I have recently had an invasion of the largest kind. Leopard slugs, they're called. Rotten things are annoying my pet rabbits and making a mess of my veggie patch. Now, according to some web sites, these slimy creatures don't eat your garden, instead they eat pet food and decaying plants. Well I can tell you, my plants didn't even have time to decay before the nasty slimy things started to eat my lettuces and silver beet.I tried feeding them porridge oats. Made them get mighty fat. Read that oats should make them explode. Unfortunately I saw no sign of exploding slugs. That would have been a sight to behold though.
One night I went out and collected an entire ice cream container full of them. How gross is that!
So I decided that enough is enough. I'm not out there working my butt off in the hot sun just so some molluscs can have a party late at night. I blitzed them with slug/snail killer. Sprinkled some lovely green pellets around the veggie patch last night, and in the slugs favourite hang out, near the strawberries. Low and behold when I went out this morning, there was a pile of shrivelled up slugs.
And you know what? The slug/snail killer was cheaper than Vegemite.
No, this Vegemite:-
I don't drink beer, so I didn't want to make them a beer trap. Only sparrows around here anyway, and I don't mind if they eat poisoned slugs. The blue tongue lizards have all but been chased away by nearby dogs and cats :) I'd rather have the lizards and an intact garden but hey! What would I know.Have you had slugs or snails in your garden?
Hi Dianna ...Just read your article and thought you would like to know of a brilliant slug protector....I like you and most gardeners suffer from slugs and snails in this damp weather and in fact now that the climate has changed all over the world we all have the slug and snail problem all year round, I have tried beer traps, copper tape, and wire salt, egg shells, even throwing them in my neighbours garden, (just kidding) etc,etc all these methods are not practical long lasting and are harmful to our wildlife. recently a lady gardener recommended a new device to control slugs and snails called the slugbell she has used it and found it to be absolutely brilliant at controlling them I have just ordered 6 of them to place around my flowers and vegetable garden ,here is there web page www.slugbell.com they use both Organic or Normal Metaldehyde bug pellets and that the small amount of pellets needed will last up to three months.!!! as they don’t dissolve in the soil and are pet i.e. Cat , Dog and wildlife Safe Brilliant for pet owners , I will try anything to keep my garden looking how it should whilst protecting natures cycle. hope that tis is helpful .from Michael in the united kingdom.
ReplyDeleteHi Michael,
ReplyDeleteWow, thanks for that information. I'll have to see if I can order some slugbells too.
I wonder if they will handle these leopard slugs. The ones in my garden were at least 10 centimetres long, and oh so fat. Not something I'd like to accidently walk on ;)
It's also the first year I've had trouble with slugs. I had a resident female Blue Tongue lizard keeping mollusc numbers down, but due to the drought and lack of food for her, she started to wander up and down the street. She had the misfortune of meeting an energetic puppy dog in a nearby resident's yard. Poor lizard. She had become quite friendly, even crawling up my screen door when she was hungry. But that's a whole different story.
Thank you so much for sharing your idea Michael :D