Copper slug tape

[Moo]

It doesn't have to be a plank - old carpet will have the same effect.

I'm told, however, that it's the little slugs that do the damage - the big ugly ones are quite harmless (though it wasn't explained what exactly they do eat).

 

[Lime]

Going back to the original point, lead will stop moss growing too.

 

[FamilyWiggs]

sorry to be off thread

You'll have to try harder than that to go off-thread shelli - maybe throw in a few comments about the Usbekistan coal mining industry, or quadratic equations, and you might be on to something. Even then, I'll wager someone here will link it back to period property somehow...

 

[still_adrianth]

On the roof thing:
The first few Google hits of a search on COPPER MOSS seem relevant, including a company making copper to sit on roof ridges. But they don't cite any science/evidence: surely they would if there was any? That doesn't mean it doesn't work...

On the slug.snail thing:
As Geoff said, if you make a mini electric fence for them, that must certainly work. But what as the copper oxidises then carbonates? As these surface layers aren't conductive, I guess it would stop working. Manufacturers of copper rings claim effectiveness with just the copper, no battery.

I'm on my second garden with a big slug/snail problem. I'm not squeamish, so I haven't looked at pouring salt on them: I'd rather kill them quickly. Maybe the most humane thing to do would be to freeze them - that's how biologists kill such animals they aren't allowed to release. But my record slug/snail collection count is 300 in one night (it's just a normal sized garden!), and I don't really want that in our freezer. At first I released them somewhere else, then I worried I was messing up the ecosystem to which I was transporting them. Then I started chopping off their heads where they stood, with scissors. There were so many, this got smelly in summer. Then I read about a method that works for me: half-fill a bucket with water and squirt a load of bio-degradable washing-up liquid in, Go out at night with a head torch and gloves and pick them up and drop them in. You get good at spotting them, and being in the garden after dark can be nice. Without the washing-up liquid they can crawl out of the bucket, with it they drown. Then in daylight, dig a hole and bury them. I don't like killing things, but this is the best solution I've found. How come gardening involves genocide? Hey ho...

At first I thought our problem was because all the cats were chasing away the hedgehogs that would eat the slugs. But research turns-up that hedgehogs don't eat that many of them, and in fact should be discouraged from doing so because of a nasty virus that kills hedgehogs. What are really handy are slow worms. We have them --- because we have so many slugs? Unfortunately Mrs T has a snake phobia that extends to them, but I hope one day a love of dahliahs will prevail. The slow worms are staying, and the law is on my side

A.

 

[Gareth Hughes]

On the slug.snail thing:
... Then I read about a method that works for me: half-fill a bucket with water and squirt a load of bio-degradable washing-up liquid in, Go out at night with a head torch and gloves and pick them up and drop them in. You get good at spotting them, and being in the garden after dark can be nice. Without the washing-up liquid they can crawl out of the bucket, with it they drown. Then in daylight, dig a hole and bury them. I don't like killing things, but this is the best solution I've found. How come gardening involves genocide? Hey ho...
A.

The late Geoff Banks of "Gardeners' World" fame recommended sinking a few cups level with the soil, and half filling them with beer. Ths slugs find their own way in and die a glorious death.

 

[Nemesis]

Or even Geoff Hamilton?

Waste of beer though. Orange and lemon halves (skin only) turned upside down collect them.

New orgainic slug pellets work too, claimed safe for wildlife.

http://www.theonlinegardener.com/product.asp?prod=1007848&np=c

 

[Gareth Hughes]

Or even Geoff Hamilton?

Oh Lord, yes and I should know coz I worked on the church where he's buried

 

[Feltwell]

Waste of beer though.

I don't know, the slugs aren't fussy - I found Tesco value lager (to call that beer really should be an offence under the Trade Descriptions Act...) to work very well, and you only need use a little at a time.

They really do seem to be attracted to the smell of beer. Bit grim emptying the pots though, especially after a few days of warm weather......

 

[Penners]

They really do seem to be attracted to the smell of beer.

Surely not all slugs. There must be some female ones, too.

 

[Flyfisher]

Slugs are hemaphrodites, so perhaps they only get half-[Bad Word].

 

[shelli]

:lol: :lol:

 

[Penners]

Oh, go and ****** yourself!

 

[shelli]

Oh, go and ****** yourself!

Mr P - this profanity is so unlike you - have you been down to the town centre again ?!

 

[Penners]

Profanity? :?