Best way to deal with slugs?

[TopBanana]

Coffee grounds are supposed to be good repellent and fertilzer. Go to your local Starbucks I'm sure they will give their coffee grounds away as it costs them a fortune to get rid if them.

A number of Starbucks have a big basket near the till full of bags of used coffee grounds which are free to take, they even say on the pack that its good for your compost heap of repelling slugs. Ipso facto, not only do starbucks give away the grounds they find a nice neat way of you taking them.

 

[viv1969]

A number of Starbucks have a big basket near the till full of bags of used coffee grounds which are free to take, they even say on the pack that its good for your compost heap of repelling slugs. Ipso facto, not only do starbucks give away the grounds they find a nice neat way of you taking them.

I've seen that too. Also I have a colleague who sits in there each weekday morning to enjoy her Kindle and her large coffee, and qhen she's done she takes away onw of their largest cardboard cupafull of grids to take home. She doesnt have a slug problem but says layers of grounds In her open compost heap neutralises more unpleasant aromas.

 

[Byker28i]

Every couple of nights, go out with a torch and pick them off the plants before they get truly started. I put them in my compost bin so they can munch in there.

 

[Serendipitous Sid]

I find that it's best to wait until the evening when the big ones tend to come out onto the paving, then apply the heel of a large welly sharp down on the rear 1/3 of the slug. With practice, it's more often than not possible to simultaneously turn them inside out and shoot the front 2/3 across the path in the manner of a rather messy Exocet.

If you then go back later, you may well find that the deceased's mates have turned up intent upon clearing up the remains, so you can get in more practice

 

[CaveDweller]

I've not had any slug problems since I tried the "safe" pellets earlier on in the thread. It seems to be working well and I've not had any nibbles, just plenty of death! . I just put a tiny sprinkle of them down the edge of the flower bed next to a stone dyke wall and they haven't even ventured onto the raised bed itself.

I'm not sure what effect these pellets have on birds that eat the dead slugs but apparently they're safe and the birds should be ok. I have plenty of feeders that keeps them away from the slugs anyway. Everytime I look outside they are full of birds attacking the nuts. Lazy birds can't be arsed hunting for slugs

 

[Ian D J]

I should imagine the local mollusc population are lapping up the current wet spell . . .

 

[andyo]

We've put copper tape around our raised beds (and also free-standing pots). Seems to workk OK and the constant rain hasn't made it peel off, so the glue on the back of the tape must be good.

 

[Steep]

I caught one in a mouse trap once, it was messy.

 

[DaveS2]

Take a walk around the garden with a salt cellar. Tip a little salt on any slug

Yep, a good way to dispatch them, they fiizz up, and dissolve into a blob like mass of jelly

Dave

 

[archangel]

Broken egg shells