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Post by housesparrow on Jun 4, 2009 6:58:42 GMT
My friend puts out beer in a saucer - cheep lager does best, she says.
Here's some more tips from today's Times.
Celia Brooks Brown
I just returned from the lottie with a watermelon. Not one I grew myself mind, but a 8.5kg specimen purchased from the Turkish grocery, Milas, which stands half way between the plot and home. This fab little shop provides me with many handy gardening items like plastic knives (for plant labels) and empty potato bags (to use instead of giant pots), not to mention essential refreshments. I’ve got a plot-themed strategy with the watermelon too: slug bait.
Last week’s wet weather, as predicted, brought on a slime-led massacre. The worst of the casualties were my newly planted-out Florence fennels – four out of six were razed to the ground. I gushed my sorrows on Twitter, and immediately received a flood of consoling tweets with helpful suggestions. @foodurchin recommended beer traps to “send them to a boozy grave”. (Nope, tried that one and not a single corpse to show for it.)
Sprinkling used coffee grounds seems to have worked for @catlily72, and @ianphischer offered the very sensible advice to water early in the morning rather than the evening so slugs don’t come at night. @tammysassin swears by this method: “Put watermelon rinds out at night. Slugs will collect on them. Incinerate in morning for revenge!” Hence my watermelon purchase. At 79p a kilo, this may be the most expensive anti-slug warfare yet, but at least I get the added bonus of some watermelon-y feasting, starting this lunchtime with this delectable salad from food blogger Helen Graves.
Any more slug death tips?
All suggestions welcome, as my runner beans are increasingly looking like miniature cheese plants.
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Post by Patrick on Jun 4, 2009 11:13:51 GMT
Well, they seem to like my kitchen rather a lot - but I couldn't do without it I'm afraid! God knows how or where they get in - though I have a feeling they can squeeze between the floorboards! Rob McKellwee rather lasciviously talked about a wet day on Sunday, let us hope and pray that the prediction I've posted here from the met office at the beginning of May comes true and that the change in the weather this weekend isn't "THE" change that we have come to expect in June in recent years as Summer becomes it's usualy deluge! It's been nice and dry so far, so if we can have a bit of warmth to dry the b----rs up it would be welcome. Oh, Housey - they say chickens are good! ;D
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Post by housesparrow on Jun 4, 2009 18:14:29 GMT
Slugs used to squeeze into our kitchen underneath the skirting board from the outside. Goodness knows how they did it, but once I put some salt on one and watched it disintegrate.
I felt like an acid murderer. At least if you drown 'em in lager they'll have died happy.
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Post by everso on Jun 4, 2009 18:45:17 GMT
Well, they seem to like my kitchen rather a lot - but I couldn't do without it I'm afraid! God knows how or where they get in - though I have a feeling they can squeeze between the floorboards! Rob McKellwee rather lasciviously talked about a wet day on Sunday, let us hope and pray that the prediction I've posted here from the met office at the beginning of May comes true and that the change in the weather this weekend isn't "THE" change that we have come to expect in June in recent years as Summer becomes it's usualy deluge! It's been nice and dry so far, so if we can have a bit of warmth to dry the b----rs up it would be welcome. Oh, Housey - they say chickens are good! ;D Chickens like slugs, apparently. My daughter, having moved from town to village is investing in some chickens. I'm wondering whether I could persuade Mr. E. I've always had a soft spot for coopies.
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Post by housesparrow on Jun 4, 2009 19:47:29 GMT
Chickens would be short lived in my garden. The foxes are so brave they sometimes come in the house if we leave the door open.
Besides, if the idea of keeping hens is to eat the slugs, wouldn't they then eat my beans, thuis defeating the object?
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Post by Deleted on Jun 5, 2009 22:30:29 GMT
Chickens would be short lived in my garden. The foxes are so brave they sometimes come in the house if we leave the door open. Besides, if the idea of keeping hens is to eat the slugs, wouldn't they then eat my beans, thuis defeating the object?Just make sure that you hide the tin opener !
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sinistral
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Post by sinistral on Jun 16, 2009 0:44:50 GMT
Any more slug death tips? All suggestions welcome, as my runner beans are increasingly looking like miniature cheese plants. Well....not exactly a death trap..... When my plants are very small and tender I use good old fashioned slug pellets. Then as the summer moves on I wait for a rainy day.Late in the evening,but while it's still light,I go round with a plastic bag collecting slugs and snails.......then I take them for a walk. We have fields close by so I just give them a new home!
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Post by Patrick on Jun 16, 2009 10:16:40 GMT
Well....not exactly a death trap..... When my plants are very small and tender I use good old fashioned slug pellets. Then as the summer moves on I wait for a rainy day.Late in the evening,but while it's still light,I go round with a plastic bag collecting slugs and snails.......then I take them for a walk. We have fields close by so I just give them a new home! I put mine on a dustpan and see how far I can chuck 'em! I've heard they explode if they're moving fast enough!
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Post by jean on Jun 16, 2009 16:02:00 GMT
The problem with slug pellets is that they'll see off the predators too. I'm sure one reason we have no hedgehogs on our allotments is that people have used slug pellets so enthusiastically for so long.
I confess I do use them a bit, though - especially id I'm going away for a few days. I try to get the organic ones, but they're the same turquoise colour so I can't appear virtuous.
We've used beer traps with some success.
The most effective measure, though, was OH's enthusiastic removal of ALL the grass and other weeds, so they have nowhere to hide.
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sinistral
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Post by sinistral on Jun 16, 2009 18:03:18 GMT
It's the same with our allotments Jean.......hedgehogs long gone. However there are song thrushes close by so I always net where there are pellets. At home in the garden we do have hedgehogs so I only use pellets in tubs when the bedding plants are small and vulnerable and then the hedgehogs can't get at the corpses.
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Post by housesparrow on Jun 16, 2009 19:35:29 GMT
Oh dear, it is all too late. The beans are has-beens.
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sinistral
Lovely, Happy & Gorgeous!
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Post by sinistral on Jun 16, 2009 21:41:20 GMT
Oh dear, it is all too late. The beans are has-beens. Her little beans have been and gone They simply could not carry on The slimy vandals had their way And munched to victory from the fray Dear Sparrers poles are standing bare No twining stems will gather there No healthy greens upon her plate For home grown veg she'll have to wait The moral of this little verse When off to Tesco,take your purse!
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Post by Flatypus on Jun 17, 2009 4:06:42 GMT
Sparrow had slug problems with beans? I used to have blackfly problems. Even with the top knocked off the little buggers were all over what top was left,. In fact I decided it was better to leave the tops on because they would cluster there where I didn't want the broads going anywhere, instead of lower down where they might interfere with actual bean 'production'. If Sini has broads, try sauteing the pods whole before the beans develop and they get that furriness inside. Also try growing hyssponm with them. It won't do a lot to put the blackfly off (I doubt that everything Saddam Hussein had could) but it tastes lovely with them, and is unusual. Next best bet, French Tarragon - Russian is rubbish.
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Post by jean on Jun 17, 2009 8:39:45 GMT
What a lovely sad poem, sinistral!
Slugs destroy runner beans - and then you're too late to plant any more; it's broad beans that blackfly go for.
You can sometimes avoid them by making an autumn sowing, but they may not survive the winter.
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Post by housesparrow on Jun 17, 2009 8:45:18 GMT
It seems to have been sinistral's swansong, jean.
Hope she comes back.
I had something black all over one runner bean plant. A friend suggested washing up liquid, but that killed the plant as well as the creepy crawlies. Slugs got the rest.
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