UKC

What do people use to deter slugs etc without resorting to slug pellets?

Oh, good question, I too will be interested in any suggestions. We have tried beer traps.

I'm trying the long haul approach. I've laid 4 pieces of thin board around the wigwam of runner beans and have regularly collected and disposed of the slugs that congregate underneath during the day and in drier times.  I have had some slug damage but it seems to have made a difference. 

I also concentrate on produce that slugs don't eat. Potatoes, leeks, onions, rhubarb and all fruit.

Apparently it can be good to plant some sacrificial plants that slugs prefer next to the plants you want to keep slug free.  

Once they've laid their eggs in your soil you're goosed. We put new soil in our veg patch this year and so far we are slug-free.

Hedgehogs.

Nemotode worms. Long term solution rather than short term deterrent. 

I shout at them.

It's mostly unsuccessful so far but I live in hope.

You could try frogs.

Or, as a suggestion by my chimney sweep, use soot. He says that the slugs will not pass a wide line of soot. You could also try beer-traps.

But the best bet is slug pellets. Don't forget to soak them in water first. The pellets, not the slugs.

Beer traps: bury a pot in the garden and fill with beer, this should attract the slugs and then they fall in.

Seaweed has a similar effect to putting salt on them. 

Presuming you don’t want living hedgehogs that’s true...

Sacrificial plants seem to work, chopping them up works too if lots of effort.

Beer traps are good but grim to empty! I have found the recommended copper tape to be ineffective. I did remove a load one year but found it a difficult approach to maintain! 

I once tried slug pellets, but they kept getting jammed in the barrel.

It's worth noting that there are 2 forms of slug pellets - the highly toxic metaldehyde pellets (which are due to disappear soon) and the Iron phosphate pellets, which are equally effective but far less toxic to non target species, and approved for organic gardening. 

Nightly trips round the garden with a headtorch, a pair of chopsticks and a tub of hot soapy water. It's possible to control the numbers fairly well, but is a bit cruel, which is why I gave up this approach.

Alternatively, grow radishes (easy, quick growing), and leave piles of radish leaves dotted about. Slugs/snails seem to prefer radish to other more precious veg..

Another vote for beer traps. Emptied regularly onto the compost heap.

Beer traps, no personal experience but my Dad had success with them. It didn't look like he needed to bury them for them to be full of slugs the next morning. 

Tongue in cheek method, get a fluffy cat. Our cat is quite adept at hoovering up the slugs in her fur when stalking through the undergrowth, horrible things to get out though.

I also used to go around the garden at night with a torch and a shovel playing a weird game of whack-a-mole.

I've been told to try copper (coins around potted clematis that's getting hammered) anyone tried?

Tried an seemed to fail.  Planted marigolds round, that worked (they died instead).

A pond with frogs seemed to make quite a difference for us - we still have some slugs but far fewer of them.

Trouble is cats do more damage from shitting in the veg plot than the slugs.

I plant sensitive plants in tubes (eg a plantpot with base cut out) sunk a couple of inches into the ground, it certainly doesn't stop slugs but acts as a barrier to deter/slow their advance. Ive also added copper tape to the pots but am not convinced it makes any difference. If needed I restrict use of slug pellets to inside the pots which prevents access by hedgehogs, generally though in all but very wet weather the physical barrier (and a daily roundup of trespassers who are relocated to the composter) is adequate. 

Uzi 9mm

They don't like coffee grounds or anything caffeinated. Old tea bags can work as well.

Any coffee shop will be happy to give you discarded coffee grounds.

Good for some plants as well.

They don't like salt, either.

Ducks will eat slugs if you let them into a veg patch. They tend to go for the slugs and the grass leaving veg alone. Some little call ducks are a pretty and comedic addition to a garden. 

I've resorted to selectively applying slug pellets under wire to keep the birds and beasts off, nothing else really works. Not sure pellets do either mind! I think actually it's birds pecking my courgettes but the wire will sort that, its definitely slugs that felled my early beans.

Bigger plants are more damage tolerant, planting them out more mature seems to help a lot.

jk

I tried coffee grounds, think it made the slugs hyper and munch even more strawberries. Have tried every slugmane way of dealing with them; gravel, sand, beer traps, citrus, copper tape with no success.

The best i found was to head out on a wet evening when they think they come out to play, put them in a bucket and relocate them. They will always win.

As others have said, natural methods are preferable to poison ie slug pellets.  Hedgehogs, if you've got them, are mustard.  Frogs too.  Nematode worms (which can be bought online) if you don't have either of the aforementioned.  Sacrificial planting can also work but seems a bit of a waste.

The slimy little buggers apparently won't cross crushed egg shells as it hurts them. The egg shell barrier needs to be a couple of inches wide. Obviously you need to prepare well in advance, unless you work in a bakery or a kitchen.

A knife, when it's damp and dark.

Thanks - I found the ferric Phosphate and we'll give those a go.

Apparently metaldehyde is being banned next year....

You need to fight on all fronts. Planted 60 runner bean plants and in 3 days the bottom leaves have been ravaged on all of them so there must have been a few of the little buggers.

1) treat with Nemotode worms. Though not cheap for a large area, especially as you have to reapply every 6 weeks. But they work. 

2) Beer traps. They also work but some would say just attract more slugs.

3) Going out at night with a torch and killing them.

Ideally tho it's best to just give them nowhere to live. They love wooden borders on beds for example. 

Coffee, cooper, egg shells. All just a loosing battle if you ask me. Especially if you have lots of crops to protect. It's just not gonna work. 

As above tho the best thing is to plant out things that are strong so sow them in trays or cells, grow them to pretty big and then plant em. Growing from seed in the ground is a PITA. 

A quick google shows several ads for wool pellets as an anti slug barrier which is non-toxic and degrades to form a soil nutrient.

I still think salt is better because it lets you see their pain.

Nemotodes are the only thing that actually works

There's been articles on the BBC recently about a university that's studying all the old wive's tales methods (eggshells, copper etc.) and none of them work.

My missus waters our crops in the morning so they're not so wet at night and reckons that makes a difference.

Another vote for nematodes. We have lots of hostas in our garden. The only one with slug holes is in a corner of the garden which didn't get treated with them.

That's interesting. We'll try that.

As much use as a chocolate teapot in my experience.

Beer does tend to taste better without dead garden pests in it (particularly shapeless snot-covered gloopy slugs). 

If other disposal methods are used (surely less grim!), it does seem like a waste of good beer (unless it is Tennent's Lager!).

A pond and frogs should do the job nicely for you!!!!!!!

You don’t need good beer. I have caught slugs with Tesco Value Lager and also with a pinch of bread yeast and some sugar in water.

Ask your local real ale pub if you can have some beer from their drip trays.

If I were a slug, I would plump for Furstenberg or Brewdog Elvis juice. Getting pissed to death in either of these wouldn't be the worst way to go.

I suppose a lottery winner wouldn't mind wasting such terrific beer!

Have tried sand around plants but it didn't seem effective and soon dispersed. One method which I haven't tried but sounds logical is putting out wet newspapers.....apparently they accumulate under them and they can then be disposed of by removing from locality or less humane method.

Mine must be a bunch of slackers, then!

I applied one treatment of nematodes last year and it seemed to make a huge difference (although how much of that was down to the dry summer is hard to tell). 

Previously I tried a combination of beer traps, wool pellets and copper tape and never saw much of a noticeable difference. A nightly trip with a torch and scissors was always needed in addition

Have you tried playing them a Jordan Peterson YouTube video?

I have raised beds so I've given this a go today.

https://www.instructables.com/id/Installing-and-testing-an-electric-slug-fe...

Will see how effective it is this season.

My mother collected about 350 live slugs per day, for about two seasons, and dropped them in a filed 100m away. This is obviously only feasible for OAPs, but it did lead to a marked reduction in slug density: My parents were able to grow kohlrabi, we grew skeletons that looked more like a cross of something from Alien and 1960s Star Trek (roots, a 3D web where the bulbs should have been, then the spines of the leaves).

CB

Crushed shells, some garden centres sell bags of them for slug and snail deterrent.

a handful of chickens strewn around the garden will do a great job of converting slugs into eggs.

My wife's gran used to pay her and her brother to do this when they were kids, a penny per slug/snail. Worked well.