Henergy Posted May 8, 2011 Share Posted May 8, 2011 Hi all, I'm just about to start filling my raised bed with veggies, and wondered what to use for slug protection. Obviously the girls will eat any slugs but I'm not intending for them to get near the veggies, so any ideas ? I saw some Westland Slug Blocker gel which is supposed to be animal friendly - but not sure that its totally organic & would prefer to keep on that route. Many thanks Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
gongladosh Posted May 8, 2011 Share Posted May 8, 2011 I'd say a chicken IS a slug remedy Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
surfer_chicken Posted May 8, 2011 Share Posted May 8, 2011 Unfortunately for us, although a chicken is a good slug remedy- they eat more of the plants then the slugs would. I don't know any officially chicken friendly slug treatment though, as we keep the chickens well away from the veggies. One thing I could suggest though, is a trick we tried last year. You dig a hole in the ground near the plants you want to protect, put a container in the hole (such as half a drinks bottle) and then fill the container with cheap beer or larger. The slugs are more attracted to the sweet beer than your plants and drown. I don't think beer would be very chicken friendly, but better than pesticide and hopefully they won't try to drink it Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lavenders_Blue Posted May 8, 2011 Share Posted May 8, 2011 Copper tape is a good slug deterrant. You can buy it from garden centres. It might be very costly if you have a large raised bed or several small ones though. You can put spent coffee grounds around the base of your plants, apparently slugs don't like crawling over them. You can also put porridge oats around your veggies, they may be tempted to eat these and.... well slugs are mostly made of water so you can work out the rest. The other option is to go on a daily slug hunt, pick them off your veggies and throw them in for the girls, yummy!! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
surfer_chicken Posted May 8, 2011 Share Posted May 8, 2011 Ooh, and a great one for chicken keepers! Keep your left over egg shells and bake them (we normally leave them at the bottom of the oven when dinner's on). Then crush them up and scatter them around plants to make the ground very uncomfortable to crawl on. However, once again we found our chickens just liked to eat the shells. It's not harmful to them, but the shells didn't stay scattered around the base of the plants for very long. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Henergy Posted May 8, 2011 Author Share Posted May 8, 2011 You can also put porridge oats around your veggies, they may be tempted to eat these and.... well slugs are mostly made of water so you can work out the rest. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Nobby65 Posted May 8, 2011 Share Posted May 8, 2011 Hi what you need are nematodes like this brand Nemaslug Nematodes The Benefits of Nemaslug Slug Killer: Easy to apply Extremely Effective Harmless to children, pets, birds and wildlife. Unlike many chemicals, Nemaslug can assist wildlife in combating pests without posing a risk to wildlife itself. Nemaslug is perfectly safe to use on food crops Apply Nemaslug just once every 6 weeks Nemaslug isn't washed away by rain (unlike pellets) hope this is of help regards "Ooops, word censored!"by Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lewis Posted May 11, 2011 Share Posted May 11, 2011 We tried the crushed up egg shells and coffee grounds too. I don't bake them 'cos they can tend to stink a bit, just make sure you rinse them and then microwave them for 30 seconds Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
