the eggshells went onto. Every time she baked anything, the shells got baked. These were emptied into a pot and crunched up. When the new growing season started, she sprinkled them all round the soft plants. (I don't know if it worked or not, she just did it)
My slugs hate coffee grounds. Used coffee grounds. As soon as they sense it they leave town..It's free, is not affected by weather, and builds soil..save those coffee grounds..
@@TheFourthWinchester Thanks. I keep hearing from others that they put the coffee grounds in their compost first and not directly in the soil. Good to know.
Egg shells work pretty well if you use a lot of eggshells. ALso first dry the shells out thoroughly and crush them up pretty finely. then scatter around young plants.
Thank you for a really good video, very helpful as I got myself another allotment two days ago. I've always wondered if we're doing something wrong if your plants get eaten, after all wild plants can live with slugs.. just a thought :>
The beer traps I use out in my larger garden. They seem to work well. But I get slugs and snails in my greenhouse and they have been eating my cauliflower and seedlings lately :( Should I try the oats? I have slug pellets but I sprinkle them around the outside. And I don't like using pellets because we have cats and Kind of afraid they might ingest. (they haven't yet, but still a bit in the back of my mind) Chickens are on my list to get someday! Unfortunately we haven't allocated space and arrangements for chickens yet! Too much other stuff on the to-do list. If you have any recommendations besides collection, for greenhouse slug/snail problems, I'd love to hear them! I can't find them when I'm in the green house. the few I do find, I chuck back out into yard.
I have noticed that when you restrain watering for few days and then water the bed copiously with RO water, the snails come out of the soil to the surface where you can pick them and kill.
Dear all thanks for your tips, as I did not want to make the video to long I stuck to ten. Please continue to post your thoughts on what works for you. My number one is still the one I would recommend, as it is both humane and works the best for me so far. Cheers David.
Watching your video gave me a thought. Have you tried putting your plant pots on a tray of sand? Like that the pot is constantly surrounded by sand and slugs won't crawl on or underneath it
Based on the speed a 4" slug moved in our trial of copper stripping -- about 7" per minute -- it would take that bad boy 6.29 days to cover a mile. (Or my quick calculations were wrong.)
If you are going to try eggshells, first bake the eggshells in the oven for about 30 minutes to harden them up, they will be more effective as sharp deterrents.
we use a mixture of dried tobacco leaves boiled in 1 ltr water and copper sulfate mixed in 500ml of plain water added to it( 25 grams of leaves and 50 grams of copper sulfate in 1.5 ltrs water)
We do not have hedge hogs in my area but we do have garter snakes which do a great job and will live in the mulch. Notice the slugs like to travel on the smooth plastic. Which is one of the disadvantages of planting in plastic. Also be careful not to leave a hoe highway from one bed to another.
No prob, Try to bring them on to quite a large stage before planting out. This is a good idea with all slug sensitive plants. But just be vigilant, use the methods in this video and they will become less and less. But with slugs you can never let your guard down. They will come back in full force next year no matter what you do.
For instance my current house has allot more slugs because we have an orange tree a lemon tree and a grapefruit tree so it is hard to keep them away. I would say the coffee and seaweed work well and hanging them from a ceiling is a brilliant way to keep slugs completely out of your garden
tried loads of stuff here and thought nothing would work but but just caught slugs climbing up the wall and on to my sunflower leaves. devious blighters.
In my experience the best method is going outside at night with a flashlight, a rock and scissors. The rock to smash the snail shells to give other animals a feast. I only find shells in the mornings. The scissors to cut the slugs in half. I've found that they produce enough slime to wiggle out of salt. Baking soda will kill slugs better than table salt. Each snail with eggs inside will be about 30 eggs so it's important to also destroy the eggs. They lay eggs at the base of plants to feed the babies when they hatch. Reducing the eggs will drastically reduce the population. Snails are much easier to control than slugs for sure.
Thanks for the video it was very informative! Do you think the same techniques would work for snails? We have had a lot of rain recently and my snail population has exploded. I haven't seen any slugs though. Thanks again :)
I put on disposable vinyl gloves, get a large container about one third full of vinegar. Pick up the slugs, drop them in the vinegar and.they turn to slime.
Very informative video but to make a beer trap, use a plastic container with cover / lid .Just cut out two little windows so just slugs go in. Bury the container in ground.
thanks i go out in the garden around 11pm and remove as meny as i can find then i throw them far as i can over the fence bottom of the garden its waist ground any idea where to find hedge hog love in my garden
Hey thanks that works good too. Also against like every other "pest" :) Mice rabbits pigeons cats who like siting on them oh and I even had chickens have a go :)
I tried Diatomaceous Earth one year (still have 1/3 of a 50lb bag). It appeared to help but was gone after each hard rain. I am really interested in the sheeps wool.
Hi iv always got slug problems,iv bin told that pine cones and pine needles are good, say a handful around the stems of cabbage ect...what you think? im going give to a goings season .annd im going mulch the beds with straw.would staw attract more slugs.?enjoy your vid's
I think its good to put your egg shells in the oven for ten mins and dry them out. Then put them in a bag and roll it with a rolling pin into a fine dust and then spread it all around the base of the plants. It works. I have had much better results than just breaking up egg shells into random size pieces.
Ah thank you so much! last year the slugs and snails ruined my pumpkins, could anyone give me a tip on how to protect them? i live in England so the climate is quite cold :)
Had a masssive problem on allotment this year even though I used nematoids. Seedlings and stuff in trays i keep off the ground on a stand and you can put copper wire/tape around the legs of the stand to stop them climbing up. making slug homes means you can usually make them congregate and make iteasier to find and kill them. Beer and coffee grounds will be this years effort as well as pellets
Best slug defense? Make sure you have a strong roof support, then suspend all of your seedling pots in trays with wire/string from the roof support. You will get zero slugs on your seedlings.
Fair Warning! I set out beer traps ~~ snobby slugs supposedly like only fresh beer~~that night there were hundreds all over the containers taking advantage of that 1" left above soil level. yay. Next day there were only a few ACTUALLY drowned in trap. I left it for a few days and OMG. The stench was horrific! It was the honest to goodness smell of death. Like a corpse. Of course, I freaked out and poured it out into the hole the trap had been set in. Guess what? Yep, baaad idea because now I need to dig out the smelly dirt! So, what have I learned from this? DON'T LEAVE THE BEER TRAPS OUT TOO LONG!!
Use slug pellets which are approved for organic gardening during slug population peaks until natural predators are able to regain control and then discontinue use. Beer traps attract slugs from all around who are attracted by both the beer and the slime of dead slug bodies which they also consume, creating a continual slug black hole right in the middle of your garden. Beneficial insects will also fall into the beer traps, whereas organic slug pellets are specific to slugs and snails.
leave your egg shells in the sun for a couple of days, this will harden them and make the edges sharper, that when the slugs clime on then they get cut and it discourages them from continuing you can bake the egg shells also.
one word: sediment. they go wild over yeast, so get brewing... put the sediment in a sunken yogurt pot. i drop the varmints that i pick living into a compost bin.... the dead ones too.
Be better running the eggshells through a food processor for more efficient coverage plus calcium absorption to the plants....my favorite is epsum salts for magnesium dehydrated banana peel & disintegrated egg shells as prevention also of blossom end rot in tomatoes
I have just been advised by a friend that placing a half piece of grapefruit in your greenhouse will attract all the slugs to it where they can then be picked off at night. Might be worth a try???
In there book Soilfood web, They go into how some can travel up to a mile. It is obviously a bit of an exaggeration. But the main point is don't just toss them over the hedge ;) David.
Yes, do not be fooled by biology. For example oyster fisherman thought they were killing off oyster eating starfish by chopping them up and dumping them overboard, where each starfish body part regenerated a new whole! Best tact is to change the environment around your plants to something the slugs can not tolerate.
I had a problem with slugs and snails eating my tomatos n i put quite abit of crushed egg shells around the plants and i havent seen a snail or slug on them in over a month so egg shell does work atleast for me ive now put some around all my plants just save n wash them as you eat eggs n just throw them into a tub to dry then crush them up they will add up quickly
