15th April 2012
Slugs ...arrrghhh! While I appreciate their right to life etc etc don't do it on my veg patches please, there is plenty of other wildlife patches for them to run/crawl/slide around on ..so keep off. The slugs got the upper hand last year, mainly wiping out seedlings planted out, so this year one of my 'research' projects is to, in a non-chemical, organic friendly way, out-wit the slug! ...but do I have the brain power?
My first thoughts on a plan of action are:
1) One thing that was very bad last year was not keeping on top of the maintenance. The grass and weeds got out of control in places. this gave the slugs hiding ground and thus the birds couldn't get at them. This year the grass is going to be kept short (and this should generate much more compost as well)
2) Slug traps - I have a friend well into home brewing so I have a great source of reject yeast gunge. Add water and sugar and it should ferment away for ages and get those slugs out on a fatal binge drinking session
3) Set up controlled places around the garden to attract the slugs. like a paving slab, a damp old carpet and inspect regularly and deal with them.
4) Do more to encourage natural predators. To be honest we do this well anyway and have lots of Slow-worms and toads. Maybe a small pond will attract more frogs.
5) The midnight run. Go out every now and then with a flash light and an arsenal of weaponry and catch them red handed.Pretty labour intensive and slimy but can make a big impact on the local population.


....OK anyone think of anything else I can be doing?