What is the best way to protect my plants from snails?? I have tried... egg shells, coffee, beer and gravel... but still snails get to my plants.. other than the snail pellets... is there another humane way of getting rid of these pests?
Copper tape or bands Jan77 - expensive but they work. The slugs and snails won't crawl over copper, not sure how it works, something to do with a reaction between the metal and the slug/snail slime - gives them a bit of a shock apparently.
Jan I can't kill them either. I take them and throw them over the field opposite. They almost certainly return as they are like homing pigeons! A friend of mine put nail varnish on the back of one and took it to the wood at the far end of her garden. It took a couple of weeks but it came back. Frogs, hedgehogs and thrushes are the most efficient way of getting rid of the pesky creatures. I have a small pond so I encourage the frogs to come and I know I have a visiting hedgehog as he spent the winter in my compost heap. Good luck with eradicating yours.
Copper strips are very very effective but very very expensive. You can really only use copper on pots to keep the slugs from creeping over the edge. I've found that the hate lemon peel and orange peel, but it's not the prettiest thing to have scattered around. Some people find that those bags of cocoa chippings from the garden centre work well.
If you have a compost heap, you can put any slugs and snails you find onto the heap. They will help the worms and woodlice to break down all your kitchen scraps and old newspapers. Putting a bit of black plastic sheet on top of the heap will encourage them to stay there where there is lots for them to be getting on with and they won't be so tempted to go looking for your plants.
I thought my garden was over run with slugs and snails, there does seem to be a lot this year and no amount of pellets has stoped my plants being eaten but there's been alot of cabbage white butterflies fluttering about. Could also be caterpillars eating your plants.
I put any I find now in the compost bin, they seem quite happy to stay in there even when I leave the lid off for a while and the potted plants have had a year off from being snail food. A seperate subject no doubt but I find most of them on the bird feeders these days, not sure what they like so much about the seeds...
Someone posted on the forum recently - sorry can't remember who - about organic slug pellets which are available on an eco friendly site. If I can find the post I'll put the name of it on here!
I use sharp grit fro mine and also simply try and grow plants which are less susceptible. I also used sandpaper round my pots earlier this year as an experiment and it worked very well. Was thinking of patenting it!
It's a place where beautiful isn't enough of a word....
I live in west central Scotland - not where that photo is...
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Copper tape or bands Jan77 - expensive but they work. The slugs and snails won't crawl over copper, not sure how it works, something to do with a reaction between the metal and the slug/snail slime - gives them a bit of a shock apparently.
Late night slug hunting, also great fun if you have kids
thanksStacey and Paula...... copper sounds interesting.... not so sure about the slug hunt.... where do i put them when i have gathered them??
Jan I can't kill them either. I take them and throw them over the field opposite. They almost certainly return as they are like homing pigeons! A friend of mine put nail varnish on the back of one and took it to the wood at the far end of her garden. It took a couple of weeks but it came back. Frogs, hedgehogs and thrushes are the most efficient way of getting rid of the pesky creatures. I have a small pond so I encourage the frogs to come and I know I have a visiting hedgehog as he spent the winter in my compost heap. Good luck with eradicating yours.
My garden hate. Slipped on one of those big ones last year.I fell and broke my wrist. So its slug pellets for them!!
Copper strips are very very effective but very very expensive. You can really only use copper on pots to keep the slugs from creeping over the edge. I've found that the hate lemon peel and orange peel, but it's not the prettiest thing to have scattered around. Some people find that those bags of cocoa chippings from the garden centre work well.
If you have a compost heap, you can put any slugs and snails you find onto the heap. They will help the worms and woodlice to break down all your kitchen scraps and old newspapers. Putting a bit of black plastic sheet on top of the heap will encourage them to stay there where there is lots for them to be getting on with and they won't be so tempted to go looking for your plants.
I thought my garden was over run with slugs and snails, there does seem to be a lot this year and no amount of pellets has stoped my plants being eaten but there's been alot of cabbage white butterflies fluttering about. Could also be caterpillars eating your plants.
I put any I find now in the compost bin, they seem quite happy to stay in there even when I leave the lid off for a while and the potted plants have had a year off from being snail food. A seperate subject no doubt but I find most of them on the bird feeders these days, not sure what they like so much about the seeds...
Someone posted on the forum recently - sorry can't remember who - about organic slug pellets which are available on an eco friendly site. If I can find the post I'll put the name of it on here!
I use sharp grit fro mine and also simply try and grow plants which are less susceptible. I also used sandpaper round my pots earlier this year as an experiment and it worked very well. Was thinking of patenting it!
I live in west central Scotland - not where that photo is...
I like that idea. Any particular grade of sandpaper FG?