slugs

We too feed feral cats in an outbuilding but tend to have a problem with flies laying eggs in the dishes in summer! Not sure about slugs ever being a problem for us. Copper might work but an easier technique might be to stand the food dish in a larger inner tray/dish of shallow water. Slugs won't cross water, allegedly

If you want to collect and dispose of your local slugs and snails put out a dish of bird seed then go out when it's dark and you'll find them all feeding on it. We leave them for our frogs to dispose of but you could salt them very easily. There is no point putting them over the wall as they just come back home.

I believe slugs do not like stoney ground, so would suggest leave the dish surrounded by pebbles or grit of some kind. certainly our food left for the ground-feeding birds, on gravel, never gets attacked by slugs, and we have lots of them. Don't like the sound of the 'Spanish?' slugs said to be invading our countryside, they look enormous.

I discovered a fat slug on my kitchen floor one day. Took it out and salted it. A friend has since told me that they can flatten themselves sufficiently to get under even close-fitting doors. Yuk!

Many thanks for the suggestions - I might try putting the dishes in a tray of water as I can do that today. Getting copper needs thinking about - and a trip to somewhere or other!
Although we have been feeding her for about two years she is still quite twitchy and may not like having her food bowls in water! If that doesn't work I'll collect some grit or rough stones and give that a try. I had no idea that slugs have a homing instinct Vampire Queen - I dropped the two on Tuesday down the drain in the yard - hopefully they drowned! They hadn't made their way back last night when I fed her!
Annie

Crushed egg shells can be used in place of the grit.

Coffee grounds are supposed to be good too but your kitty may not like the smell.

Re copper. I have a collection of hostas and one little one was nibbled to the ground two years running. Potted it up and stuck a strip of copper round and it worked. This year there was a tear in the strip and the slugs went through the gap. I also put it around a small cold frame full of early strawberries and that worked too. You can buy stick on copper strips (about an inch deep) from garden centres. It should stick to those plastic pet dishes ok.

The can't climb up things covered in WD40 but the smell might put the cat off.

rub vaseline round the bowl and any plant pots they cant climb up!!!

I advocate those copper strips too. I stuck them round pots to protect tomatoes and courgettes.

But water is free!

pinkanniethis year I tried some copper tape around DH little veg patch ! the snails/slugs did not get onto the veg patch!! apparently the copper tape reacts with their slime.. the tape is sticky backed (be careful as I cut my finger on the edge of the tape)! it's available in 1 mtr lengths on a "well know selling auction site eb*y

Well - Cat is not impressed with having her tea served in a bain marie! Her expression clearly said she didn't care what loopy experiments I was carrying out on the swimming ability of slugs, she wanted her tea on the floor - as usual - now - - please. I will either order some from E!!y (thanks bikergran) or hopefully get to the garden centre tomorrow.
many thanks for all the input everyone.
Annie

Oh interesting we have horrid slugs come I kitchen at night! Oh creeps down and kills them or throws them out, poor Rosie sleeps in kitchen and Sligo trails on her basket yesterday!mthrown it out was old got new one she sleeps on large doggie mattress anyway.

Any tips why do they keep appearing!

They also ate all.my cabbages never grown the. Before was so sick!,!

They come into my kitchen too. Eek, horrible! I don't mind spiders, or any kind of creepy crawly, but slugs! I'm now scared to go down in the night...

How do they get in? I found a slug trail on the sitting room carpet this week. It seemed to come from the skirting board, but I couldn't see any gaps down into the foundations.

if you have no pets around..I have heard of scooping the middle out of an orange/grapefruit etc and putting pellets underneath...or of course! you could forfeit some alcohol in a dish!

Did anyone see the absolutely enormous one on Breakfast this morning - eeeekkkkk!!

Our dogs don't sleep in the living room, so I could do the orange with a drop of beer trick. When we used beer traps in the garden, we only got tiny slugs. Mr Iam was convinced the big * had several slug equivalent pints and staggered off home to be horrid to Mrs slug.

Fed up with it we just got home to another horrid one from under washer?

My hostas in pots resting on pebbles and water in trays.Copper tape round pots.This year they have been completely demolished by slugs.
I'm giving up on Hostas !!

Oh dear - not encouraging Maniac! Cat now has a 'place mat' of a large tile widely edged with copper tape. Hope this will meet with her approval and thwart the slugs! Mind you I don't think any more have made their way in there after I disposed of the two last week.
Annie

I have a huge hosta (getting bigger every year) which seems to be fairly impervious to the depredations of slugs/snails. Smaller ones have failed to survive though. My new gardener has cleared a bed at the end of the garden. The garden slopes towards a brook and the end beds are very muddy - especially at the moment. I now want to re-plant it with perennials and maybe small shrubs that like moist conditions. Otherwise the soil is good. Any tips? The big hosta lives down there, of course!

Are tree slugs a good thing or not? I thought the silver birch looked odd and found on close inspection that its bark was slimy and the cracks in the bark were full of slugs. They are algae feeders evidently . Repulsive.