In The Garden
| NORTH YORKSHIRE |  | | | CLEVELAND | | | COUNTY DURHAM | | |
|
|
|
Start now to keep slugs and snails at bay
GIVEN the amount of rain
we had last year, it is not
surprising to learn that
slugs and snails were the
most troublesome garden pests of
2007, according to the Royal Horticultural
Society, just beating the
recently established harlequin ladybird.
I've tried all sorts of preventative
methods to stop them, from
mulches of sharp grit, eggshells,
crushed oyster shells and lime
around vulnerable plants, to slug
pellets, beer and grapefruit traps.
But I've always found that the best
way to stop slugs and snails is to
pick them off by hand after a
downpour, often in the evening
when they are most active, sometimes
by torchlight. They do their
worst during mild wet weather in
spring and autumn.
I have also resorted to putting
young leafy plants, which these
pests love, in pots and placing the
pots on either metal stands, which
slugs have trouble in climbing, or
putting copper strips around the
pots to deter them. The copper
contains a minute electrical
charge to deter the slug or snail.
Each slug or snail produces about
500 offspring every season, with
the majority of eggs being laid in
the summer and autumn.
You need to start control methods
from early spring. Ensure your
garden is tidy and free of plant debris
where slugs and snails may
congregate. Any cultivation of the
soil will help to disturb slugs and
may bring them to the surface,
where they can be eaten by predators.
Surround raised beds with
grass or slabs, as slugs don't like
travelling over open ground.
Encourage predators such as
hedgehogs, frogs and toads by
leaving a patch of wild area or installing
a small pond. You can also
encourage snail-eating birds such
as thrushes by planting shrubs
and trees which bear berries and
create a nesting area.
Slugs love young, tender shoots
and are particularly fond of newly
emerging delphiniums, lupins and
peonies. You could try protecting
young plants by cutting a serrated
collar from a plastic bottle and
placing it around the base of the
plant.
Some slugs spend a lot of their
time below soil level, feeding on
bulbs, tubers including potatoes
and roots. Snails are much less active
in winter, but slugs will feed
whatever the weather.
There are many slug pellets on the
market, but a lot of gardeners believe
them to be an unacceptable
environmental risk, as they can
pose a threat to pets, children and
wildlife. Also, if they become wet
and start to turn mouldy, they are
ineffective anyway.
Keen vegetable gardeners who
have problems with slugs tunnelling
through potato crops
should concentrate on earlier
cropping varieties, which means
the potatoes will be lifted before
slug numbers become too great.
Less susceptible varieties of potato
include Kestrel, Wilja and Charlotte.
Avoid particularly susceptible
varieties including Kondor,
Cara and Maris Piper.
Biological controls are available in
the form of nematodes, which are
mixed up into a solution and then
used as a drench on the soil
around vulnerable plants. It needs
to be applied when soil is moist
and at a temperature of about 5C
(40F). The best time for using it is
spring and autumn. The nematodes
penetrate the slug's body
and release bacteria to kill the
slugs, and should last about six
weeks.
You could also plant sacrificial
crops such as lettuce, which slugs
love, to distract them from the
crops you really value.
Most plants, once established, tolerate
slug damage. But if you don't
want an endless battle, the best
solution is to plant species they
don't like, such as hardy cranesbill
geraniums, hydrangea, pinks,
hebes, potentilla, lavatera and
plants with hairy or narrow leaves,
or succulent types such as sedum.
Jobs this week
❃ Cut back hedges before birds
start to nest in them.
❃ Trim back winter-flowering jasmine
when it stops flowering.
❃ Top-dress or repot pot-grown
camellias when they pass out of
flower.
❃ Check supports on wall-trained
fruit trees or bushes before the
new season's growth starts in
earnest.
12:39pm Friday 15th February 2008
Print 
Email this 
Comment
What are these links for?
If you liked this article and would like to share it with others on the web who might be searching for good content we've made it easy for you to do it.
At the bottom of all articles, you'll see links to six sites. These sites - commonly called 'social bookmark' or 'social news' sites - have large communities of web users who share and rate interesting, useful and fun things on the web.
Clicking the links will automatically add the address of the story you are reading to one of these sites, letting you share it with others. Each site will ask you to register to share stories. Registration is free and once a member, you can store, recommend and search for stories that interest you.
More on Digg
More on del.icio.us
More on Furl
More on reddit
More on NowPublic/
More on Yahoo!
