My favoured approach to rid the garden of slugs was to go out after dark with my torch (usually about midnight) and pick the pests off my plants, then disposing of them in various barbaric means. For example, stabbing with a pointy stick, snipping them in half or shaking them in salt bags. My neighbour initially thought I had lost my senses, wandering around the garden at such a late hour, but after an explanation, he was at it too. Unfortunately I forgot to mention to him that it is best to kill them, and so he decided to put them, still alive, into his wheelie bin. He kept his bin in his garage that was attached to his kitchen. Yes you’ve guessed it, his wife, who wasn’t best fond of things slimy, got up to find a mass invasion of her kitchen!

There are other ways to cut down on the number of slugs and snails and the damage they cause.

Slugs and Snails.

There are about 30 types of slugs and snails. Not all of them are pests, although I wouldn’t be able to spot a friendly slug myself! The largest ones seem to be the least harmful to plants as they mainly live on dead organic matter. It’s the small slugs that do the most damage, some of which live underground and eat the plant roots.

So how can we keep slugs at bay?

My lad just collects them and keeps them as pets in a jam jar on the bookcase. As I can't see this being a popular option, how about my mother in laws concentration camp. She collects slugs in a large tub with a lettuce leaf and once a week takes them to her friend who keeps ducks.

Other methods include:

Keep the area near vulnerable plants clear of dead foliage.

Check in damp places nearby, under pots and stones etc destroying any slugs you find.

Attract wildlife into your garden such as birds and frogs. They will happily do the work for you.

With slug pellets, always follow the instructions carefully. Traditional pellets are not ecologically friendly as they are poisonous to birds as well as people (be careful if small children are around). There are some eco-friendly products around if you can find them. Those containing aluminium sulphate are less harmful although they are only effective until it rains (or you water).

Beer traps are set by sinking containers filled with flat beer around the garden. The slugs fall in and drown. Clean them out regularly.

Divert the slugs from your favourite plants by putting bran in a terracotta pot and lay it on its side.

For plants in containers, try putting Vaseline around the rim of the pot. This tends to get a bit dirty after a while so try winding thin copper wire around the pot. The slugs and snails feel a shock from the naturally occurring electrical current and turn back.

Crush and bake egg shells to scatter around the plants. Sharp gravel or soot would also be effective.

Introduce biological control in the form of parasitic slug nematodes in spring. These work well on the root-eating slugs.

More on slugs

Here are some ideas that people sent in:

Fill a jar with cheap beer and sink it into the ground. The boozed up slugs can then be put on the compost bin. S.M

Place the skins of half cut grapefruit, cut side down, around vulnerable plants. Collect the sleepy slugs underneath EJ.

Bake eggshells and grind them up into sharp grit. A scattering around plants will keep the slugs off. M.C.

Put a smear of Vaseline around the pots. JF.

The next suggestions were all from Anne Martin, who seems to have most of the slugs in the country in her garden!

Collect them with a brush and pan in the small hours and release them in the wild.

Use a sawdust barrier. The wood working places locally will usually give you a bag for free.

Encourage frogs into your garden.

Hostas seem well protected with pea gravel. Scatter this around the base of tender plants.

Put boards and sheets of black polythene or carpet down around the beds in spring. The slugs hide under these and I collect them up and “re-home” them. This depopulates them before the serious breeding starts

Grow strawberries in copper containers. The slugs don’t like the metal as it holds an electrical charge.

Garlic spray

Garlic spray is great for getting rid slugs and other pests such as wireworms, caterpillars and weevils. Chop 3oz (75g) of garlic and mix with two teaspoons full of mineral oil. Leave for twenty-four hours to let the garlic soak in to the oil. After this time, add a pint (575ml) of water into which two teaspoons of soft soap have been added. Stir thoroughly and strain into plastic containers to store. To use, dissolve one part of this mixture to twenty parts of water. Spray this on to the leaves of affected vegetables and also treat the soil around the plants.

Slug resistant plants.

With all this talk of mulching, some people have expressed their concern over the increasing slug population; this need not be a problem as the salt in the seaweed could help keep them down.

Wood ash would help, or any of the standard methods, like drowning them in beer or throwing them over the fence. One remedy to this annual problem would be to put in plants that slugs won't touch. Now I’m not too sure whether there are really any plants that a hungry slug wouldn’t eat but they obviously favour some plants to others.

There is an A to Z list of slug resistant plants here... There are 92 different plants in the list, and most of them are pretty common.

Here are a few to get you started.

Ajuga- groundcover for alpine beds.

Astilbe- popular herbaceous plant with attractive plumes.

Choisya- fragrant, evergreen shrub.

Poached egg plant- good groundcover, attracts hoverflies. Pinks (dianthus) flower all summer.

If you have any more ideas, please let us know.

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