I can vouch for the fact that the garlic spray really works . I have used it for three years now and have beautiful hostas no holes in any of them. I spray once a week with the solution and whoopee no sl;ugs or snails. I also have wto hedgehogs I feed every night so don't want to use slug pellets
Dont worry - its a bit of a myth hedgehogs gorge themselves on slugs . They only make up around 5% of their diet. They much prefer other things like insects and beetles.
Slugs arent good for hedghogs as slugs carry lungworm, which causes the hog to die a slow painful death from pneumonia.
I do use pellets very sparingly in my garden, because despite my garden being frequented by three hogs, I have millions of slugs. What I dont get by catching by hand (in glove) and putting in the green recycling bin, eat the pellets, crawl back underground and dont come back. I use ferrous pellets as they are supposidly less toxic to wildlife and can be used near food crops.
I believe slugs that are grey in colour and have a pattern like leopard skin (they are sometimes called leopard slugs, would you believe), are to be encouraged because they tend to eat only dead stuff and other slugs (orange and black ones).
Beware if picking up slugs and if doing so wear gloves or wash your hands straight afterwards. They do carry parasites that can cause parasite-induced meningitis in humans.
Thanks very much for all the info re slugs and hedgehogs. I feed the hogs every night with nwildlife food from the petshop supplemented by bits of chicken and dried fruit. They seem to enjoy it as the bowl is cleared every night. They also like a drink of water my bowl is emptied most nights
one friendly sort of way to get rid of slugs is to put a few dog biscuits down and they will come each night to the same spot ,now you can rid of them like you wish or the local fox / Hedgehog will eat them and the remaining biscuits.slugs are an on going battle as they will of laid their eggs in soil so dig around and if you see any white dot like eggs feed them to your fish.
Posts
I can vouch for the fact that the garlic spray really works . I have used it for three years now and have beautiful hostas no holes in any of them. I spray once a week with the solution and whoopee no sl;ugs or snails. I also have wto hedgehogs I feed every night so don't want to use slug pellets
Slugs arent good for hedghogs as slugs carry lungworm, which causes the hog to die a slow painful death from pneumonia.
I do use pellets very sparingly in my garden, because despite my garden being frequented by three hogs, I have millions of slugs. What I dont get by catching by hand (in glove) and putting in the green recycling bin, eat the pellets, crawl back underground and dont come back. I use ferrous pellets as they are supposidly less toxic to wildlife and can be used near food crops.
I believe slugs that are grey in colour and have a pattern like leopard skin (they are sometimes called leopard slugs, would you believe), are to be encouraged because they tend to eat only dead stuff and other slugs (orange and black ones).
Beware if picking up slugs and if doing so wear gloves or wash your hands straight afterwards. They do carry parasites that can cause parasite-induced meningitis in humans.
Thanks very much for all the info re slugs and hedgehogs. I feed the hogs every night with nwildlife food from the petshop supplemented by bits of chicken and dried fruit. They seem to enjoy it as the bowl is cleared every night. They also like a drink of water my bowl is emptied most nights
one friendly sort of way to get rid of slugs is to put a few dog biscuits down and they will come each night to the same spot ,now you can rid of them like you wish or the local fox / Hedgehog will eat them and the remaining biscuits.slugs are an on going battle as they will of laid their eggs in soil so dig around and if you see any white dot like eggs feed them to your fish.
http://www.cf.ac.uk/biosi/staffinfo/wocs2.html
Useful and interesting stuff on here about slugs, the good(ish) the bad and the very ugly. Also developments in controlling the damage.