Managing molluscs
This is an exciting time for crops, and for rampaging slugs and snails. Bob shows you how to keep things in check
YOU know the symptoms: large pieces missing from leaves, petals gone, even whole flowerbuds, trays of seedlings decimated, and tomatoes and strawberries developing holes overnight. This is nearly always because of slugs and snails, the gardener’s perpetual foe. It’s right now when the weather is warm and moist, and our plants are young and lush, that they do most damage. If we do not take action, they will carry on causing more damage, and risk many of our efforts going to waste.
So first, go out at night with a torch and see what is to blame. Often the molluscs will be the main offenders, but they may be aided and abetted by woodlice, millipedes and other critters such as cutworms.
You’ll soon see what is present and doing most harm. You can pick off the molluscs. Don’t throw them over the fence – it’s best to squash them, as it’s quick so most painless. However, you may need a car vacuum to catch those faster moving woodlice.
That said, you’ll never manage to get them all, even if you go out three or four times a night. So make some baited traps; any old unusable spuds or root vegetables, and even apples, can be halved, hollowed and left beside troubled crops. These can then be inspected and emptied twice weekly. Oddly, buttered cabbage leaves are also amazingly effective. Then there’s ‘slug pubs’, which are just saucers or bottle lids full of fruit juice or beer. If these are buried to the lip, the slugs will crawl in and happily drown themselves.
Finally, you can employ parasitic nematodes. Buy a packet through the post, squeeze the contents into a watering can and sprinkle the areas where the snails are a problem. They don’t wash their hands before feeding, so pick up nematodes and very soon the job’s done. Simple!
“It’s right now that they do most damage”