Slugs and snails organic problem solving?

Sharnaloo

Came across this by pure chance heres a little background behind my discovery i may not be the first but havent seen it anywhere ..  well some class me as a mad cat lady  as i hv 6 cats 4 being pure breed maine coons as an avid plant grower (normally by trial and error₩ and an animal lover i hv a huge problem with slugs and snails as i hate to use pellets . Now ive heard of things like egg shells but wasnt feasible for me as i hv an egg intolerance so dont buy eggs. But hving the cats and them being really fussy i had to go thru 20 types of litter to find one that they all liked  its a natural corn husk mix  .. this brings me to an idea i had as when wet although biogradable and apparently flushable i thought id try it on my raised veggies of strawberries and cabbages... it was a great success  no slug or snail damage this year to my plants only downgall is the corn cat litter forms a hard crust so every 2 months i remove and redo so the water can penetrate.  If any one else tries this and has good or bad results plz let me know  i get a 40kg bag costs around 20 quid and would last a couple of years if just used in the garden

Keyser Soze

So, after a few half hearted attempts at mollusc control I decided on drastic action. I've dug up all my Hostas, seven differing varieties, and transplanted them into pots. I chose large pots with a turned down edge. Before transplanting I turned the pots upside down and applied a liberal smear of pritt stick under the rim before a liberal sprinkling of salt. One turned the right way the rim will protect the salt covered glue from being washed off. Several weeks and not a hole in sight! Considering this time last year it was lace curtain city! I did run out of pritt stick on the last pot so applied Vic vapour rub before adding salt. Again this pot of hostas is hole free but I'm wondering if the vic is maybe a deterrent on it's own? I'll maybe try a control pot next year.

pansyface

If you have put them into pots you could save yourself a lot of repetition of work and endeavour by investing in some of that self adhesive copper strip.

One ring of that round the top of each pot and no slug will cross it.

josusa47

I wonder how long it will take for natural selection to give us copper-tolerant slugs?

B3

No slugs are scissor - tolerant😉

Lizzie27

I've got a small hosta surrounded with a grit mulch in a pot with the copper tape round it, stood on a holey metal table in the courtyard which is getting nibbled - how? there's no snail/slug underneath and none seen in the compost. It happens every year - are the critturs abseiling off the wall? Parachuting in? My big hosta pot stood in a large saucer of water on the paving nearby (also with copper tape) doesn't get touched.

Nollie

I don’t have a slug problem but do have a few snails - ordinary grit doesn’t work, I use volcanic rock, like a brownish-purple pumice (bigger pieces than grit) in a thick ring around my dahlias and this literally stops them in their tracks, I can see the slime trails leading up to the ring, but no further. It’s a plentiful local material for me, not sure if available in the UK...

But they do abseil from nearby plants. I have seen them crawl up salvia stems which then bend under their weight to form a bridge over the ring.

Could it be earwigs, @Lizzie27? They munch all sorts of leaves and are much more difficult to spot or catch in the act. Maybe try a couple of earwig traps on your hosta on the table and see if any turn up?