Under attack!

My young vegetable plants have come under attack from a slimy old adversary; the slug.

A few weeks ago I planted out several Butternut Squash and Courgette plants, and two different types of beans, all of which I’d grown from seed. Just a few nights later, the slugs munched their way through the lot. Thankfully, I had a few spare plants left over, so I re-planted and have since take steps to protect them.

Dealing with slugs poses a real dilemma for the organic gardener. For me, using highly toxic slug pellets to kill these insatiable little pests is not an option. Aside from the fact that I have dogs, a cat and chickens in my garden, pellets also pose a threat to birds, hedgehogs and other wildlife. Plus, I’m opposed to the idea of using chemicals in my garden and determined to work with nature, rather than against it.

So, how best to tackle the problem? In the past I’ve tried all kinds of supposed solutions, from spreading used filter coffee and crushed egg shells around the base of my plants (disappointingly ineffective) to creating slug traps filled with beer (a waste of beer!) to lure slugs to their (highly alcoholic) death.

Reels of copper tape, available from garden centres, work well around the base of individual plant pots, but it would be very costly to put the tape all the way around the vegetable patch.



Copper tape around a pot containing young Courgette plants.

 Last year, I bought packs of Nematodes (roundworm) from a gardening website. You water these naturally-occurring, microscopic organisms into the soil and they kill off the slugs. Whilst this method did seem effective, it proved a rather expensive solution as you have to re-apply Nematodes to areas blighted by slugs several times during the growing season.

This year, for the time being at least, I’m using a combination of copper tape around my pots and Fito Slug Stoppa granules to create a barrier around the base of my vulnerable young plants. This has helped to keep the nasty little critters at bay so far, but every morning I check to make sure the barricade around each plant has not been breached.

I’ve also resorted to hand-picking slugs from the garden by torchlight and storing them in a box overnight before feeding them to my chickens for breakfast the next day.

Fito Slug Stoppa granules create a barrier around the base of plants.

I’m doing my best to encourage hedgehogs and birds to visit the garden and also considering introducing a small area of water in the hope of attracting frogs and toads – all of these creatures are natural predators of slugs and keep the population under control. In an ideal world, my chickens would free range over the entire garden devouring slugs as they went, but, the trouble is, that they’d also feast on my young vegetable plants too. I’m told that ducks pack away more than their fair share of slugs, but I’ve yet to convince my husband, Jonny, to add a couple of ducks to our menagerie; never say never!