Slug Problem

[minnie pal]

Yes, you know i am in a confined concrete yard, well I am not but the slugs are!
My yard is all concrete with a raised bed at the end. I think the concrete is not allowing the heavy rain to drain away through soil and also a high north facing wall too, so the raised bed is never in sunshine really.
What can i do to get some drainage in here, will it mean to try get rid of the concrete as i wanted anyway.
There also seems to be lage concrete slabs at the entrance which are slopping away from the tiny house and i think that is there for one good reason - to prevent flooding back into the house.
SO, if i wanted a flat even patio I wont be able to do it on the level for flooding reasons, eh?
Any bril suggestions, I can live with most things, except breeding slugs!!!
xminnie pal
Oh, two people have told me I have 'mile a minute' on my north facing wall and it seems to be growing up a trellis from next door, do I tell her it will devour everything or do i just rip away all i can on my wall, it doesnt seem to be going toward her but seems to be attracted my way!!! yeh, i get em full blast it seems.

[paddyp]

I stayed in a victorian terraced place that was like that nightmare!

You can do some diy beer traps (try google) for a start.

Secondly slugs hide near sources of food so you can provide a convenient hiding place for them - get a plank of wood and raise it slightly over the ground for them to crawl under.

Flip it over in the morning and leave them for the birds or scrape into the bin.

You will have slugs coming from neighbouring gardens too. You can get a slug fence for about 30 euro on ebay if you run this along the top of the adjoining walls if will keep the slugs out o your yard. If you have a stone wall you could consider rendering it to remove hiding places and food sources. Power wash algae from concrete and slabs to remove food source.

[colmsmum]

I'm having this problem too, they're everywhere! I have decking and gravel, no grass. They come up from under the decking at night and I've also seen them on the gravel, it's like walking through a mine field if I go out to the bin. I don't know what type of ground cover would deter them but I do find the beer traps are great, much as I hate killing them at least they've passed out before they're knocked out, well I like to think anyway!

[User_Friendly]

Just sprinkle the ground with common household table SALT. They will avoid it and will NOT go wherever it is. In a short time they will relocate and look for somewhere better to live (probably with you neighbour!).

SALT will work. Try it and let me know how you get on.

[abba]

Hi, salt will work however the salt burns the slugs so either way you will still have to pick them up. I use the beer trap and at least they die happy :-)) an idea might be to ask your local garden centre how they controll this problem. regards abba

[User_Friendly]

The salt works perfectly well. It only burns the slugs if you actually put it on them and then you'll have to pick them up. Like I said sprinkle the ground with salt, they will avoid contact with the sat (because it burns them). They will move on - ask a garden centre! This is a gardeners cure and you'll be SOLD something if you go to a garden centre (Shop) which most likely won't work anyway. I'm just trying to help.

[Greeneyes]

Hi There

Personally I am against the salt idea. I know slugs are "pests" but they are living beings too and have as as much right to be here as we do.

Imagine if you were a slug and before you knew it, you had wonderded into a load of salt and you were dehydrating so quickly that you can not get off the salt and then you painfully die of thirst...I do not know, it is just me....I am sensitive.

So I use fresh holly leaves. The slugs can not climb over them. I am growing pumpkins now and once I surround the stem of the plant with one layer of over lapping holly, then the slugs stay away...

Green Eyes

[wheelbarrow]

I also have a problem with slugs. I put ½ tea cup of milk in a large plastic bag, ie.
Manure or coal bag and leave it where the slugs are.
Go out around 1 or 2am and collect a bag of slugs

[User_Friendly]

Oh My God. I have nothing against slugs.....in fact I'm a very peaceful person and I wouldn't wish to harm any creature. But can I put it like this..........slugs won't JUST wander into salt (because it burns them). Would you wander into a forest fire? No. I didn't think so. The slugs will look for somewhere else to go instead of into the salt. It's a way and method of guiding them elsewhere not some crazed idea for a fry-up on the patio.

Anyway before I get labelled as a mass murderer of the entire World slug population and before this whole post get too slugish, I'm away now to throw salt over my shoulder for luck!

[minnie pal]

that last post had me in absolute knots of laughter!
Gee, humans put glass on top of walls to keep out unwanted humans, well bit illegal now, but deterrants which dont kill I am all for.
slugs like humans (!) are needed where ever they are wanted. Say so to our politicians!

[cathy]

I may be wrong , but slugs are a danger to dogs.I have no problem sprinkling the ground with salt.
Im going to try it.My hubbie put down"killer" and we had loads of dead slugs, which where never removed.They turned into maggots..now that was a kill or be killed situation.
It was my hubbie or the maggots, one had to go.
I miss my hubbie...
haha.
no must make sure you remove the slugs dead or not,
cathy

[User_Friendly]

I'm not sure if this is true and I wouldn't wat to put it to the test BUT..............handling slugs is supposed to cause warts to occur on your hands.

Like I siad don't if it true but I wouldn't change Juggling them for the hell of it.

[Anfearisfearr]

Slug juggling,a new passtime? Beats dwarf tossing.

[messy tessy]

Put sum beer on a lid that can hold the alchol and watch them take over any very easy to dispose of slugs and lid with out touching or plain old salt

[minnie pal]

I have two, one is 'normal' the other food obsessed. that one, the psychologically challenged has been 'off' and not eating her food and seems fatter but not herself.
I cant watch all the time, I am supposed to be sick!!!! Would she be eating slugs or trails or whatever?
How do you do a quick disinfect of a filthy inherited corpo yard. I am immune compromised and I have a rash on ankle and wrist. When i ended in A&E last night due to slip and slit on a knife (ACCIDENT) i showed it to doc and he thinks its an allergy. This yard now is sommut else and needs to be debugged of the worst bugs, its absolutely filthy.
When we have all the right nature in place i am sure the good bugs will get the bad and i shall be good too!!!
xminnie pal

[keno]

i WAS TOLD BY MY VET ,ONLY USE HOUSEHOLD BLEACH TO WASH DOWN A YARD. NOTHING ELSE AS ITS TOO DANGEROUS FOR DOGS. I NORMALLY DO IT LAST THING AT NIGHT AND THEN ITS CLEAN FOR WHEN DOGS GO OUT IN THE MORNING.

[kiwicooke]

Would jeys fluid work with the cleaning? we used it even in our old house before we were getting a dog because previous tenent had a cat and we were afriad of the dog getting parvo virus. Worked well.

[summersun]

Oh My God... Minnie Pal and User Friendly..... I think you will both hang me when you discover how i kill ... oops sorry dispose of these pests... My beloved plants are infested with GIANT SLUGS..... and i mean giant.... they can demolish my treasures plants in a matter of nights....


I wont be very graffic... but it involves a skewer.... a roaring chimena and the sound of sizzling and popping ... call it the revenge of the plant owner.... thus is far far better than salt... as there is no gooey disgusting slime much to clean up after.....


sorry user friendly.... but i go all the way to Waterford and Wexford once a year for my beloved plants that i cant get in frosty Monaghan.... so i cant have them killed off by slugs before the frost does....


Rainy

[User_Friendly]

Hi SummerSun

I have an idea that might work and that just might give you a little tickle in the right place! Why not get an industrial type gas blow torch and sizzle and pop the little blighters while they're actually on your plants. I'm sure that you would be more than happy to see the little buggers get incinerated and sent to sluggy heaven. But you'd want to careful else you might singe the delicate leaves on your precous plants.

Why not send a few of those plants to people who have a slug problem? If the sluggies like your plants so much wouldn't they all climb on board the plant. Then you could just throw the whole lot into the fire plant and all!

[summersun]

Ha... User friendly .... if i didnt know better.... i would swear that you were my husband.... your comments mirror his exactly.... the only thing that you forgot to say was ... if the slugs managed to eat all my plants ... it would cut down on the amount of water i waste on them....

I love the pyromania bit... but i have heavy duty safety surface out the back for the kiddies ... and i dont want to end up in the local paper under the heading "Mad Woman burns down house trying to irradicate slugs..."



SS









Hi SummerSun

I have an idea that might work and that just might give you a little tickle in the right place! Why not get an industrial type gas blow torch and sizzle and pop the little blighters while they're actually on your plants. I'm sure that you would be more than happy to see the little buggers get incinerated and sent to sluggy heaven. But you'd want to careful else you might singe the delicate leaves on your precous plants.

Why not send a few of those plants to people who have a slug problem? If the sluggies like your plants so much wouldn't they all climb on board the plant. Then you could just throw the whole lot into the fire plant and all!

[TattooRach!]

The beer trick works wonders. But my mother's found that the only one that worked was with Smithwicks... God only knows how any years it took her to come to that conclusion but it stops them eating my lilies :)

[minnie pal]

they must have brains then if they can be so choosey!!!
xxminnie pal.

[minnie pal]

Seriously worried now about my chis, so its to be a bleach scrubbing day tomorrow, er, is that thick bleach or just thin bleach, daft question this seems, and although i have not drunk in over 30yrs - yes, that long, I will have to succumb to smithwicks. God i loved smithwicks, but due to meds aint allowed anymore!
xminnie pal.

[keno]

any bleach will do , just don't use jeyes fluid

[sparkwell]

If you know someone with a powerhose you could ask them to give the yard a good cleaning for you as it does a really good job and I think you can add bleach to the resevoir too

Sparkwell

[minnie pal]

saw a slug half under the washing machine, managed to scup it up and throw it into ivy out back.
there was a 'baby' with this one but i coudnt get it, too fast as a slug tail disappeared under the bloody machine.
I seem to have a leak from latest plumb dumb job here.
xminnie pal

[minnie pal]

Anyone try a pet hedgehog? seriously. I love the idea now.
would my chis eat it or the hedgehog spike the eyes out of them?
No grief now friends, as in hundreds of fake floor boards on another post.
this is all very serious stuff we are contemplating here, as in saving the planet etc.
and my chis from slugs and the slugs from skewers!
minnie pal
mind you being eaten by a hedgehog is a slower roasting then a skewer, if i were a slug i'd think so anyway.
the yard too is Alcathraz or whatever way you spell that, he/she would never get out, and the drainage hole is so small all that can come and go are - you guessed, the slugs, oh i forgot, the rain!

[osberstown]

There is,as I speak,ongoing research into the beneficial qualities of slug slime!I kid you not!Supposed to have some of that anti-aging bio whatsitsface in it.Personally,being the complete macho, I would not know.
What will work is shredded copper wire-the kind you get in ordinary appliances-simply strip the insulation and cut the resultant bare copper into 1/2 inch long bits. Spread liberally around all veg or flower plants. Works a treat.
Gives the slimeys an electric shock I think;but it does work.
God I need to get out more!

[Didier]

I havent read all this thread so i dont know if anybody suggested this yet but slugs dont like ash!

If you light a fire put take the ash and put it down around a flower bed and they dont cross it,

make sure theres no slugs already inside the ash box or rectangle youve put down around your plants or flowers!

[dee1]

I havent read all this thread so i dont know if anybody suggested this yet but slugs dont like ash!

If you light a fire put take the ash and put it down around a flower bed and they dont cross it,

make sure theres no slugs already inside the ash box or rectangle youve put down around your plants or flowers!




but dont you get nettles???

[jadexoxo12]

OK. In woodies DIY stores nationwide you can buy beer traps. If you see any slugs then maybe sprinkle salt onto them as they will burn. Egg shells are also useful.

Kind Regards,
Jade.

[angling mad]

put some beer in a large tub they love it

[Gormal]

narki......lol

Well I'm currently testing the coffee grinds method, it is alledged that a) it provides nutrients and b) deters slugs. Not that I've noticed any slugs yet and the marigolds are still in one piece.

[palminnie1]

yes, to say i have a prob with slugs is an understatement.
i live in social housing, with a yard out back, i beautified it and built up the raised bed into a veritable garden and along with potted plants, water barrel and grass down it seems to have caused a dreadful infestation this year. checked just now a dozen saucers of beer, they are absolutely everywhere, even crawling over each other. a crack in gutter probably let far too much water in during winter and only one tiny outlet in the corner of solid concrete.
the yard was all concrete, never a garden, run off to a drain at the end but none off the raised bed - help, i am not a good sleeper best of times. neighbour has same prob and put beer down but its driven him to sup the beer too - he's an alcoholic and i will be too if this goes on.

[Eibhlin ni Sheambrai]

Sprinkle salt on them and they will dissolve.

[palminnie1]

read in a magazine that someone puts yeast and sugar out, cheaper than beer and works, how she combo's these are anyones guess, i cannot figure.
x

[Gormal]

read in a magazine that someone puts yeast and sugar out, cheaper than beer and works, how she combo's these are anyones guess, i cannot figure.
x


Two cups of warm water, a packet of dry yeast, and one teaspoonful each of salt and sugar. Although you should avoid salt if composting the the slugs.

Apparently it's the yeast the slugs are mad about.

Made some traps with tubs and cocktail sticks, have now filled with Guinness and popped into the ground.

[madfrozen]

Get a couple of hens, they will sort your slug problem for you!