slugs, snails, ultimate potted plant defence?

[Piers Gibbon]

I have lots of precious cacti. I love them.

They are very hardy. They live up the top of mountains and can even cope with being frozen unlike most cacti.

But slugs and snails love to eat the growing tip. Which is a disaster, and can lead to rotting + death or, at the least, stunted and unstable growth (and I get sad)

So I have been putting some of them on top of the shed...and so far the slugs have not abseiled up...

But this winter I want to leave a few pots outside. They are getting too heavy for the shed....

So has anyone had complete success with any method of keeping slugs and snails way from a potted plant?

That copper tape stuff - does that work?

Or is there some way of surrounding a twelve inch pot with a moat of repellent (oil?) whilst retaining free drainage (crucial for cacti)

 

[Belushi]

My Mum swears by the copper tape stuff.

 

[aqua]

I swear by beer traps such a nice way to kill a slug

my entire yard plants are in pots and tubs and troughs and *touches wood* we've not had any problems at all

I filled a couple of cat food bowls (cheap ones form a pet store) with tescos value bitter (90p for 4 cans ) and they go straight to it and leave my plants alone

occassionally I see the odd slug here and there but I just pick them up and throw them over the wall of stick them in the bowl of beer

I don't know how bad the slug problem would be without them, but normally I get about 3/4 slugs a night in the traps

 

[LilMissHissyFit]

my mum puts egg shells round the base of her plants
Biodegadeable, safe for everyone( pets, kids etc) and work too

 

[belboid]

1. Beer traps. By far the most effective way ime

2. Surround them with lettuces, or similar, little bastards like them more than anything

3. Go out at night and kill them all. Not that effective, but highly enjoyable.

 

[Piers Gibbon]

thanks for all suggestions

well on that beer trap thing - can anyone think of something I could make or buy that would be a moat...surrounding a big pot with an uncrossable moat of beer???

that, plus the copper tape on the pot itself

y'see if just *one* gets through - the cactus is doomed....

and I have tried the eggshell thing - reduces but does not remove the problem!


so..a moat..or potplant collar...hmmm

 

[aqua]

highly enjoyable.

have to agree

same with squishing greenfly and blackfly and snails

i blame Mrs M, she got me into it

 

[aqua]

so..a moat..or potplant collar...hmmm

you can buy them from good garden centres (not sure where you are though)

 

[belboid]

aah, what a picture

 

[aqua]

I feel sick

 

[Ellie23]

If you've got these plants in either ceramic (glazed) or plastic pots a smear of Vaseline right the way round the pot is meant to put slugs off.

Either they don't like the taste or they fall off, not sure which!

 

[Piers Gibbon]

Quote: from aqua



Originally Posted by Piers Gibbon

so..a moat..or potplant collar...hmmm




you can buy them from good garden centres (not sure where you are though)

25-08-2005 10:43 AM


Am in forest hill south London - I have never seen a moaty collary thing that one could fill with beer, or burning oil..do they exist..I have seen sluggy beer traps but not something that could protect all the way round a precious plant!


and Vaseline...well I have been considering anti climb paint! the pot is ceramic but not glazed....

 

[mrskp]

plenty of the tape available on ebay. Called ZAPPA SLUG Copper Barrier Tape Slug and Snail Repellent

i thought i was safe from them being two floors up, then i start finding baby ones IN the pots (clinging for dear life to the crocks). i feel a repot of the whole lot coming on.

 

[moose]

I find the copper tape has made things worse - the slugs are prepared to brave it one way, into the pot, but not back out again - until the plant is razed to the ground, that is. Despite nightly slug hunts, copper tape, gravel, salt and beer, slugs and snails have ravaged my garden again this year - only geraniums have flowered cos they don't like those.
Last year's nematodes worked well for 9 weeks, but at a cost of over £50, and the soil isn't warm enough here for them to be active all summer.

 

[boskysquelch]

charcoal fines are very effective IME

 

[LilMissHissyFit]

Salt crystals sprinkled round the base of the pot

 

[Juice Terry]

Its been total Slug Armageddon on my patio for the last couple of weeks after the bastards munched their way through a huge terracotta pot full of marigolds. I've just surrounded the pots with a barrier of those blue slug pellets and its been utter carnage. Must have killed over 50. Now I just have dead slug slime juice everywhere.

fwiw I dont think mine can get up the ceramic pots.

 

[Piers Gibbon]

well many thanks for all suggestions

I dont want to go the blue pellet route - trying to be organic

so am thinking a ridiculous over application of copper tape...like eight bands of it

plus...some sort of trough/moat thing around the pot itself...like a plastic gutter bent round in a circle - does that exist???

and in the moat I can put beer (although thats scary because the smell attracts slugs so their death must be certain!) or oil..maybe burning oil

sheesh I need hedgehogs bad...but there's foxes living in the garden so I guess they dont like it here

 

[Juice Terry]

Salt crystals sprinkled round the base of the pot

Maldon Sea Salt I hope!