UKC

How the hell do we stop them and why are there so many this year?

We've seen more damage caused by slugs to our veg than ever before this year. Despite multiple sowings either direct or transplanting, nearly all our seedlings have been completely devoured. We've tried different tactics to stop them without success either. It's pretty demoralising. 

Does anyone have any surefire tips or is everyone finding similar?

Nuclear fire*.

Everything I've planted this year has been destroyed through three rounds of sowing. I've never seen anything like it.

*Hedgehogs might be better but they're all dead.

jk

I had a terrible year last year, but things seem to be better for me this year.

I use nematodes starting in around April and applying every 6 weeks or so. These do not kill adult slugs, but they do kill larvae. For this reason, they aren't a magic solution, but repeated applications will keep the slug population down.

In addition to this, I don't direct-sow anything any more. I sow mostly in modules or small pots. I use copper tape around the rim of these. I have found that this needs to be at least a couple of cm wide to be effective, so I usually do a double-ring of tape. I also put something gritty on the surface once the seeds have germinated. Again, this is not a magic solution, but my survival rate has been much better this year - I've lost maybe a quarter of my seedlings rather than the three quarters I lost last year.

The final part of the equation is to let your seedlings get really big before transplanting them. That way, it's more difficult for slugs to do enough damage to kill them. When I do transplant them, I again surround them with something to discourage slugs. For mature transplant-sized plants, I like sheeps wool pellets for this. You put a heap around the plant and water them - they swell up to form a solid mat. The mat tends to overwhelm young seedlings, but protects older plants quite nicely.

Alas no. Lost all but one corgette. Not a single iris has flowered, orchids devoured, snakes heads devoured, strawberries nibbled, Hostas/ Don't make me laugh, I've given up on hostas. Basically anything not tough or hairy has been attacked. Tried every organic methid I can think of bar getting up at midnight and physically removing the offenders. I've got two frogs but I think they are overwhelmed.

Ducks.

No, seriously. An ex of mine kept Chinese runner ducks as pets and they ate all the slugs.

Mulch with something dry and spiky, gravel or bark.

As stated above get the plants well started in pots before transplanting. Protect pots with copper strips.

I used to patrol an epically slug-ridden garden in a previous house with a slugging spoon and bowl of salty water and dispatch hundreds. It did no good at all.

Another vote for nematodes (we get ours from the green gardener) it doesn't eliminate them but seems to at least suppress the numbers.

Similar nightmare to other posters, but I have managed to save some tomato plants with a product called "Growing Success Organic Slug Stop Barrier Pellets". You make a little pile of pellets around the base of the plant; I've replenished them every week or so.

I've also had some success with blue ferric phosphate pellets left in the shed by the previous house owner, so I don't know much about them.

Not a chance of manually collecting the little wotsits. They're even investigating my plywood sailing dinghy.

Ooffff. Well it's just good to hear we're not the only ones. Sounds like 2025 is going to be the year of the nematodes (and maybe ducks).

Tomatoes actually seem to be the things slugs aren't going for over here. It's everything else that's disappearing overnight.

No direct sowing always chunky seedlings and just go out when it's dark and pick them off and get rid. Works. 

I use wet thin straps of wood. Lots of slugs shelter under them during the day. I do that for a number of days before planting, and after. I think it helps. 

I can't add to the long list of methods to get rid of them but I think the reason theres so much damage this year is all the rain. Slugs and snails love wet conditions and the eggs do best in damp areas. The last couple of years have been hot and dry, so I guess they're making up or that. 

I first read that as "I used to use petrol on an especially slug-ridden garden" I thought that really was the nuclear option!! 

Use ‘beer’ traps. Really effective. In inverted commas as you don’t actually need beer. I left the brewing boiler outside and forgot to wash it. Next day about a hundred slugs inside. I now just use wort but if you buy a home brew kit you can dissolve small amounts. Most people sink yoghurt tubs into the soil but I use a series of deep, long gutter- type split pipe, seal the ends and kill 2-300 slugs a week.

Not a sure fire way but we have used onions and garlic peeling around the runner beans which seems to discourage them, and also used the outer leaves of lettuces to attract them away from the beans. These haven't been entirely successful but I do think they have helped. I've also gone out late at night and in the early morning and picked up loads of the slimy creatures.

Dave

You will never exterminate the slime lords

They will always regenerate

Glad to hear we are not alone.

Our cauliflowers were nibbled to the stumps.

On GQT they keep talking about nematodes but I'm not sure how you go about getting and applying them.

Beer in a container buried so the lip of the container is level with the ground. They can resist it and fall in and drown.

Sugs in beds! Madness. 

It's One Step Beyond and a total Embarrassment to allow such behaviour!

I use rat poison on the Mr Kiplings to keep the Num Num children out of the pantry.

I regretfully used pellets when first planting out, but only one application until they were big enough to survive the onslaught. 

Yesterday the lawn was teaming with them - it's been so wet, they're obviously thriving.

Are the blue pellets labelled? I thought that colour was the now banned metaldahyde (sp?) ones, believed to be responsible for the sad decline of thrushes.

I too have had a terrible time with slugs this year, despite nematode application. My climbing French beans have been hammered. I’ve planted a second and third time. Still a sad looking scene. Broccoli plants also suffered. Still growing on some replacements in large pots to plant out when they might be big enough to survive. Just in time for the cabbage white invasion.

Flower garden has also suffered. Some lovely raised-from-seed Coreopsis plants have been completely destroyed. Better luck with Lychnis, Rudbeckia, Gazania, Cosmos, Dianthus and Lobelia cardinalis.

I thought I might have found an answer by making little fences with very thorny twigs cut off a cottage garden rose bush, but results not good. The twigs keep getting moved - by slugs?!?

 I’m coming to the conclusion it’s best to keep potting on into larger and larger pots and planting out when they’re too big (perhaps less tender) plants. But all very time consuming.
 

The blue pellets are ferric phosphate. They seem to be reasonably effective for a larger area with too many plants to treat individually with the other product; you scatter them thinly.

When I get some time (ha) I should give the beer trap thing a go as a number of people have suggested that locally as well as here.

I still have a small number of french beans which I am trying to nurture. I agree with you about planting out larger plants only.

The beer traps are an interesting one which we haven't tried yet. Lots of people swear by them but I've also read that because they're so attractive to slugs they can lead to an increased number in your garden as they pull them in from the surrounding area! 

I always only plant out mature plants and they have still got destroyed. TBH though I was disappointed with growth even before they were eaten.

Try this company

https://dragonfli.co.uk/

I haven't used their nematodes but their clothes moth control wasps seemed to work.

I’ve used slug nematodes for several years but you never know how effective they are because it’s not easy to do a controlled experiment. My feeling is that they make a difference so I continue. 
Just search nemaslug. They send you a container of powder which you keep in the fridge till use. You stir the powder into a bucket of water which you then dilute into a watering can to spread. Need a coarse can rose so the little beasties can get through. Not recommended to use in a dry spell (no problem this year).

Interesting - I might have to try this for clothes moths! Do you notice the wasps much? 

Beer traps do work (though empty the dead ones out regularly, they stink). Hollowed out rind from half a melon used in the same way is also effective.

They help, but it's not been enough this year, an after dark patrols with gardening gloves and a head-torch and a bucket have been necessary after rain.

We've ended up a lot of veg this year but not without a lot of anti-slug effort.

The blue pellets are best avoided, harmful to hedgehogs I believe.

Yep, ducks love slugs.

My father also used to make "slug pots". They were plastic containers, half buried with entry ports cut at ground level. The pots were filled with the yeasty remnants of his home brewed beer. The slugs loved it and would drown in the beer dregs.

He would leave in place for a week before emptying and refilling with beer dregs. The now well-marinaded slugs went to the ducks, obvs.

I'd like to say that large terrifying wasps relentlessly pursue the little blighters but the wasps are tiny and look like little specks when they emerge from the sachets, so completely unnoticeable.

A combination of these and the pheromone traps massively reduced the amount of moths I was seeing. 

Great, thanks!

I was trying to imagine the conversation with my partner... "well, I found a way to get rid of the moths, but there's a trade-off...."