Slug pellets

[andy]

I know they're not very "PC" but i use them otherwise i wouldn't have any plants left....and very effective they are too.

Firstly, how many of you use them and secondly, when do you stop applying them.
My marigolds, nicotiana and petunias are all well established and growing well without any damage....but would you continue to apply a thin layer of pellets every week or after heavy rain ?......or do you stop applying once the plants are big enough ?

There's still some monster slugs out there which are eyeing up the growing tips of my cannas as we speak

[jean]

Andy, I have a huge slug/snail problem in my garden and I really can't bear slugs. Most of my Morning Glory seedlings have been decimated. I have been out today and sprinkled slug pellets everywhere in the hope I will get most of the b*****s. I hate killing things but enough is enough. If things are being eaten again in a week or so I will be out there sprinkling again.

[Chuckles]

I'm guilty of using them but only where I have Hostas and Dahlias in pots and also around Delphiniums in the garden. I put some pellets around these plants the day before I went on holiday 5 weeks ago now and they are just about ready to be done again. Sometimes I don't use a second dose I just keep an eye out for nibbles and apply them if needed. I find the time pellets are needed the most is when the plants are just showing lovely juicey shoots that say come eat me ;D

I have to say I have a resident Thrush that helps me out in the rest of the garden with the snails so between us we manage them quite well ;D

[Rosefriend]

I do use slug pellets I am afraid, but I have neighbours on either side of my garden that don't really do a lot or in one case anything at all.

I used to use them just when I saw plants being eaten until after a very bad slug year, where I lost nearly all my bedding plants within a couple of weeks.

Since then I get them to come to me by using the pellets - there is no doubt that they can "smell" them and so I get the first lot, and then come what I call the "big daddies".

When they come then I know that I have a fight on my hands and I have been seen outside with a torch and salt at twilight.............

I always do two big loads and then a barricade of marigolds for them to eat - after that the rest of the plants are mostly big enough that the slugs are just not interested anymore.

Here in Germany we get very few snails and certainly not the size that they are in the UK but we get thousands of slugs.

RF