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Can You ACTUALLY Stop Slugs Eating Your Plants?
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- Опубліковано 18 сер 2024
- Can you keep slugs out of the garden and from eating your seedlings? I tested 7 natural & organic slug control methods to find out if you really can use them to get rid of slugs in your garden or if they are just a waste of money for the home-grower. Everyone talks about using copper tape, wool, egg shells, diatomaceious earth, coffee grounds and beer traps but are they just old wives tales?
To find out if natural slug controls really work, I tested them against the most tenacious slug I've ever met and gave him 30 minutes to get across each barrier. If the slug gets across he gets to eat one of my plants but if the barrier holds him back, I'll test the plant outside in real world conditions. Whoever gets the most plants wins and if Arthur wins, he gets to go free and I have to eat a bowl of snails as a forfeit. May the best man or mollusc win.
And, as always, Happy Gardening!
If you want to try passive methods to protect plants from other pests like aphids and caterpillars, you should watch this video here: • Stop Pests Eating Your...
With the exception of beer and my girls' eggs (which I can't really link to), I used the following products in this text*:
⛏️ Copper Tape: amzn.to/3y8kPTA
🐑 Wool: amzn.to/3yaAAtb
🪨 Perlite: amzn.to/3WzQCqE
🌍 Diatomaceous Earth: amzn.to/3URFDrA
🌱 Organic Coffee: amzn.to/4bs85FM
*As an Amazon Associate I earn from qualifying purchases. This doesn't affect the price you pay but helps support the channel.
Follow or contact me via
📸 Instagram: / alex.grows.food
🌐 Website: www.alexgrowsf...
Thanks for reading this far! To let UA-cam show you more of my videos about growing food at home, press the like button or click this button to subscribe: / @alexgrowsfood
I get most of my music and sound effects from Epidemic Sound. The soundtrack for this video and a 7-day free trial is available at: share.epidemic...
Chapters:
0:00 - Can You Stop Slugs From Eating Your Plants?
0:21 - Where Do Slugs Live?
0:45 - Do Beer Traps Really Work?
1:21 - Experiment Setup (Meet Arthur)
2:29 - Will Copper Stop Slugs Eating My Plants?
4:12 - Do Slugs Dislike Wool?
5:15 - Will Eggshells Protect Plants From Slugs?
6:46 - Will Slugs Go Across Perlite?
8:31 - Will Diatomaceous Earth (DE) Stop Slugs?
10:27 - Does Coffee Kill Slugs?
11:56 - Do Slug Deterrents Work Outside In The Rain?
12:44 - Can I Stop Insects From Eating My Plants?
#slugs #growyourownfood #vegetablegarden
What do you use to keep slugs away? I don't normally have to worry and instead rely on passive methods ua-cam.com/video/5RiqJoIwiDo/v-deo.html to keep the pest population in check but I neglected the garden A LOT last year. The more I looked into this, the more it seemed like almost everything has been tried but given the length of this video, I thought 7 was enough - But I'm sure I missed some goodies! Let me know what works for you
Wow, you're so underrated. This rules. Also my plants and my wallet say thank you for your research
Thank you so much! Pretty high budget video this one (£30) and it's remarkable how few worked
Oh and don't drink raw egg. That was a joke!!!
This is amazing.
Thanks WW! I'm hoping it's 'good' amazing... :)
Great video Alex! We were a little grossed out by the eating of snails and egg, but the results of your testing were fascinating, and we really liked the whole idea of Arthur!
Thanks Mark. I did skim over the eating of the snails but imo I showed way too much as it is. It was about six takes to film it without badly messing up which, conveniently(?!!), gave me a lot of unique gagging audio clips to use at the end there...
Love the video Alex - really interesting results! I find if I use egg shells around mine it works really well BUT only when I do this at the same time as leaving some of the plants without eggshells - so they act as sacrificial plants. The protection seems even better if I put plastic bottle cloches around them as then the watering doesn't dislodge the eggshells :)
Thanks Andrea! Putting them inside a cloche sounds like a really cool idea - I guess you're using really large bottles. What size egg shells do you aim for? I couldn't decide which might be better here so I went for a mix but I think the sac/lining didn't help things
@@alexgrowsfood I find as long as I bake the eggshells, that seems to be the most important thing.
i like an experiment, so much more informative than just relying on received wisdom
Totally agree. I'm not perfect but I try very hard not to just repeat things and it turned out to be very wise in this case! Disappointed and surprised by the first two results to be honest - I even made the copper react and turn blue to test that it actually was copper that I bought (it just didn't make the edit).
I think this is your best video so far! Great experiment 🥼🧪
Thanks Luke! It took about five weeks to make so means a lot. But your channel is properly taking off, almost 1K! It's great to see!
@@alexgrowsfood Thanks Alex! Us small channels will be the future 😂
Ive. Used chopped up nettles and brambles as a mulch for 50 odd years works for me
Thanks Richard. I'll have to try this, my garden (conveniently) seems a never ending supply of that right now!
Also around my brassica tunnel the nettles are wild only leaves touching the ground getting nibbled so far ill have to top up the mulch and I water through a pipe so the ground dries quicker as always happy gardening Richardx
Very useful experiments! I'll definitely give perlite a try. I had some success surrounding plants with comfrey leaves, the slugs and snails seemed to prefer eating them over the plants.
This is great Alex! Enjoyed the video all the way through!
Thanks Tobgi!
Very entertaining! 😂
I really enjoyed this video, a perfect blend of education and entertainment!
I would like to know if completely soaked perlite also works.
And I saw a video were the gardener made a 1:100 solution with coffee/water (10ml coffere/1000ml water) and sprayed it on the plants and soil around. Have not tested that yet.
Your style of making videos is refreshing and unique. I love it! 😊❤
Thank you so much! It's a great question about wet perlite. I did bring a watering can upstairs and soaked the tray (and my landlord's carpet) but Arthur didn't really like it and stopped moving. I think he was a bit tired too so I abandoned it. The pots with perlite and copper in the greenhouse at the end were wet and untouched. Outside seemed fine as long as the perlite isn't dispersed - I think the birds kicked it about and then the slugs came in. My thinking is it still sticks to the slug and they dislike it but potentially less so than when it's dry. Didn't directly observe that and I've tried a few patches outside to test but the blackbirds seem to be kicking it up. I feel like it's definitely a good solution for pots where drying is quick, and probably still helpful when wet but can't confirm.
So I found a paper that used a caffeine solution at 2% concentration and found that had better effect than at 1% (60% and 95% mortality respectively). I can't remember the caffeine content in coffee off-hand unfortunately. They applied the spray to the growing medium and also directly to the slugs. The paper is here if you're interested digitalcommons.unl.edu/icwdm_usdanwrc/470/ (Caffeine as a repellent for slugs and snails, Hollingsworth et al. Nature 417 2002) but possible you've already read it. Let me know if it works, I might have to try it myself tbh - it's July and they are still everywhere!
Your content is amazing.
Thank you so much! I work too hard on it and don't get the most views so your support means a lot
I have two actual pests in my garden. Lilly bug (beatle red on top and black from other side) and a Lilly fly that lays eggs inside the buds of my Hermeocalis (Day lilly). I control that by hand and timeing of the bloom. Thus extra cut to delay the bloom. I get most pest from other people around me. Thus i do not share my plants with people in the area. And will never plant the same type of plant because of this.
I call this nature. Just remove the non native. I made a living space beside the compost bin for them. They like to sit on moist wood.
And i like to garden when it rains. It's easy to get the weeds out then. You can pick them up, they do not run away.
Oh and you want lots of beer you can get it free by going to a friendly pub and they may give you the slops from the trays 😅
Not me living in the only village without a pub in it 😨😭
I use roughly crushed mussels shells works well but this year the slugs are like ninjas they're everywhere
Thanks Chris! I can imagine that they are a lot sharper and less flexible. I guess they do a better job of stabbing the slug. Agree it's been wild this year - I imagine even more so in the wetter areas. My garden is a mess which definitely doesn't help...
OMG Alex I also made a "blark" sound when you put that in your mouth. I have had the displeasure of trying escargot and yeah, I get making use of a pest, but No... hard pass. Did you feed the rest to the girls? lol I'm teasing, I'm sure they were fine, I'd have subbed them with mushrooms myself.. and used the mushrooms to top a nice grilled Ribeye... and now I'm hungry. lol
Great video as always. So using beer bowls nearby that are easier to access and pearlite in the pots as a last line of defense and it's only "kind of" successful. Also, lots of $$ on feeding beer to a pest. Wow. They are determined little creatures. Arthur was a big one. The ones I have here are smaller 1" ( 2 cm ) that maybe stretch to 3 cm. I have seen a few larger, but not common. I guess the slime makes them like spiderman and they can climb most things. If you can come up with something that works you'd be a multimillionaire. I wonder if trying different coarseness of strips of sandpaper would do anything.
Lol well I ended up recording that bit a few times because I kept fumbling the words or dropping the cutlery so I chewed on a lot of snails. Unfortunately I had to buy 36 for an order so two dozen are in the freezer right now.
Beer was interesting. I did record a section about how they potentially attract slugs from other gardens but I had to cut a lot out and I hadn't tested the origin of each slug so couldn't confirm. Advice is to put the trap outside the veg patch just in case. I did find that Guinness was much better than some of the golden ales I tried - the bowl completely filled with slugs while with lighter beers it was less full and I guess some might have had a sip and slid off. It would be interesting to see if slugs are into craft beers full of citra or not (I imagine not) or ones where they chuck loads of yeast in after brewing to make it foam. Need to find out if I can claim them as tax deductible....
Sandpaper might work. I guess more coarse would be worse for them. Main thing seems to be to either puncture or dehydrate them. The copper was weird because it definitely effects their body chemistry in some way and they hate it. From what I could tell the wider the copper and the smaller the slug the better that defence works which might be why the greenhouse pots did a little better. But I imagine a big slug can do anything it wants. Arthur was probably only medium size for my garden sadly. Nematode sprays (maybe) or planting repelling plants or getting some ducks or hedgehogs in is probably the way to go
Slugs have only one teeth. They use this to move ther body. It's like a clamp.
Thus if they do not have teath. They can only suck at your plants and not eat them.
Only Hosta's that are just comming out of the ground or leaves that already are damaged can be eaten.
Slugs are my friends and have a garden full of Hosta's. They like to sit on my Hosta's because the leaves will transporate full size drupless of water.
Also my slugs are always at the same place when it's not raining. I know where they live. I also give them a nice space to live. Just like i do with other animals in my garden.
The advantage is that you can easly check on them. And remove the non-native and compost them. My garden is so full of plants, it's hard to see a single weed nor a eaten/bad leave.
Quite funny
Thank you! Es-cargo still cracks me up