The lazy way to try to protect your crops is to scatter pellets about. They can be made of methiocarb or metaldehyde and manufacturers insist that if you use them according to instructions they are safe and will not harm birds, hedgehogs and other slug eaters.
Of course, many people don’t follow instructions. They may scatter them too thickly. One every few inches is really enough. Too many will actually repel slugs instead of attracting them and provide a toxic pile for other animals. Dogs and children can be stupid enough to eat them and die unpleasantly. They can fall into ponds and see off your fish.
Methiocarb is the most dangerous and expensive but concerns have been expressed about either chemical being absorbed into the plants we eat. Sentimental gardeners can be upset by carnage the following morning – an explosion of mucus on the ground and piles of dried up bodies. Are there better alternatives?
The first question is why we kill slugs and snails at all. There are many types. The most common are the grey and brown varieties, one of which has a bright orange skirt. Walk about your lawn on a warm wet night and you may be surprised how many you meet, often 3-4 inches long and looking for juicy plants to ruin. The shock horror big black six inch monster you may also meet is actually fairly harmless by comparison, and most damage of all will be done by the tiny ones curled up inside the lettuce which you don’t even see until you start making the sandwich. Or eating it. If you want to kill, get the little devils first.
But do you have to? Buddhist gardeners can actually save their plants by attracting slugs and snails to a central place then just moving them elsewhere. Any damp place might attract them – a stone or flower or flat board suitably propped. You can increase the appeal with upended cabbage leaves or grapefruit halves, orange peel or any decaying green matter. Let them gather, scoop them up and - ah, well then what? Left in your garden they will return. Thrown next door they will still return, along with an angry neighbour. You can put them in the compost to help break down the rotting layers, but once that is done they’ll be back again for more. Especially soft-hearted gardeners have been known to motor into the countryside, but remember to put a lid on the bucket first. Even one slug in the boot leaves a whopping trail overnight and its very hard to get off.
More casual slayers will just walk round on a damp night, hunting by torch or moonlight to pick up what they find and place them in a bucket of water. What do you do with a hundred slugs in a bucket, all trying to get back out again? The drain is tempting but better is to use salt water, cover and empty onto the compost in the morning. Then again, too much salt is bad for the soil. Really hard-hearted slayers use a large knife and just slash them where they crawl. Not a pretty sight, but effective. And, to some, cathartic. But not just after a large meal.
For a long time I favoured the compromise of a beer trap. Bury a container of beer and in the morning it is full of dead slugs. They have four noses and a taste for yeasty liquid, so genetically we are both removed and yet strangely related. Obviously, emptying pints of the best real ale into the ground is a painful experience. I tried the cheap supermarket lager but even slugs don’t really want it so you won’t catch nearly as many. Ideally, you can buy a barrel for yourself then use the yeasty residue when it is over. They love it and you’ll catch hundreds. But there are drawbacks.
I went out one night and saw dozens of slugs and snails drinking greedily round the edges of The Munchers Arms. By the following morning they had staggered away to sleep it off somewhere safe. It has to be deep and steep enough to let them drop in and not crawl out again.
Beetles and even the proverbial newt have fallen in over time. The answer is to raise the lip of the container a few inches.
Also, of course, you have to empty it. If you leave it too long it smells. I use a ladle the following morning and just leave them on the earth as a marinaded offering, although, I’ve never actually seen anything eat them.
Apparently it also works with honey and even milk, but you don’t feel the same warm glow that you let them go out smiling.
If you want to use nature at its most pitiless, you can buy ‘nematodes’. They are parasites that you mix and water on the ground. Microscopic organisms enter the slugs to kill them from within. After which they sneak off to find a fresh sluggy host. But they don’t like manure, so that’s a limitation. Also, it encouraged odd nightmares.
If you want to use clever science you can use copper strips as a physical barrier, although your garden will start to look like an old scrapyard after a while so you might be better off with sharp sand or grit or soot or broken egg shells. All of these work to some extent, but rain or careless handling will break down the barrier. You can use plastic bottles as a kind of mini cloche, if you have enough and don’t mind the sight of them. Make sure you don’t just provide a nice warm home for hatching the eggs you trapped inside the area.
Mainly, of course, you need to keep the area clean, pick up or strip away dead leaves and use a hoe very often. If you don’t mind the garden looking just a shade too tidy. And you want to drive away all the hedgehogs and toads because they have nothing to eat. In theory, if you bring in enough predators, like slow worms, blackbirds, owls, frogs and centipedes – they do the job for you. I have never found they do it well enough. Perhaps I should get a duck.
Balance is all. Plant enough for you and a small number of your slimy brethren to share. Only if they get too greedy do you really have to worry. And if you bought that barrel, as suggested, you may not care.
