Saturday, October 2, 2010

Slugs and eggshells

It's hard to see in this photograph, but there are slugs entwined in these lettuce leaves which are placed in the middle of about 12 crushed eggshells. Sorry, this is another method that just doesn't work! Who has that many shells, anyway?
Posted by PicasaFor a list of all of my slug control experiments, please see this page. 

5 comments:

StefRobrts said...

I'm enjoying your methodical approach to slug destruction!

This is the video on YouTube showing a slug electric fence

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EQ8RFlR0mD4

Unfortunately my beds are in the ground, not raised, so I don't think that will help me much!

Vegetable Garden Cook said...

That video is interesting. My gardens are huge, so that may be impractical for me, because it would take so long to get a fence built and wouldn't do anything for the slugs already in the beds. However, if I were to put up a fence, destroy all the slugs inside.... well, that could work fairly well. I may revisit that option in the future.

If I were still in the city, with significantly smaller garden, I would give this serious consideration.

StefRobrts said...

Same here. I have 5 3x16 beds in the ground and a 4x8 raised bed, and I plan to expand a bit next year. Slugs are definitely my biggest problem here.

Anonymous said...

Egg shells are a no go eh? Well now we know. And no wonder the DE didn't work.

Anonymous said...

Egg shells do deter slugs, but not enough to stop them going for food.

I love the fact you have experimented and published the results, but you are not using controls.

So, had you put some lettuce not surrounded by egg shells, then the slugs could have gone for that instead.

That is sort of the dilemma gardeners face when using egg shells, but it does work, just what do you sacrifice?

Quite a lot use multiple techniques at once, so beer traps and egg shells. Is yeast a greater attractor than a succulent leaf surrounded by egg shells? That's the sort of question.