# General > Gardening >  Slugs

## percy toboggan

I've now officially run out of patience with these ugly blighters.
We've tried pellets - yes I know they are not particularly eco-friendly but still they are there every morning...struggling up the path. At the weekend I moved a couple of rocks only to find several of them snoozing in their slimey hovel.
So now it's the salt. I don't enjoy it but it has to be done. They have ravaged loads of bedding plants, and most unforgivably have nibbled away an elder cutting I was very proud of...sambuca negra...lovely black foliage
anticipated in a year or three and the beggars killed it off in infancy.

Salt does away with them fairly slowly ...it looks as though it might hurt too to be honest.  I'm not fully conversant with the pain threshold of a slug. What's the alternative? Squash 'em? Too messy on the boots.

Frm now on it's all out war and I'm taking few prisoners.
Messy molluscs and your giveaway trails of slime beware!
Toboggan is on the rampage armed with  a huge new pot of salt.

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## changilass

Aye Percy, salt and mebee even a wee ale trap does it for me 'orrible creatures.

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## percy toboggan

I've heard of the 'ale trap' but,  I just cannot face........

a) sharing my beer
b) rising to find a collective of drowned molluscs huddled together very dead. ;-)

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## changilass

I agee with a), which is why I use hubbies ale and with regards to b) - aww bless we found your softer side  :Grin: 


I find the ale results quite satisfying

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## teenybash

I'll put in a pennyworth for you to consider what to do with the slug problem...............Leopard slugs, that's what you need.....Yes I know they are slugs but, they are the gardeners helpers who eat the pesky ones who devour the plants. These guys eat the baddies.
You can't mistake them as they are big growing to between five and seven inches in length, brown with leopard spots on top half and more like stripes on the bottom. Try googling for a pic and should you ever come across one...take it home. I have a few of them and since they came to me last year I have had no bad slug problems.  :Smile:

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## pat

get a few hedgehogs in the garden  - they seem to love the slugs, my slug population is certainly down this year and I believe it is my little prickly pals who are responsible.  Plants are not as eaten as usual.  I am certainly encouraging the hedgehogs to hang around by leaving out some dog food at night or in an area where the dogs cannot get at during the day.

My terriers certainly know when the prickly pals are in their back garden, prickly ones just roll into a ball and dogs go mad barking at these strange things which dared to come onto their bit of ground.

If they persist try using sand round your plants - the slugs do not like sharp or dry things.
I cut large fizzy drink bottles into 1" rings, put over plants and sprinkle sand inside circle - works quite well when I remeber to do it.
If you know an electrician get some old bits of copper wire and put it on the ground around your plants - understand the slugs do not like that either, anything is worth a try.

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## pat

forgot about putting down your old coffee grounds - they do not like crawling over that either.

Having a B&B I use quite a few eggs - I dry these in the oven, keep them until I have quite a bag full, crush them, sprinkle over the garden and various troughs - keeps them away from plants but often slugs go into base of troughs.  
You can also buy crushed egg shells by the bucketful from some of the large garden suppliers - bought some 'organic slug repellant', got it home and discovered it was crushed eggshells (it was a bit niffy but smell soon disappeared) - bought it from makro if memory serves me right but have seen it several places since.

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## percy toboggan

Blimey! those 'Leapord slugs' sound a bit scary.
A slug for all seasons.

Thanks for the tips anyway.
We actually put a whole load of chipped bark down on sunday and haven't seen one since - fingers x'd.

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## unicorn

I have loads of leopard slugs and hate them also as they try to slime their way into my rabbit hutches and shed so when I see them they get smooshed.

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## justine

Beer in a pot, they love it.Find them all floating in the morning, and no need for salt that makes them slushy.

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## TBH

Are slugs alcoholic or do they just like a bevvy now and again?

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## changilass

Definately alchoholic, they drink to the death.

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## TBH

> Definately alchoholic, they drink to the death.


I must have been a slug in a previous incarnation. ::

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## justine

> I must have been a slug in a previous incarnation.


Did you used to slime your way round peoples gardens eating the plants. ::

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## TBH

Yes Justine, I also liked to drown myself in beer.  The perfect end to a perfect salad.

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## justine

> Yes Justine, I also liked to drown myself in beer. The perfect end to a perfect salad.


Nice one. ::

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## hotrod4

12 bore shotgun, take no prisoners  :Smile:

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## gardeninginagale

Can't add much to the slug debate, but a wee thought about your slug-destroyed sambuca negra . . .

Don't be too dismayed. I expect this is Sambucus nigra Black Lace - lovely feathery deep purple leaves. It is grafted on a Sambucus nigra rootstock, so a cutting would be unlikely to survive anyway.

That's why they are so expensive  :Smile:

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## percy toboggan

> Can't add much to the slug debate, but a wee thought about your slug-destroyed sambuca negra . . .
> 
> Don't be too dismayed. I expect this is Sambucus nigra Black Lace - lovely feathery deep purple leaves. It is grafted on a Sambucus nigra rootstock, so a cutting would be unlikely to survive anyway.
> 
> That's why they are so expensive


Oh! I did succeed with two a couple of years ago. One was since wiped out with a football retrievers feet...the other thrives in my daughters garden. Lovely shrub/bush. I've planted some seeds recently and will see how they do.

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## bluebell

I'm with PAT encourage hedgehog's into your garden, or go out at night with a torch when they are out in their droves, collect them up and dispose of them humanly :Wink:

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## changilass

They don't dispose of my plants humanely  :: , they massacre them, so Im afraid its all out war here and anything goes  ::  ::

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## Anji

> They don't dispose of my plants humanely , they massacre them, so Im afraid its all out war here and anything goes


My feelings exactly!

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## Bonnie Parker-Duke

I've read that slugs don't like moving through wood ashes either so if you have a stove or fireplace that burns wood (and in the UK you may not have but thought it worth a suggestion) you can ring your plants with ashes.

Bonnie

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## cuthill

Get yourself a duck,it will clean them up in no time,and think of all the lovely eggs you will get

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## dousslesh

Just read this thread, really interesting ! I used Bran in my Polytunnel this year ( scored 10/10 in a Organic slug prevention test in one of the gardening magazines!) Worked quite well but the bran does go mouldy after a week or two .  Slugs do not like to crawl over it and if they do they like to eat it . The bran swells up inside them....  Will use it again next year though - alongside the two frogs who live happily in the polytunnel !
 Just to add- I might be wrong but I think I read somewhere that you should not feed Dog food to Hedgehogs ?  I believe they cannot digest it properly ?   (Same with bread and milk ) Think it was cat food recommended for hedgehogs .

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