1) We are not equal when it comes to slugs, depending on the "terroir"! And a year is not another year. In addition, there is slug and slug ...
2) This year, I have a relative invasion of the big oranges / reds (probably two species).
3) At the end of spring, slugs, like many predators, are ahead of their enemies! It's natural.
The hedgehog eats it, but is a "mop." In this season, he is ready to be run over on the roads, just to find a female. "Out of a tragic ball on a Saturday evening" one might say! There, or not? In any case, do not confine it. He needs a bigger territory! So difficult to count on him.
Reliable auxiliaries are carabids and staphylines, nocturnal hunters especially. But like all insects, they start to be numerous when it's really hot and two or three cycles have taken place. Look at mosquitoes or wasps ... Protect them from natural meadows (their habitat), grassed paths, where they circulate well. Do not put curbs, an obstacle that will divert them from your flower beds!
4) And it fits hair pile when the man exposes his cute little plants, or install cute little seedlings of carrots that vegetate for 4 weeks without fattening. Attractive and easy prey ...
Clash assured !!!!
5) I have formally established, verified, last week, that my red / orange slugs, which I call my "fat cows", prefer .... wilted sow thistles, or wilted lettuce / escaroles, to cabbage or celery. I discovered this by chance, having swung a sow thistle on the rows of planted cabbages ... In the evening, during my hunt, I found 3 slugs on this sow thistle, with one side 10 cm away, on the other at about thirty, a cabbage plant ...
I did it on the days that followed, and at 80 / 90% luck, that was true. There were still some rare slugs on cabbages. The rest, I picked up on those faded plants.
So for a few days, I have been calling. I thus scattered lettuces and escarole seeds that rose to seed (I kept one foot for my seeds). I picked up the launches in question where I found them ...
Advantage:
a) while I'm finishing the film or show, the slugs do very little damage ...
b) I know where to look for them!
6) For those who have room, the easiest thing is to make a crawl space with ducks runners or chickens, in a pen, all year round. No slugs that survive. No clutches. The next year you spread the hay plant or sow in it and you're done! If possible, keep a sanitary corridor, to avoid an intrusion from neighboring meadows. Inquire in East Germany, they knew how to do!
Otherwise, a passage of ducks at dusk, pushing them a little in the ass so they do not hang too much because they also like a little salad with their steaks, is obviously effective!
7) The raising of seedlings in pots, allowing them to grow well, limits the damage, the time to catch the culprits. Often, one or two outer leaves are serrated, but the heart is preserved. The plant recovers. So do not rush with rikiki dishes !!! We do not win anything. But we can lose a lot! A Lazy Potager is not for people in a hurry!
Meditate on the concept of martyr plants. I used a "leftover" salad plants (batavias), to "clean up" an area where I will be sowing carrots in a few days. There won't be much left! Neither slugs. Nor salads !!!! What does it cost, a terrine, a bag of seeds at Lidl and a transplant (for nothing)!