A couple of slug thoughts

NormandyLiz

I thought I'd share a couple of ideas, one I've tried and one I will. They may well have come up already but just in case they haven't...

This is my (frosty!) raised veg patch. It's made with old roof tiles, there was a stack behind an outbuilding and it seemed a good use of them. As you can see, there is a lip and I think it's that the confuses the slugs. It would appear, from slime trails, that they get to the top, look over the edge and then can't see how to deal with it. I wonder if it's that they are trying to go forwards towards the food and the lip takes them back. Whatever it is, the only places they seem to get in is where a leaf creates a bridge.

 
The other idea is one I'll try this year, mainly to protect new plants when they first go out into the big wide world. They use a fine mesh to protect newly planted trees from deer and boar in the forest. You can find bits and pieces from older plantations that are just left. Looking at it, it's got a very scratchy edge when cut. If I was a slug I'd not fancy crawling over that. So the thought is to make little protectors, not necessarily very high, to go round the most vulnerable plants, at least until they are established.

This is the mesh, each big square is 2cm

Joyce Goldenlily

Slugs do not necessarily go up and over obstacles. They also go down and under so I am not sure if your mesh will idea will work. However. it is worth a go.

Fairygirl

I think they'll also just go through the holes - the most damaging slugs are often the tiny ones which can squeeze through almost anything   

B3

The little black ones would get through but it might stop the fat juicy ones🤔

NormandyLiz

How tiny are those tiny black slugs? The small holes in the mesh are about 3mm. 

Good point about them going down, I'll do an experiment with digging the protectors in a bit deeper. 

But even if I can just deter those fat ones (that would otherwise be fatter on my brassicas), that'll be something. 

Fairygirl

We have slugs here that you can hardly see, and when they stretch themselves out - their bodies are  miniscule. They're a milky, mucky brown/beige 

In hot weather, slugs will get down very deep in the soil too, where it's cooler. 

NormandyLiz

And here was me thinking I might be onto something 

bédé

Fairygirl said:

In hot weather, slugs will get down very deep in the soil too, where it's cooler. 

And in cold weather they go deep as well.  I guess some never see the light of day.  Or the torch-lights of night-time searchers.

Dovefromabove

In the main the big slugs are the ones that eat the little slugs ... the little ones are the ones that eat our veg.  

B3

But not always. If you snip a fat slug it will often ooze your partially digested plants.

NormandyLiz

Our bigger slugs definitely eat the veg, they have been caught in the act  , especially in the bed by the boggy bit. Munch munch munch on the couple of endives I popped down there for want of anywhere else (it's all very much work in progress there).

I'll confess, though, I'm now totally confused. If the biggies eat the littlies, then do you need the biggies? And if so, why are all the slug deterrants out there focussed on the biggies crawling on the surface and not on the littlies? And how do you know you've got the littlies, apart from trashed veggies which could have been trashed by something else when you're not looking? Or should I just go for a lie down?