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Slug on my Raised Bed, They're driving me Mad!!!!!
A while ago, I got a raised bed for my garden to grow some veg. I carefully prepared the soil, then added loads and loads of compost and slow acting fertiliser. I put some copper banding all round the top to keep slugs out.
After planting out the seedlings I'd grown from seed, mainly salad crops. I also sowed some carrot seeds, and planted pak choi. They were all coming along nicely.
Last week I got some Nemaslug in the post and watered that into the garden following the instructions.
I've also had to put netting over a frame which slots into the raised bed to keep cats off (including my own !!)
But !! this morning I've been out and taken at least a dozen slugs off the raised bed, some of my french bean seedlings had been munched and a lot of the lettuce leaves.
I'm feeling very disheartened, as it's my first real attempt at growning veg, and I don't know what else I can do.
Any suggestions.
After planting out the seedlings I'd grown from seed, mainly salad crops. I also sowed some carrot seeds, and planted pak choi. They were all coming along nicely.
Last week I got some Nemaslug in the post and watered that into the garden following the instructions.
I've also had to put netting over a frame which slots into the raised bed to keep cats off (including my own !!)
But !! this morning I've been out and taken at least a dozen slugs off the raised bed, some of my french bean seedlings had been munched and a lot of the lettuce leaves.
I'm feeling very disheartened, as it's my first real attempt at growning veg, and I don't know what else I can do.
Any suggestions.
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Comments
A thick band/layer of crushed shells can help persuade them to stay back.
I am loathe to use the blue pellets but quite frankly, they are the only thing that I find really protect my Hosta and baby peas/beans from being decimated by our huge snail and slug population...
The best organic slug killers is to put a cup, tub or some sort of container into the soil so the lip is level with the soil and fill it with lager or beer - just any cheap stuff will do. Slugs love the stuff, they go in for a drink and drown drunk.
Here you go..this is what I mean, an attractive image for you.
http://www.noematic.org/appalachia/archives/garden/slugs.jpg
Last suggestions would be to use these guys, http://www.defenders.co.uk/pest-problems/slugs.html
They'll send you through a predator of slugs to release - not tried the slugs one but had a predator for aphids and it worked really well (apart from freaking out the postie who had to deliver the package with 'BEWARE LIVE CONTENTS' printed all over in bright red!!!
http://www.nemasysinfo.com/slugs.shtml
Also, edge the bed with coarse sand, the wider an edge the better and the coarser the sand the better.
OP's already done that.
My granny uses beer traps and they work well - but quite unpleasant to empty. Also if you're feeling like a bit of a sadist, pouring salt on them kills them - but you have to catch them in the act for that.
http://www.organiccatalog.com/catalog/product_info.php?cPath=61_179&products_id=1848
Maybe the slugs you've seen are just the hardy, wrinkled old veterans that have survived? If you saw only six slugs then that doesn't really sound too bad.
The coffee grounds and crushed egg shells sounds a good idea, but I'd need to collect a lot of eggs and I've been putting them in my compost bin, sand would be good though.
Thanks.
they melt just like the wicked witch:D
Someone else had a thread here about this that was quite comical. The poster reckoned s/he had put slug pellets all round the outide of the house and had therefore effectively confined them to barracks. Another poster, or two, suggested that slugs need water and can't survive for very long on your carpet etc. You need to take a good look at your outside walls I think, and fill in any cracks where the slimy little devils could squeeze through.
A mixture of salt and slug pellets at the walls nearest their trails might help too? Now.... I love animals, y'know, the friendly furry kind. Slugs - I couldn't give a big rat's ass about them and their 'right to life'.