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13/05/2008, 14:44 Pierre ZFP Joined on 12/11/2004 PdC(62)/Luxembourg Posts 1,649 Re: dog friendly but fatal to slugs What about a SlugPub like THIS  ? I've used something similar to the above link for a while now and it's very effective.  Just share a little of your beer with your friends and watch them get err legless .  You do get the odd teatotaler who avoids the trap but it will get most and the dog is safe.  What a way to go! Fool me once, shame on you Fool me twice, shame on me Fool me 3 times and you can see a statistical tendency    Report

13/05/2008, 20:59 sweet 17 Joined on 05/08/2006 charente maritime Posts 2,045 Re: dog friendly but fatal to slugs Thanks, guys.  We still have walnuts from last year's crop and the eggshells will be a cinch.  So, will try those first. Pierre, I love the the name "SlugPub" but not sure I'd like emptying the traps.  Do you think they are connoiseurs and would only drink real ale or will the cheap, fizzy, nasty stuff from the supermarket work just as well? I used to love beer, especially after a long ramble in the summer.  The blissful moment when you take off the backpack, sit down in the garden of a pub and the first pint goes down smooth as honey......!  Happy days, but I have somehow lost the taste for beer.  Shame!    Report

14/05/2008, 13:03 tracteurtom Joined on 09/01/2007 19 Correze Posts 318 Re: dog friendly but fatal to slugs Slug pub, the things you folks spend your money on !!  Just use a glass jar, sink it 10 cms or so in the ground leaving 1 cm above ground and fill with beer.  The only cost is the beer and in France its cheaper than Cola so its not too bad ! Re the nut shells etc, make sure they are clean of any nut remains or otherwise you'll have a vermin problem. Also, consider doing a night prowl.  Fix a spike (thin knitting needle ?) to a stick and with that in one hand and a torch in the other, you can pick yourself 100s of slugs in a very short time.  Then just put them in some salt. Also, rotavating the ground helps as it kills many slugs and also destroys their eggs. Re the import of nematodes.  I'd be VERY wary of adding a none-native creature to my garden.  I know gardening it a fight with the bugs and diseases, but I can only think that adding another species is just asking for trouble, in years to come.  Also read that the companies selling these bugs are bogus as many do not hatch !  I think it was a Which Report ?    Report

14/05/2008, 21:53 sweet 17 Joined on 05/08/2006 charente maritime Posts 2,045 Re: dog friendly but fatal to slugs tracteurtom My, you are one hell of a knowledgeable guy; sensible too. Wish I could do the knitting needle thing but I am just too squeamish.  Might just about psyche myself up to picking the damn things up, wearing rubber gloves, and pitching them out into a field somewhere. I am due to ask my neighbour to bring his tractor round to dig up some old tree stumps so I'll ask him to give the ground a good old going over. On the plus side, some of the beans, etc in the veg patch are now growing quite well and so should be sturdy enough to withstand the little b*****s. Thanks again for taking an interest and giving me the benefit of your experience.    Report

16/05/2008, 12:10 sweet 17 Joined on 05/08/2006 charente maritime Posts 2,045 Re: dog friendly but fatal to slugs I'm about to put in lettuce plants and I'm  well armed to repel the horrible little brown, slimey creatures.  I have my pile of walnut shells (from the last of last year's crop) and we shall be eating eggs for a few days so that I can save the shells. Next, get out the jam jars and off to Intermarche for the beer (does it have to be the strong variety)?  I shall be merciless in battle and aim not to be magnanimous in conquest. Anyone wanting to know if these measures work can pm or email me or, if it's Slugs 0 Humans 1, I'll be back here to gloat!      Report

18/05/2008, 10:43 tracteurtom Joined on 09/01/2007 19 Correze Posts 318 Re: dog friendly but fatal to slugs Here's another one for you, I read this last night - Slugs hate wood ash !!!  Spread it around the plants and it'll also act as a fertiliser.  Win win cant be bad.  Only problem is that you will have to reapply after rain.    Report

18/05/2008, 10:45 sweet 17 Joined on 05/08/2006 charente maritime Posts 2,045 Re: dog friendly but fatal to slugs tracteurtom Reapply after rain!  But it's raining off and on 10 times a day at the moment.  Are you having me on or what?    Report

18/05/2008, 11:00 tracteurtom Joined on 09/01/2007 19 Correze Posts 318 Re: dog friendly but fatal to slugs I know what you mean LOL, the grass is taking over and I cant find a clear period to cut it !! Spent hours howing the other day and it needs doing again !!    Report

27/05/2008, 9:09 mossie Joined on 27/05/2006 Posts 83 Re: dog friendly but fatal to slugs I have just started my first potager but am getting some expert advice from an elderly French neigbour who has a completely perfect veg patch.  He turned up the other day with some young lettuce plants for me and a bucket of wood ash.  He has been gardening organically all his life and not one of the leaves of his crop have been nibbled, so I tend to value his advice.  He uses coffee grounds to deter the ants.  However he does not have a dog. I would be very reluctant to use slug pellets.  They kill the slugs but also then the animals which eat the slugs.  I have a friend who lost his Springer Spaniel because he ate some sort of pellet the farmer had put into his maize field.  Not the same thing I know but just shows how nasty these chemicals can be.  As the owner of a Springer and a maize field (farmed by a neighbour) of course this set alarms ringing.    Report

27/05/2008, 11:18 sweet 17 Joined on 05/08/2006 charente maritime Posts 2,045 Re: dog friendly but fatal to slugs Thanks, mossie.  I have not used pellets.  At the moment, the walnut- and egg-shells seem to be effective round the new lettuce plants.  And the beans are now too sturdy to be killed off by slugs. I do have a clematis which has struggled for over a year and every time the poor thing puts out a new leaf, it (the leaf) gets nibbled to its veins.  Gr.............    Report

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France Forum » Leisure and Pas... » Gardening » Re: dog friendly but fatal to slugs

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