Slugs eating my lovely cabbages-can i use slug pelletts ?

[fakeblonde]

Have got some in grow bags and some in a huge pot but still the bu*rs are eating my cabbages !
Cant understand how they can even get into the pot and check them every day but in the morning they have scoffed again.
I bought some slug pellets today that said suitable for non and edible plants, so would it be safe to sprinkle them around my cabbage ?

[bran]

Use Nemaslug , honestly it's fab. Slug pellets take a while to kill slugs and they will keep eating the cabbages in the meantime. It might even make the problem worse as slugs are attracted by the smell of the pellets so you might end up with more slugs. If you're going to use pellets then put them down away from the cabbages rather than around them.

[penmack]

have you tried the copper wire stuff that goes round pots? they sell it in garden centres and is supposed to work really well.
how about a small lid full of beer in the grow bag. its supposed to attract slugs .they drown but at least they are happy

[bran]

Do you have anything sharp that you could spread around the cabbages as an interim measure, little pieces of slate or sharp sand or bran. Even a ring of salt would help as they don't like to crawl across it. If you use salt then put it on newspaper or something so that it doesn't mix into the soil as that wouldn't do it any good.

[wrinklygran]

dont use those blue slug pellets, they kill thrushes and blackbirds. there is a new product on tne market which is less lethal to birds, check the label. If you do have to use the blue pellets, put tubes cut from pop bottle or similar around your seedlings and drop 2 or 3 slug pellets down each one. It will give your plants a chance to grow slug free,and the pellets will have gone by the time the tubes come off.

[wrinklygran]

dont use those blue slug pellets, they kill thrushes and blackbirds. there is a new product on tne market which is less lethal to birds, check the label. If you do have to use the blue pellets, put tubes cut from pop bottle or similar around your seedlings and drop 2 or 3 slug pellets down each one. It will give your plants a chance to grow slug free,and the pellets will have gone by the time the tubes come off.

[WigWamBam]

I agree with wrinklygran - please don't use slug pellets. Birds like thrushes are becoming endangered because they rely on slugs and snails for food - they eat the poisoned slugs and snails, and they die too.

Nemaslug (on bran's link further down) works a treat, but anything sharp around the plants will help too - grit, broken egg shells, that kind of thing. Put a ring of WD40 around the circumference of the tub, partway up; they hate the feeling of it and won't climb past it.

[DoorstoManual]

Bran works wonders.