Slug pancake

In response to your article on the slug pellet ban (Clippings, Nov issue), I accidentally found a great way to get rid of slugs. I feed ground-feeding birds on an old pancake griddle that I bring in at dusk in case it attracts rats. I went out late one evening and the pan was covered in slugs having a late snack. So I tipped them all into the garden bin.

Sandra Killey, by email

To prevent slugs and snails reaching your plants, use trays filled with water. Station

bricks or large stones at intervals, to rest your plants on. Alternatively, put large stones in drip trays. Make sure the leaves aren’t touching anything to form a bridge. You have to keep the water topped up; and after a while it might host insect larvae, but it’s natural, cost-effective, works and doesn’t harm creatures. In beds I’ve cut up pampas grass leaves, which are abrasive, to spread round brassicas and it’s had some effect.

Jeff Marsden, Lancashire