Nothing works! except maybe those salt water buckets, but a double line of copper tape around the legs would be less ugly or in the way. Slugs avoid all my lettuces that I plant as sacrificials. In Scotland in high summer when it is still light after 11pm, the nightly slug patrol is a waste of time before 1am, as they dont come out immediately after dark. I need to wait at least an hour. I use a double line of copper tape around tin cans (open both ends) and plastic bottle cloches for my young plants, in particular brassicas & tagetes - beloved by slugs & snails. Beer traps are too expensive for a larger garden! even the cheapest stuff. You have to replace them and it all adds up over our long season. I tried using yeast & sugar- they went no where near it. Copper mesh (from Lidls) around the stems of young climbing beans, squashes, cucumber& aubergines, stops them completely and lasts all season but once the plant grows, they still find a way to the leaves but at least they dont get destroyed by that point. I put dbl copper tape around the bean poles too and the legs of any tables, or shelving in the greenhouse. Not cheap but cut the widest band you can find to make the double strip so when the animal touches both strips it creates the current- more effective then just one band. I get the tape online, much cheaper than the shops. But the nightly slug patrol and a tub of salty water to see them off is the only real solution for mature plants. Snails get taken up the road and chucked down the bank to thrive elsewhere.
Pet hair, hair brush fluff and even carpet fluff sweepings work really well. Little 'nests' around the stalks deters slugs and snails. Keep it topped up because when the hair compacts it works less well. All the hair is also compostable. My garden has changed completely since I discovered this tip.
Doesn't work for me at all. Mind you, all the local birds have lovely cosy warm nests now ... and in refurn, they do their level best to help me in return.
If you can't get your hands on oyster shells, eggshells are also a good way to prevent slugs from going after certain plants! I also tried scrubbing my pans with eggshell powder for the first time while making my YT video and I was SHOCKED at the results! 🙌
This reminds me of my dad getting me and my brother going on a *slughunt* every summer and spring evenings in the garden. We were supposed to get 1 sek for every slug. Remember we got over 100 one night and saddly my dad removed the money-making aspect for some reason 😂. I still goes on a 5-15 min hunt every evening for slugs with the same tools. Trash picker and a small hanging pot with salt water in it.Going early in the season really keeps the population down 👍
I live at the top of a pretty steep hill. Every morning I "relocate" snails as far down the hill as I can throw them. If they survive that ride, they deserve to live.
😂😂! Brilliant! This reminds me of a time years ago, when in total exasperation ,I threw a handful of slimes slugs over my garden wall.To my horror I heard a loud shriek from the lane running alongside .I scuttled back into the house as quickly and quietly as I could , prepared to deny all knowledge To my relief no one appeared. Maybe they thought slugs could fly. 😅
You might want to put a dab of Tippex or nail polish on some of the snails to see if they do climb back up. Apparently snails have a 'homing instinct'.
Hi everyone! I would just like to say I've been using Copper tubing simply poked into the pot/ raised garden bed to prevent slugs from attacking my plants, if you can get your hands on old copper wire that should do the trick too, cheers hope this helps!
@@bmg2507anything copper placed around pots or plants will work. I've spent years collecting copper coins just for this purpose. I think it gives the slugs/snails an electric shock. You can also buy copper tape for your pots x
@@bmg2507yes, it keeps slugs out because there's a chemical reaction between slug slime and copper. They don't like the feeling of crawling over copper and turn around.
The idea of putting the table legs in salt water is brilliant! I would improve it further by adding a shelter of some sort a little above each moat to stop rainwater from diluting it. The other good thing with this idea is that, if it starts to dry out, you only need to add fresh water as the salt will remain during evaporation.
Maybe put the legs of tables in a smaller empty tub first before popping the legs into the water containers, as salt water will corrode metal and water will infiltrate wood😅
If there is a coffee roasting company in your community (follow your nose!) they may have loads of coffee bean chaff they to get rid of. This organic matter is very dry and fluffy, very lightweight. Slugs and snails cannot glide over it as it sticks to their bodies and slime trails until it becomes too much for them to drag behind them. It works well between rains, composts well (a layer- even a thin layer - of dry coffee chaff blanketing your compost pile or wormbox will also keep fruitflies from entering) and can be had for free.
I found Nemaslug very time consuming to apply for a couple of years using watering can, then bought a hose end sprayer which didn't have many turns on the screw, so lid fell off when it fell on the ground, so have given up with it. Re slug pubs; I found the slugs don't like cheap lager! They like real ale with all the yeasty smells & no doubt Vitamin B, so now take the drip tray contents from my local pub, which would otherwise go down the sink. Best of all they like dark ales!
Oh and I forgot to mention, the rotting slugs can get smelly in greenhouse, whilst slug pubs outdoors self clean, due to the foxes licking the bowl clean and enjoying a meal of beer marinaded slug!
Just on the bramble rampart - I have a very mature (i.e. old) barrel cactus on my patio, which seems to attract the slugs. I caught one slithering over it (spines & all) a few days ago.
The water moats are an age old technique that was used a lot inside as well. You sometimes see it in museums, where old beds have traps similar to this around the base of their legs, so parasites wouldn‘t climb into the straw mattresses.
There are so many slugs this year... I have to say. We left out some plastic and you get 100s under them! I also have been putting ducks in my garden or chickens... they live eatting them! They are so many the other day they wouldn't eat any I found lol they for so full! Win win as I can save on feed and be slug and snail free!
3:40 The Moat, that's what I did to protect our Hosta. Put it in a huge wooden tub which sits on top of a metal frame, which sits within a sunken concrete pool with a depth of 4" for the water. The only way the hosta survives the summer.
The RHS released a paper a few years ago that claimed that barriers (such as brambles, egg shells, etc) actually make 0 difference when it comes to snail/slug damage.
@@Marketingmagician Is this an urban myth, or are sharp objects (shells, brambles) really an ineffective deterrent? Opinion seems to be divided on this.
@@anarchypanarchyI think, like most garden things, 'it depends'. I find spiky things totally useless, and I lifted the raw sheep's wool which 'protected' my neighbour's hostas to find a veritable slug community underneath, enjoying their cosy hiding place with convenient dining facilities ... Nematodes, slug pubs, wildlife-friendly pellets, wildlife encouragement and hand picking for me. I live in a major Slug Birthing Centre, in temperate, wet, Lancashire, and despite my efforts at organising conveniences such as Birth Control, Abortion and Euthanasia clinics for my visitors, too few of them take me up on it voluntarily and my Border Force of fast blackbirds (during the day) and heavily-armoured hedgehogs (at night) are too thinly stretched over a wide area ...
What Huw said about waiting to set out transplants until they are a little larger is probably the best prevention. I've stopped trying to grow from seed sown directly into the soil. I also had good luck this year with a barrier of sharp twigs, egg shells, coffeegrounds, and coils cut from copper scrubbers (the most effective imo) that I use at time of transplanting.
another one for plant pots, melt some bees wax and add a load of salt to it, then smear it around the rims/bases of your pots. I do all of the above but as i work 3-3 nightshift i'm around for first light with machete in hand, works a treat.
Tried growing beetroots in a dark rocky place for three years. Got extreme amounts of slugs. Moved to a rocky but sunny place in the same area. No slugs. Perhaps because the rocks now has fewer cracks and the plants are stronger thanks to the sunny spot. In northern scandinavia.
Every morning I inspect greenhouse and outdoor slug-prone plants (mostly bearded iris) and collect The 🐌 and slugs. When the weather is damp and cool I repeat this in the evening. The slugs and snails go in the municipal compost bin. They always crawl to the top. Once a week I collect them from the bin and release them in a wild area nearby next to a stream. So far this strategy has been effective: all my plants are thriving. I never use slug pellets as I have tons of wild birds in my garden.
I found that leaving a simple slice of bread at sundown attracts all nearby snails / slugs similar to beer (due to the yeast) but won’t kill them in a horrible way. Just remove the slugs before going to bed and repeat for a few evenings.
Whilst they're still on the bread, pop it under the grill, just until bubbling and with a dash of Worcester Sauce, it makes a delicious pre bed snack. Bon appétit!
@@rwind1814 Unfortunately, in my experience bread also attracts the local mice and rats, who are faster learners and faster eaters than the slugs and snails ...
in my current garden we have a snail problem, very few slugs but the blackbirds and thrushes are a big help in keeping down the numbers. I grow roses and have recently been using bracken extract to spray for aphids, sawflies etc. As an unexpected benefit Ive discovered that my extract kills snails 😮. Not immediately but they will be stationary quite quickly then by the next day without any sign of life. No foaming or signs of distress, just a quiet death, apparently.Thats a bonus but I will have to keep an eye on the corpses as Im not sure what happens if the blackbirds eat the dead snails.
@@barbarablood3859 hi, Im not aware of any source to buy it from, its easily made. A shopping basket full of bracken, chop it up, cover with water, bring to the boil and simmer for about 30 mins. Leave it overnight, strain it off through kitchen paper so you can spray it, or just use a watering can to sprinkle it.
Ok i have been gardening for 50 odd years top tips chop up nettles and brambles use as a mulch water the roots with a pipe let the ground stay dry happy gardening Richardx
Slugs and snails ate my dahlias, cucumbers and got to my marigolds as well. Don’t even get me started on my gladiolas last month.. The war is on - I’ve placed yoghurt cups with beer in my pots, and slugs literally climbed up and drowned in it 😇 I will now turn my garden into a beer pool, I have a personal vendetta now 😹
Instead of wasting beer, just get a jug of 2 litres of cold water, and mix in 2 tablespoons of yeast and 2 tablespoons of sugar (these can be bought in bulk and a very cheap!) and put this in your Slug Pubs. You can fill lots of them with 2 litres, also with them dotted around the whole garden, you can find the areas that have the most slugs and try clear them out from their stronghold. The slug pubs don't need to be buried and the edges of the container don't worry them, they will climb straight in! Trust me, I was once over run!! 🤣😅
The only thing wrong with the yeast water method is that I don't find it as easy to look in and see how many slugs I've trapped, as it is with a pale ale or a lager, as it gets cloudy much faster.
@@vladtheimpaler8995 I just like to look in to see what I'm catching - size of them, and to check there aren't any beetles in there (certain beetles prey on slug eggs and newly-hatched slugs). Also I think the birds seem to prefer slugs marinated in beer, to slugs in a yeast sauce ...
@@Sine-gl9ly The brewers yeast and sugar brew I use seems to attract some . I have several jars filled with it around the garden . Not happy though about the bugs and insects that fall in .
I have tried the beer pool and it worked very well! I genuinely think it decreased the whole population for me this year since slugs have not been as big of a problem
Beer ponds (cups) work excellent with a covered dome - slugs and snails will find, get drunk and drown. One then needs to dispose of the gucky goo - spray out and refill.
A neighbour gave me some cans of 'out of date' beer', so I tried the beer trap within my 'over-run' greenhouse. Two traps only caught just one slug in a week. Not got enough, because the sods were devastating my newly transplanted tomato seedlings within the greenhouse & my potato foliage outside. So I've continued with my 'crack of dawn' daily slug hunt, I've also had to resort to slug-pellets around every tomato seedling (that's been quite effective). This year, with the damp & rain, my garden & GH have been overrun with the blighters, so I'm at war. PS. I drank the other unopened cans of beer - slurp.
Sorry I am loving the Slug Gone wool pellets... my dog Apollo is fascinated by them... UK wool pellets that help stop slugs and then rot into the soil enriching it.
When I notice slug damage I literally put on a headlight, set my alarm for 10 p.m. after the sun sets and go out and pick slugs by hand off of my plants. I try to do this once a week for several weeks in a row, especially after a rain. I rarely have a slug problem now.
I've been going out and collecting a bucketful and then taking a trip to the forest nearby and releasing them. Seems to work alot better and kids enjoy this activity haha
Slugs and every kind of pest are food for other predators. I think it was James Wong on GQT i heard saying the most pristine hostas he saw was in the wild in Japan where every population of pest was controlled by their natural predators. The problem with our gardens is we fence out hedgehogs, we net out birds (or have cats to scare them), we kill off other insects and frogs with chemicals, and even removing by hand takes away the food source for the animals we want to encourage. The only thing in either my garden or allotment that i have to seriously protect from slugs and snails is my lupins. During the spring i go out first thing and remove any i find and throw them next door (just a grass lawn). When they get going and it gets hotter they do fine without protection.
I’ve had good success mixing ammonia 1:6 or so with water in a 5L garden sprayer and going around at night with a head torch spraying any slugs and snails I can see, and areas I know they will be in. When hit with the ammonia solution they just melt away. The ammonia doesn’t harm the plants and gives them a nitrogen boost
I stumbled onto this idea years ago. I found that I can use one part household cleaning ammonia to ten parts water and still get effective control. Slugs decimate my carrot seedlings, so at around day 6 after sowing, I go out in the late evening and water the area around my carrot bed with this solution. Doing that a couple of evenings in a row seems to handle the slugs.
I like to add pine cones around my plants. The pine cones have rugged stickers all around it that slugs do not like. The brand new green pine cones are the most rugged. They make great compost after they break down
I'm a catch and release guy, though the release is generally onto a shed roof for the birds, or into the road. If they manage to get back into the garden, then I'll get them another day, They earned the respite. Hunting seems best when it's warm and wet - during rain, or just after - early morning or late evening. they can go 6feet deep or more during the day, so they can be tricky to get rid of otherwise. I don't like slug pellets though I have lot of pest pressure for neighbouring gardens. So, when it's bad, I put them out on a plastic lid, of some sort, that's covered from the rain and which has a thimble (or other small container) of cheap bear, or yeasted bread starter at the middle. The beer really draws them from all around and they generally succumb to the slug pellets before they can reach it. I don't want slug pellets in the soil; this works well and is disposable. I have slugs crawling all over my blackberries and thorned raspberries - so I'm viewing that suggestion with some doubt - I suspect they are agile enough to work around the thorns. Copper tape, seems to lose efficacy in a season. Nematode, works, but not forever. You need a good population of slugs and snails inthe soil already to feed the nematodes and keep them alive long enough to have any impact on the gastropode population. If I was moving into a new poperty with a really bad infestation, then I would use this and douse that garden every few weeks. Anyway, my main, pest seems to be woodlice. I'm not putting down powders, so my main prophylactic is lots of diversity to get lots of predators in the garden. If anyone has a good, tried and tested, let's say organic method of getting rid of stupidly high populations of woodlice, I would love to know.
I used a straw ( cane bagasse) mulch one year and slaters inundated everything. Too many places to hide! I found “ no dig” and now I keep my beds very firm and very clean - no woodlice/slaters at all. Rare slug in the silver beet. No snails.
I use the moat method but I place a yoghurt carton inside a larger container so the table/staging legs don't deteriorate from contact with the brine. Som useful tips.
From experience it is not good to fill a beer trap to the top as slugs can often access the beer without danger of falling in and you've just got drunk slugs rampaging round then when happy hour is finished.
Nice ideas. There’s one method I tried that is phenomenally good on snails and slugs. Go buy a six pack of cheap beer and small clear plastic cups. Like you’re getting ready for a party. Small holes around your garden where you place the cups level to the ground where the rim is at soil level or just above. Poor a quarter of beer in the cup. Check in the morning. It will be full of slugs and snails. Continue the process until you don’t have anymore. Killed out the snails in my yard one season, the next season was only babies that I was catching. After that yard was good. And you don’t have to change the beer every day unless it rains.
I have some leopard slugs, they are good slugs, which kill the bad slugs. So make sure to look for them,they are mainly brown with black stripes and or spots. I need more of these 😊
Hi Hugh - love the channel! I have a polycarbonate polytunnel it does not meet the ground completely. My slugs scale the walls. I go out there in the morning and they are all over the place - above my head - everywhere. I was considering a saline spray to clean the polycarbonate - and leaving it to dry. Do you think that would work?
I have some copper tape that I glued around a few pots with "my difficult darlings" (pepper, cucumber etc). It's expensive, but keeps forever. In my garden I successfully created small fences from copper wire that I harvested from old electronics (motors and transformers have hundreds of meters wore wound up). These fences were only about 3cm (an inch) high. Bamboo fenceposts at the corners and every half a meter or so. Al lot of work, and rather flimsy: lasted only one season. It works, but I found it not worth the offort. Might help others, though.
I have lots of ants in my polytunnel and also in my mini orchard, which has already brought an army of aphids and destroyed my plum and pear produce however should I get ants from my polytunnel which has tomatoes, aubergine and celery
Swear by beer traps/slug pubs and the nemaslug. Had beer traps last year and it worked a treated. This year we needed more defence thanks to all the rain and wetness. Tried many different things to no avail. Caved in and tried nemaslug, I must say this is working well! Don’t get me wrong we get the occasional slug in the raised bed, however compared to before the population has drastically decreased
We seem to have a fair few devil's coach horse beetles - but even they can't cope with the current invasion! Thinking of letting the ducks have supervised access if and when it stops raining. Probably the wettest year here so far and the slugs have multiplied many times over. So much devastation - including in the greenhouse!
I collect them in a bucket and take them at 3 am to our neighbour's garden ..................I'm joking ,I take them (because we are the last house on the road before the woods) to the woods I'm not into killing living things,and let them go
I put mine in the compost bin hoping it’s a heaven for them (even if they deserve hell!) where they decompose my food scraps. If they like it there, there’s no reason to go out and look for food, right?
Beer traps have been really effective in my garden. However I go about it much less fancy: just an empty yoghurt container with beer placed in the garden. No need to dig a hole, or put little grasses on top. The slugs will come anyway.
I cut the slugs in half with a scissor and pile them near the plants I want to protect. More slugs come to eat the dead ones so it gets really easy. I check every morning and night, with a lantern its easy to spot them at night. Its simple and works really well!
you want to get rid of snails and slugs - get a pie pan and fill it with beer and put it in your flower bed or vegetable garden in the evening - the next morning - if there are slugs in your flower bed or garden, the pie tin that was filled with beer will be filled with slugs and snails - I tried it and it works every time. You will be amazed at how many slugs and snails are in your flower beds and gardens, especially if they never have been treated for them.
I wonder, for those taller raised beds (e.g. the waist-height one shown in the video), if you could construct something that runs along the edge of it (maybe midway up) which contains something to stop slugs/snails from climbing further. Maybe some spikes pointing downwards, or a salt water moat, etc.
There is nothing better than a few indian runner ducks. Not only they loves slugs but they also provide eggs and meat for almost no cost. And they are funny to care of.
i think the best way to protect raised garden bets from slugs it to use the technology that bath tubs have.... the edges are basically impossible for slugs to pass and get to the dirt n plants. Thats because it is too thin n too steep tho thing is... how do u make something like it and put it on every raised bed... well short diameter thin pvc pipes with a third cut off are pretty good, the thinner the better btw Huw i think u should try this on one of ur beds n see the results, ull probably have 0-1 slugs... and that one slug will get there by evolving legs due to natural selection cuz he needs to overcome your obstacle to eat XD
How about ideas to prevent cabbage white butterfly devastation? Usually around for August - September, this year still June- November 😱. Anything other than netting for 6 months?
Nemaslugs are not allowed in the US. I staple copper mesh (Amazon) on the edges of my raised beds. In the US garter snakes love to eat them. So make a snake habitat, Just don't wear krok's in the garden, I had one crawl up into the shoe with my foot in it.
Ooh, I made a joke about chickens before I got to that point in the video. They are very effective - just also very destructive. It's part of the charm, really.
One never thinks that acetic acid (apple cider or distilled white vinegar) or citrus acid (citric juice, orange, lemon, lime, grapefruit, pommelo), sprayed onto the outside garden boards will keep them away as it will acid burn their foot. Spraying the outside perimeter of the garden bed soil will also help stop weed seeds from germinating in this area of the garden bed.
Yes, I've used 10% cleaning vinegar for weed control on my lockstone patio but won't use it in the garden because it will also kill the soil biology, and that is what feeds your plants.
No need to kill. Use strong espresso coffee powder...5/5 or 8/10 which ever you can buy and not weaker coffee bean powder. That is the strength that no slug likes.
Budweiser is the beer of choice for the slugs where I live. Someone in the area dumps their half empty tins along the roadside near the house and they’re full of dead slug gunk within days 😂
Raised beds harbour slug if made of wood, they are basically a waste of time, especially if you don't keep them full of soil. They do look nice though. I can't imagine going around with a torch at night is sustainable for anything other than the smallest plot. I have yet to be convinced why we can't use slug pellets anymore. Probably the sat behind a desk committee.
Creating a barrier with brambles thorns is useless when your snail and slug can climb over a razor blade without getting cut. Best option is copper netting or tape etc
ahh ,,, when you started talking about online security, I realised straght away you were going down that "naughty" advertising route... when in fact the only antivirus worth mentionnning is Kaspersky (and i dont even get sponsored)
Chickens will eat slugs and small snails and ducks with eat bigger snails too. I don't let the birds in the garden but i keep a container to gather snails and slugs while i'm working in the garden then give it to the birds.
The best and most effective long term solution is to use Nematodes, works a treat and is environmentally friendly too. Having beer traps (or yeast and water) to catch them is effective too. If you have ducks, they obviously love a slug 😂
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Great video, really useful variety of tips. Have you ever used wool mulch, apparently it dries out the slugs?
Does Surfshark also protect against slugs, asking for a friend. Nice video.
Nothing works! except maybe those salt water buckets, but a double line of copper tape around the legs would be less ugly or in the way. Slugs avoid all my lettuces that I plant as sacrificials. In Scotland in high summer when it is still light after 11pm, the nightly slug patrol is a waste of time before 1am, as they dont come out immediately after dark. I need to wait at least an hour.
I use a double line of copper tape around tin cans (open both ends) and plastic bottle cloches for my young plants, in particular brassicas & tagetes - beloved by slugs & snails.
Beer traps are too expensive for a larger garden! even the cheapest stuff. You have to replace them and it all adds up over our long season. I tried using yeast & sugar- they went no where near it.
Copper mesh (from Lidls) around the stems of young climbing beans, squashes, cucumber& aubergines, stops them completely and lasts all season but once the plant grows, they still find a way to the leaves but at least they dont get destroyed by that point. I put dbl copper tape around the bean poles too and the legs of any tables, or shelving in the greenhouse. Not cheap but cut the widest band you can find to make the double strip so when the animal touches both strips it creates the current- more effective then just one band. I get the tape online, much cheaper than the shops. But the nightly slug patrol and a tub of salty water to see them off is the only real solution for mature plants. Snails get taken up the road and chucked down the bank to thrive elsewhere.
Pet hair, hair brush fluff and even carpet fluff sweepings work really well. Little 'nests' around the stalks deters slugs and snails. Keep it topped up because when the hair compacts it works less well. All the hair is also compostable. My garden has changed completely since I discovered this tip.
Doesn't work for me at all. Mind you, all the local birds have lovely cosy warm nests now ... and in refurn, they do their level best to help me in return.
I use my sheep's wool which kinda works, sometimes : )
Touch a nettle you get stung si do the stomach foots
If you can't get your hands on oyster shells, eggshells are also a good way to prevent slugs from going after certain plants! I also tried scrubbing my pans with eggshell powder for the first time while making my YT video and I was SHOCKED at the results! 🙌
This reminds me of my dad getting me and my brother going on a *slughunt* every summer and spring evenings in the garden. We were supposed to get 1 sek for every slug. Remember we got over 100 one night and saddly my dad removed the money-making aspect for some reason 😂. I still goes on a 5-15 min hunt every evening for slugs with the same tools. Trash picker and a small hanging pot with salt water in it.Going early in the season really keeps the population down 👍
Saltwater is a really cruel way to kill them
@@lialicious1000 And drowning in beer is somehow better?
@@LickorishAllsorts did i say that?
I live at the top of a pretty steep hill. Every morning I "relocate" snails as far down the hill as I can throw them. If they survive that ride, they deserve to live.
😂😂! Brilliant! This reminds me of a time years ago, when in total exasperation ,I threw a handful of slimes slugs over my garden wall.To my horror I heard a loud shriek from the lane running alongside .I scuttled back into the house as quickly and quietly as I could , prepared to deny all knowledge To my relief no one appeared. Maybe they thought slugs could fly. 😅
@@twpsy634😜🤪
They will have worked up an appetite by the time they are home!
You might want to put a dab of Tippex or nail polish on some of the snails to see if they do climb back up. Apparently snails have a 'homing instinct'.
That would be brilliant@@Sine-gl9ly
Hi everyone! I would just like to say I've been using Copper tubing simply poked into the pot/ raised garden bed to prevent slugs from attacking my plants, if you can get your hands on old copper wire that should do the trick too, cheers hope this helps!
Does it work?
@@bmg2507anything copper placed around pots or plants will work. I've spent years collecting copper coins just for this purpose. I think it gives the slugs/snails an electric shock. You can also buy copper tape for your pots x
@@bmg2507yes, it keeps slugs out because there's a chemical reaction between slug slime and copper. They don't like the feeling of crawling over copper and turn around.
Only if conected to a battery
The idea of putting the table legs in salt water is brilliant! I would improve it further by adding a shelter of some sort a little above each moat to stop rainwater from diluting it. The other good thing with this idea is that, if it starts to dry out, you only need to add fresh water as the salt will remain during evaporation.
Maybe put the legs of tables in a smaller empty tub first before popping the legs into the water containers, as salt water will corrode metal and water will infiltrate wood😅
If there is a coffee roasting company in your community (follow your nose!) they may have loads of coffee bean chaff they to get rid of. This organic matter is very dry and fluffy, very lightweight. Slugs and snails cannot glide over it as it sticks to their bodies and slime trails until it becomes too much for them to drag behind them. It works well between rains, composts well (a layer- even a thin layer - of dry coffee chaff blanketing your compost pile or wormbox will also keep fruitflies from entering) and can be had for free.
I found Nemaslug very time consuming to apply for a couple of years using watering can, then bought a hose end sprayer which didn't have many turns on the screw, so lid fell off when it fell on the ground, so have given up with it.
Re slug pubs; I found the slugs don't like cheap lager! They like real ale with all the yeasty smells & no doubt Vitamin B, so now take the drip tray contents from my local pub, which would otherwise go down the sink. Best of all they like dark ales!
Oh and I forgot to mention, the rotting slugs can get smelly in greenhouse, whilst slug pubs outdoors self clean, due to the foxes licking the bowl clean and enjoying a meal of beer marinaded slug!
Just on the bramble rampart - I have a very mature (i.e. old) barrel cactus on my patio, which seems to attract the slugs. I caught one slithering over it (spines & all) a few days ago.
Having horticultural sand around raised beds/growing areas works well!
I moved some bags today that had been in a compost bin for quite a while. The slugs underneath were the size of a small mouse....I kid you not 😱
I had all sorts: Brown, black, french, panter, wood, house. Moved a few 100 meters to a more sunny spot and less cracks in the rocks. No slugs at all.
The water moats are an age old technique that was used a lot inside as well. You sometimes see it in museums, where old beds have traps similar to this around the base of their legs, so parasites wouldn‘t climb into the straw mattresses.
Yeah, I parents did so to deter ants climbing into the shelves where they stored food and sugar, when I was a kid.
There are so many slugs this year... I have to say. We left out some plastic and you get 100s under them! I also have been putting ducks in my garden or chickens... they live eatting them! They are so many the other day they wouldn't eat any I found lol they for so full! Win win as I can save on feed and be slug and snail free!
Huw, I’m wondering why you don’t like to net your brassicas? I have a huge problem with white cabbage moth.
Indeed Good question . Cabbage whites!!!
3:40 The Moat, that's what I did to protect our Hosta. Put it in a huge wooden tub which sits on top of a metal frame, which sits within a sunken concrete pool with a depth of 4" for the water. The only way the hosta survives the summer.
I’ve been genuinely surprised how well beer traps work.
Well, they have good taste. Slug connoseurs.
I had a beer trap but beetles also drowned in there 😢
My partner put one out one night without me knowing and I nearly drowned in there
Work too well for me, uncountable slugs, two massive stag beetles and a small frog 😞
@@DozyRoseyPosey that's why I don't use them anymore, killing good guys in there as well. Stag beetles eat slugs.
The RHS released a paper a few years ago that claimed that barriers (such as brambles, egg shells, etc) actually make 0 difference when it comes to snail/slug damage.
Good for them
@@HuwRichards Sassy!
Agreed. Slugs can slither over razor blades so a bramble isn’t going to deter them.
@@Marketingmagician Is this an urban myth, or are sharp objects (shells, brambles) really an ineffective deterrent? Opinion seems to be divided on this.
@@anarchypanarchyI think, like most garden things, 'it depends'. I find spiky things totally useless, and I lifted the raw sheep's wool which 'protected' my neighbour's hostas to find a veritable slug community underneath, enjoying their cosy hiding place with convenient dining facilities ...
Nematodes, slug pubs, wildlife-friendly pellets, wildlife encouragement and hand picking for me. I live in a major Slug Birthing Centre, in temperate, wet, Lancashire, and despite my efforts at organising conveniences such as Birth Control, Abortion and Euthanasia clinics for my visitors, too few of them take me up on it voluntarily and my Border Force of fast blackbirds (during the day) and heavily-armoured hedgehogs (at night) are too thinly stretched over a wide area ...
What Huw said about waiting to set out transplants until they are a little larger is probably the best prevention. I've stopped trying to grow from seed sown directly into the soil. I also had good luck this year with a barrier of sharp twigs, egg shells, coffeegrounds, and coils cut from copper scrubbers (the most effective imo) that I use at time of transplanting.
another one for plant pots, melt some bees wax and add a load of salt to it, then smear it around the rims/bases of your pots. I do all of the above but as i work 3-3 nightshift i'm around for first light with machete in hand, works a treat.
But over time the salt will wash into the ground and harm it
Tried growing beetroots in a dark rocky place for three years. Got extreme amounts of slugs. Moved to a rocky but sunny place in the same area. No slugs. Perhaps because the rocks now has fewer cracks and the plants are stronger thanks to the sunny spot. In northern scandinavia.
I use sheep wool around the base of the plant. Slugs won't touch it, I get it from the local farmer. Bonus it works like a weed suppressant as well
It is useless when it rains, which is all the time in the UK so far this "summer".
Dry loose sand spread around the base of plants is also an easy and effective deterrent against slugs, will need to be refreshed after heavy rains.
Every morning I inspect greenhouse and outdoor slug-prone plants (mostly bearded iris) and collect The 🐌 and slugs. When the weather is damp and cool I repeat this in the evening. The slugs and snails go in the municipal compost bin. They always crawl to the top. Once a week I collect them from the bin and release them in a wild area nearby next to a stream. So far this strategy has been effective: all my plants are thriving. I never use slug pellets as I have tons of wild birds in my garden.
I found that leaving a simple slice of bread at sundown attracts all nearby snails / slugs similar to beer (due to the yeast) but won’t kill them in a horrible way. Just remove the slugs before going to bed and repeat for a few evenings.
Where do you put them after that
Whilst they're still on the bread, pop it under the grill, just until bubbling and with a dash of Worcester Sauce, it makes a delicious pre bed snack. Bon appétit!
@@rwind1814 Unfortunately, in my experience bread also attracts the local mice and rats, who are faster learners and faster eaters than the slugs and snails ...
@@UsualYaddaYadda 😉👍😄
@@Sine-gl9ly Good point haha. I’d say try what works for you.
in my current garden we have a snail problem, very few slugs but the blackbirds and thrushes are a big help in keeping down the numbers. I grow roses and have recently been using bracken extract to spray for aphids, sawflies etc. As an unexpected benefit Ive discovered that my extract kills snails 😮. Not immediately but they will be stationary quite quickly then by the next day without any sign of life. No foaming or signs of distress, just a quiet death, apparently.Thats a bonus but I will have to keep an eye on the corpses as Im not sure what happens if the blackbirds eat the dead snails.
Do you make the bracken extract? If not where can a person buy it?
@@barbarablood3859 hi, Im not aware of any source to buy it from, its easily made. A shopping basket full of bracken, chop it up, cover with water, bring to the boil and simmer for about 30 mins. Leave it overnight, strain it off through kitchen paper so you can spray it, or just use a watering can to sprinkle it.
Ok i have been gardening for 50 odd years top tips chop up nettles and brambles use as a mulch water the roots with a pipe let the ground stay dry happy gardening Richardx
Slugs and snails ate my dahlias, cucumbers and got to my marigolds as well. Don’t even get me started on my gladiolas last month..
The war is on - I’ve placed yoghurt cups with beer in my pots, and slugs literally climbed up and drowned in it 😇 I will now turn my garden into a beer pool, I have a personal vendetta now 😹
Instead of wasting beer, just get a jug of 2 litres of cold water, and mix in 2 tablespoons of yeast and 2 tablespoons of sugar (these can be bought in bulk and a very cheap!) and put this in your Slug Pubs.
You can fill lots of them with 2 litres, also with them dotted around the whole garden, you can find the areas that have the most slugs and try clear them out from their stronghold.
The slug pubs don't need to be buried and the edges of the container don't worry them, they will climb straight in!
Trust me, I was once over run!!
🤣😅
I have also used the yeast method, and it definitely works. 👍
The only thing wrong with the yeast water method is that I don't find it as easy to look in and see how many slugs I've trapped, as it is with a pale ale or a lager, as it gets cloudy much faster.
@@Sine-gl9lyI just filter the contents through a Sieve and replace the liquid.
@@vladtheimpaler8995 I just like to look in to see what I'm catching - size of them, and to check there aren't any beetles in there (certain beetles prey on slug eggs and newly-hatched slugs). Also I think the birds seem to prefer slugs marinated in beer, to slugs in a yeast sauce ...
@@Sine-gl9ly The brewers yeast and sugar brew I use seems to attract some . I have several jars filled with it around the garden . Not happy though about the bugs and insects that fall in .
ive been using copper tape around my bench, with all my delicious coleus plants on it.
I also swear by copper tape, it's not 100% but I lose a lot less of my strawberries now
I have tried the beer pool and it worked very well! I genuinely think it decreased the whole population for me this year since slugs have not been as big of a problem
Beer ponds (cups) work excellent with a covered dome - slugs and snails will find, get drunk and drown. One then needs to dispose of the gucky goo - spray out and refill.
A neighbour gave me some cans of 'out of date' beer', so I tried the beer trap within my 'over-run' greenhouse. Two traps only caught just one slug in a week. Not got enough, because the sods were devastating my newly transplanted tomato seedlings within the greenhouse & my potato foliage outside. So I've continued with my 'crack of dawn' daily slug hunt, I've also had to resort to slug-pellets around every tomato seedling (that's been quite effective). This year, with the damp & rain, my garden & GH have been overrun with the blighters, so I'm at war.
PS. I drank the other unopened cans of beer - slurp.
Sorry I am loving the Slug Gone wool pellets... my dog Apollo is fascinated by them... UK wool pellets that help stop slugs and then rot into the soil enriching it.
Egg shells, etc may not deter slugs, I don't know. But brambles definately discourages our local cats from using our deep beds as litter trays !!
When I notice slug damage I literally put on a headlight, set my alarm for 10 p.m. after the sun sets and go out and pick slugs by hand off of my plants.
I try to do this once a week for several weeks in a row, especially after a rain.
I rarely have a slug problem now.
take out a container with HOT water in it and give the slugs and snails a nice warm bath
I am doing that 3-4 times a week and I do not think the are getting any less
I've been going out and collecting a bucketful and then taking a trip to the forest nearby and releasing them. Seems to work alot better and kids enjoy this activity haha
Slugs and every kind of pest are food for other predators. I think it was James Wong on GQT i heard saying the most pristine hostas he saw was in the wild in Japan where every population of pest was controlled by their natural predators. The problem with our gardens is we fence out hedgehogs, we net out birds (or have cats to scare them), we kill off other insects and frogs with chemicals, and even removing by hand takes away the food source for the animals we want to encourage. The only thing in either my garden or allotment that i have to seriously protect from slugs and snails is my lupins. During the spring i go out first thing and remove any i find and throw them next door (just a grass lawn). When they get going and it gets hotter they do fine without protection.
equally if you sink old guttering close to raised borders and fill it with road salt it will stop them eating your brassicas in the raised borders.
I’ve had good success mixing ammonia 1:6 or so with water in a 5L garden sprayer and going around at night with a head torch spraying any slugs and snails I can see, and areas I know they will be in. When hit with the ammonia solution they just melt away. The ammonia doesn’t harm the plants and gives them a nitrogen boost
I stumbled onto this idea years ago. I found that I can use one part household cleaning ammonia to ten parts water and still get effective control. Slugs decimate my carrot seedlings, so at around day 6 after sowing, I go out in the late evening and water the area around my carrot bed with this solution. Doing that a couple of evenings in a row seems to handle the slugs.
12:08 😊
I like to add pine cones around my plants. The pine cones have rugged stickers all around it that slugs do not like. The brand new green pine cones are the most rugged. They make great compost after they break down
I'm a catch and release guy, though the release is generally onto a shed roof for the birds, or into the road. If they manage to get back into the garden, then I'll get them another day, They earned the respite. Hunting seems best when it's warm and wet - during rain, or just after - early morning or late evening. they can go 6feet deep or more during the day, so they can be tricky to get rid of otherwise.
I don't like slug pellets though I have lot of pest pressure for neighbouring gardens. So, when it's bad, I put them out on a plastic lid, of some sort, that's covered from the rain and which has a thimble (or other small container) of cheap bear, or yeasted bread starter at the middle. The beer really draws them from all around and they generally succumb to the slug pellets before they can reach it. I don't want slug pellets in the soil; this works well and is disposable.
I have slugs crawling all over my blackberries and thorned raspberries - so I'm viewing that suggestion with some doubt - I suspect they are agile enough to work around the thorns.
Copper tape, seems to lose efficacy in a season.
Nematode, works, but not forever. You need a good population of slugs and snails inthe soil already to feed the nematodes and keep them alive long enough to have any impact on the gastropode population. If I was moving into a new poperty with a really bad infestation, then I would use this and douse that garden every few weeks.
Anyway, my main, pest seems to be woodlice. I'm not putting down powders, so my main prophylactic is lots of diversity to get lots of predators in the garden. If anyone has a good, tried and tested, let's say organic method of getting rid of stupidly high populations of woodlice, I would love to know.
I used a straw ( cane bagasse) mulch one year and slaters inundated everything. Too many places to hide! I found “ no dig” and now I keep my beds very firm and very clean - no woodlice/slaters at all. Rare slug in the silver beet. No snails.
I use the moat method but I place a yoghurt carton inside a larger container so the table/staging legs don't deteriorate from contact with the brine. Som useful tips.
From experience it is not good to fill a beer trap to the top as slugs can often access the beer without danger of falling in and you've just got drunk slugs rampaging round then when happy hour is finished.
Wow, I want to see that!😆
I love the use of the adjective ‘rampaging’ 😂🤣
I like the salt water under the legs of the table, but I think that it is much easier to wrap some copper tape around the legs.
Nice ideas. There’s one method I tried that is phenomenally good on snails and slugs. Go buy a six pack of cheap beer and small clear plastic cups. Like you’re getting ready for a party. Small holes around your garden where you place the cups level to the ground where the rim is at soil level or just above. Poor a quarter of beer in the cup. Check in the morning. It will be full of slugs and snails. Continue the process until you don’t have anymore. Killed out the snails in my yard one season, the next season was only babies that I was catching. After that yard was good. And you don’t have to change the beer every day unless it rains.
What you need is some cocktail umbrellas.
Snail cocktail coming right up, sir
@@Hereford1642
🤣 beer snob!
I have some leopard slugs, they are good slugs, which kill the bad slugs. So make sure to look for them,they are mainly brown with black stripes and or spots. I need more of these 😊
I love Leopard Slugs. Good for your garden and as far as slugs go, they're actually quite pretty too.
It’s sad that people think all slugs are bad and kill them. I love leopard slugs.
@@Solitude11-11I love slugs and snails. They’re cute.
Hi Hugh - love the channel! I have a polycarbonate polytunnel it does not meet the ground completely. My slugs scale the walls. I go out there in the morning and they are all over the place - above my head - everywhere. I was considering a saline spray to clean the polycarbonate - and leaving it to dry. Do you think that would work?
I have some copper tape that I glued around a few pots with "my difficult darlings" (pepper, cucumber etc). It's expensive, but keeps forever.
In my garden I successfully created small fences from copper wire that I harvested from old electronics (motors and transformers have hundreds of meters wore wound up).
These fences were only about 3cm (an inch) high. Bamboo fenceposts at the corners and every half a meter or so. Al lot of work, and rather flimsy: lasted only one season. It works, but I found it not worth the offort. Might help others, though.
100% agree with you on the copper tape 👍
That table and salt water tip is giving me hope j can actually grow something!!!
I have lots of ants in my polytunnel and also in my mini orchard, which has already brought an army of aphids and destroyed my plum and pear produce however should I get ants from my polytunnel which has tomatoes, aubergine and celery
How about squirrels Huw? Any tips or videos for that?
my favourite bit was 'relocate them'. splat!
I sometimes feel Im easy to entertain but not easy enough to think laying sticks on the ground is fun 🤠🍻
Can you say Andy Goldsworthy?
The moat method works well for mushroom logs ( no salt needed) I use it for my Shiitake logs . Cheers.
5:02 god damn that was a smooth ad transition
Swear by beer traps/slug pubs and the nemaslug. Had beer traps last year and it worked a treated. This year we needed more defence thanks to all the rain and wetness. Tried many different things to no avail. Caved in and tried nemaslug, I must say this is working well! Don’t get me wrong we get the occasional slug in the raised bed, however compared to before the population has drastically decreased
I have used Nematodes for a few years now and have certainly seen far fewer slugs.Just the bloomin snails now.
I have slow worms in my garden - and believe they help me with the slug control.
Years ago my dad ran bantam hens on his veg bed in winter. No slugs and happy birds.
So did my dad
We seem to have a fair few devil's coach horse beetles - but even they can't cope with the current invasion! Thinking of letting the ducks have supervised access if and when it stops raining. Probably the wettest year here so far and the slugs have multiplied many times over. So much devastation - including in the greenhouse!
Buckingham Palace gardeners swear by steel wool to protect the Royal hostas; we were told on a tour last week
I collect them in a bucket and take them at 3 am to our neighbour's garden ..................I'm joking ,I take them (because we are the last house on the road before the woods) to the woods I'm not into killing living things,and let them go
I like your sense of humour. I am glad you don’t harm them as they do serve a purpose, though.
I put mine in the compost bin hoping it’s a heaven for them (even if they deserve hell!) where they decompose my food scraps. If they like it there, there’s no reason to go out and look for food, right?
Snails, believe it or not, have a homing instinct.
@@LickorishAllsorts I did put up a sign "no homing slugs allowed. this is not a Hotel"we never had one return
Beer traps have been really effective in my garden. However I go about it much less fancy: just an empty yoghurt container with beer placed in the garden. No need to dig a hole, or put little grasses on top. The slugs will come anyway.
Thanks for saying this. I have wondered but didn't want to waste beer if I had to bury it
I cut the slugs in half with a scissor and pile them near the plants I want to protect. More slugs come to eat the dead ones so it gets really easy. I check every morning and night, with a lantern its easy to spot them at night. Its simple and works really well!
wow thats horrible
Gross
Amazing. Might try this
Blood for the blood god
@@marschmaI am here for the cultish horticulture replies. This made my day.
This will be so helpful as that the sails I have like to eat bell peper leaves to much.
you want to get rid of snails and slugs - get a pie pan and fill it with beer and put it in your flower bed or vegetable garden in the evening - the next morning - if there are slugs in your flower bed or garden, the pie tin that was filled with beer will be filled with slugs and snails - I tried it and it works every time. You will be amazed at how many slugs and snails are in your flower beds and gardens, especially if they never have been treated for them.
Just a warning that sea shells can be very very sharp... bare in mind if you have decided to use them
Can you recommend ways to keep earwigs out of cabbage? Thx!
I wonder, for those taller raised beds (e.g. the waist-height one shown in the video), if you could construct something that runs along the edge of it (maybe midway up) which contains something to stop slugs/snails from climbing further. Maybe some spikes pointing downwards, or a salt water moat, etc.
There is nothing better than a few indian runner ducks. Not only they loves slugs but they also provide eggs and meat for almost no cost. And they are funny to care of.
They also scratch the garden up,
@@saskins22with webbed feet? You must be thinking of chickens…
i think the best way to protect raised garden bets from slugs it to use the technology that bath tubs have....
the edges are basically impossible for slugs to pass and get to the dirt n plants.
Thats because it is too thin n too steep
tho thing is... how do u make something like it and put it on every raised bed... well
short diameter thin pvc pipes with a third cut off are pretty good, the thinner the better btw
Huw i think u should try this on one of ur beds n see the results, ull probably have 0-1 slugs... and that one slug will get there by evolving legs due to natural selection cuz he needs to overcome your obstacle to eat XD
thanks! a lot of ideas! what about ants? do you have ants problems there ?
I use boards or cardboard and relocate the slugs. Also I have a couple toads that live in my strawberry patch and they keep the slugs and snails down😀
How about ideas to prevent cabbage white butterfly devastation? Usually around for August - September, this year still June- November 😱. Anything other than netting for 6 months?
Galvanized steel and ducks should be on the list.
Nemaslugs are not allowed in the US. I staple copper mesh (Amazon) on the edges of my raised beds. In the US garter snakes love to eat them. So make a snake habitat, Just don't wear krok's in the garden, I had one crawl up into the shoe with my foot in it.
Ooh, I made a joke about chickens before I got to that point in the video. They are very effective - just also very destructive. It's part of the charm, really.
Snail and slugs don't like copper, I sometimes lay copper wire around susceptible plants.
They are in my concrete raised beds and my plastic beds not in my metal ones
Built a bramble moat, next morning my sunflower seedling was shredded.
🤣
One never thinks that acetic acid (apple cider or distilled white vinegar) or citrus acid (citric juice, orange, lemon, lime, grapefruit, pommelo), sprayed onto the outside garden boards will keep them away as it will acid burn their foot. Spraying the outside perimeter of the garden bed soil will also help stop weed seeds from germinating in this area of the garden bed.
Yes, I've used 10% cleaning vinegar for weed control on my lockstone patio but won't use it in the garden because it will also kill the soil biology, and that is what feeds your plants.
Where I live, I'd have to do it constantly , due to near-constant rain.
I been using egg shells for decades,does the job
You picked a plant up in your polly tunnel that looked to me had be eaten alive leaves
Could you lovely gardeners kindly inform me what size should raised beds be, thanks for your advice. Slugs and snails are a pain!
Your 1 smart dude did you know that? Love your channel 1 of the best! Cheers from Fresno Ca....
Can you do one for the bloody caterpillars they ate everything this year and it makes it hard when not wanting to use chemicals to kill them off
Birds eat caterpillars. Provide food and nesting boxes/sites for birds.
Table legs in salt water, brilliant simplicity.
☘
💖🙏💫
Great idea but I worried a little about putting metal legs into salt water.
No need to kill. Use strong espresso coffee powder...5/5 or 8/10 which ever you can buy and not weaker coffee bean powder. That is the strength that no slug likes.
Budweiser is the beer of choice for the slugs where I live. Someone in the area dumps their half empty tins along the roadside near the house and they’re full of dead slug gunk within days 😂
'Relocate them' PMSL, I relocate them in Hell with my boot or a pair of scissors.
Watch out, Slug pushed the gate open at 1:26, mighty persistent these slugs ;)
Hahahhaa!
Raised beds harbour slug if made of wood, they are basically a waste of time, especially if you don't keep them full of soil. They do look nice though. I can't imagine going around with a torch at night is sustainable for anything other than the smallest plot. I have yet to be convinced why we can't use slug pellets anymore. Probably the sat behind a desk committee.
Creating a barrier with brambles thorns is useless when your snail and slug can climb over a razor blade without getting cut. Best option is copper netting or tape etc
Thanks for the information, but can you tell me what gets rid of cut worms?
ahh ,,, when you started talking about online security, I realised straght away you were going down that "naughty" advertising route... when in fact the only antivirus worth mentionnning is Kaspersky (and i dont even get sponsored)
Any theories on Japanese beetles? They just walked off with my entire grapevine overnight lol
Neem oil, and taking great joy in squishing them. The plants will win eventually.
Oh no! Devastating 😢
I'm no gardener, but I would think that a layer of broken seashells around the base of plants is good weed control too.
Our nursery table is always covered with an old blanket. Slugs never walk on it
in the States, we can't get that. We can get Heterohabditis bacteriophora and they kill slugs.
I wanted ducks, wife wanted chickens. Now we have chickens and only one sunflower from 40 planted.
And chicken poop for the compost.
Ducks turn an area into a muddy swamp much more than chickens ever do. Doubt if your sunflower seeds would have fared any better.
Chickens will eat slugs and small snails and ducks with eat bigger snails too.
I don't let the birds in the garden but i keep a container to gather snails and slugs while i'm working in the garden then give it to the birds.
Beer traps work! I love them.
You mean pubs?
Love that moat idea - I’m going to try that on my outside table at the allotment 👍🏻
The best and most effective long term solution is to use Nematodes, works a treat and is environmentally friendly too.
Having beer traps (or yeast and water) to catch them is effective too.
If you have ducks, they obviously love a slug 😂