Fight effectively against slugs!

[Did67]

About the slugs, I noticed that when planting my zucchini if ​​I distributed the compost around the base by making a circle of about 10 cm in diameter, the slugs were much less attracted ...

No doubt the odor then becomes rather repulsive?

[Christophe]

What interests me is to know "how much" they are cannibals or carnivores!

Mmmm I think doing some "sacrificial" tests would allow, in a confined environment, to answer the question ...

It remains to define the test protocols!

[denis17]

Small tour of the vegetable patch today, this morning in the fresh air, around 20 slugs, and this evening at sunset, around 15 (garden of just under 50m2) ...
Denis

[oli 80]

Good evening, once when I was a kid I saw the neighbors who scattered the ashes from the barbecue (charcoal) around the stems of tomatoes or other salads, etc., we found dried slugs in the "ashy" areas

another weird tip for those who smoke, they put the butts to soak in the water for a few days then water the vegetable garden or the flower beds, does that give off odors that repel slugs, I don't know
http://www.certiferme.com/jardin/consei ... s-364.html

ah damn it was for aphids butts juice

[Adrien (ex-nico239)]

Honestly for aphids ladybugs make such havoc it is impressive.

[to be chafoin]

The only true biological solution is to house a family of hedgehogs ... I know it's easier said than found ...

The thrushes also eat slugs but certainly less than a hedgehog and it is even harder to host than hedgehogs!

I am still skeptical of this idea of ​​the hedgehog. Indeed, if it consumes slugs it is also (like the thrush) a predator of earthworms, our faithful and precious auxiliaries full of proteins. So I am often disturbed by the "utilitarian" technique of the "specialized" predator, we never take into account the impacts on all the fauna or flora, at least it is never mentioned. We always and only say: such and such undesirable will be resolved by such and such a predator. We will say for example: you have a slug problem, think of beetles! It's like an ad. Moreover, biological control is now often sold very expensive at these gentlemen of Gamm Vert or Jardiland. And yet a little naturalistic research quickly reveals that the ground beetle also feeds on earthworms. Thus, even in reference works, we can find in the same chapter a whole spiel on the importance of earthworms, followed a few pages later by many advices, ideas of constructions to ... favor the ground beetles, the hedgehogs, birds !!! Man is crazy, isn't he?

[to be chafoin]

barbecue ashes

Same story, the publishers appointed in accordance with the label will be able to sell you books where you will find a few pages away: advice from a recognized means of fighting slugs (but it must be renewed after the rain!) With superb four-color photo of a generous circle of ash around a wonderful zucchini plant .... and the importance of not unbalancing the soil with too much ash!
How do you manage not to get schizophrenia?

[Christophe]

I'm still skeptical of this hedgehog idea. Indeed, if it consumes slugs it is also (like thrush) a predator of earthworms, our faithful and precious auxiliaries full of protein.

Good note: but for hedgehogs a colony of slugs is certainly more easily accessible on the surface than earthworms ...

And since nature always chooses the minimum energy solution ... chances are that a hedgehog who finds abundant slugs will not go hunting for earthworms?

After taste and nutrition, a worm may be better than a slug ... (I reassure you, I have never tasted either ... )

[Did67]

another weird tip for those who smoke, they put the butts to soak in the water for a few days then water the vegetable garden or the flower beds, does that give off odors that repel slugs, I don't know
http://www.certiferme.com/jardin/consei ... s-364.html

ah damn it was for aphids butts juice

There, no mystery. One of the very first "insecticides" to be withdrawn from the market, as early as the 70s (no doubt; from memory), was nicotine! I still have a memory of my father's garden shed, with a metal can with a red tag, and a large skull, which was nothing but a nicotine solution.

It disappeared from the market in my younger years.

And it is "rediscovered" by the ecologists who smoke. The same ones who campaign against glyphosate, much less dangerous. Or who get alarmed because the hay I use is not "organic"!

Sorry, smokers, if there are any: eat anything, with the poison that you swallow every day, nothing can happen to you via the food! [this is a joke, because the effects of different toxicants are cumulative, even there can be synergies between pollutants]

Note that the new insecticides involved in the case of bees (Gaucho, etc ...) are ... NEO-NICOTINEÏDES ... Clearly in the texts: "new molecules similar to nicotine"

[Julienmos]

odd, for two years I have had little, very few real slugs (big ones) at home.

On the other hand, the tiny loaches are everywhere and do damage too!

a hedgehog from time to time makes its nocturnal walk, last summer I regularly saw one prowling in the evening ... but they are always only passing through and exploring a much larger territory.

but above all, along a concrete block wall, or under the hay, or in an old composter half full of dry waste, ivy stems etc, in the crevices of the ground, the small walls of natural stones, all the time I meet orvets.
I think it must eat some slugs too ...