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Two of my ‘babies’ murdered by a snail. 😰

(68 Posts)
Witzend Mon 17-Jun-24 10:06:33

Honestly, you’d think they’d be safe enough - outside on a tray, on the table in the sun in the day, inside on the kitchen window sill at night. But this morning, I found two of them decimated, and one blasted snail asleep on the side of one of the peat pots.

Zinnia seedlings, I’ve been nurturing them in the hope of some late summer colour in our titchy little garden.

pascal30 Mon 17-Jun-24 10:11:14

My spinach plants have been shredded as well.. it's disheartening when we don't use any slug pellets but I do love my many birds..

Bumface Mon 17-Jun-24 10:14:51

I feel your agony. I had spent a great deal of back breaking, time planting loads of narcissi in quite nasty weather. Come spring, instead of a wonderful display heralding the coming of summer, the slimy wotsits ate nearly all the flowers and I was left with a collection of pointy green leaves and stems.

shysal Mon 17-Jun-24 10:16:44

Last year I nurtured some new Dahlia tubers indoors until after the last frosts. I put them out onto the patio to harden off and slugs or snails stripped them bare - grrr!

With regards to slug pellets, I used some organic wildlife friendly ones a while ago. They didn't do the job, and a magpie kept coming to eat the pellets!

nanna8 Mon 17-Jun-24 10:19:03

I detest slugs and snails. I put them out near the bird bath and rub my hands in glee when the birds grab them.

Witzend Mon 17-Jun-24 10:41:41

Commiserations to everyone suffering from the slimy beasts!
Shysal, only yesterday dd2 told me that slugs had slaughtered all her partner’s dahlias - he was really cross.
I suggested the beer trap - mine is working very well in a bed - I just hadn’t imagined any of the slavering beasts crawling across the patio and up on to the table to eat my babies!
Live and learn….

Blinko Mon 17-Jun-24 10:44:35

A friend gave me a couple of courgette plants - decimated by slugs...

Curtaintwitcher Mon 17-Jun-24 12:31:05

I have put copper tape around my plant pots but the slugs have still got in and eaten my bedding plants. When I see them, I gather them up and put them in the dustbin. When they arrive at the tip, they can feast on the rubbish.

keepingquiet Mon 17-Jun-24 13:24:02

It's nature I'm afraid. Maybe try some slug resistant plants.
I'm sorry for the loss of your children but the slugs didn't murder them anymore than we might murder a lettuce we then add to a salad.

J52 Mon 17-Jun-24 14:12:45

Oh that’s awful, especially when you’ve nurtured them. I’ve just been brave and planted mine out, surrounded by slug pellets.
They were not growing much in the greenhouse.
It’s been a poor spring for seedlings.

AGAA4 Mon 17-Jun-24 16:05:39

I used to have 2 large barrels filled with various lovely flowers. Every evening at dusk I would go out and find the assassin snails climbing up the side of the barrels to devour them. I used to have to pick them off one by one and dispose of them. The next night there were more.

BlueBelle Mon 17-Jun-24 16:16:42

Curtaintwitcher the bin thing doesn't work iwas doing that and then realised the dozens of little bxxxxxs were just hiding in the inside of the lid and were still there after it was emptied
I thought I d found the answer feeding them to my resident seagulls but no they don’t want them either so my joy was short lived
They have had 8 pea plants down to the ground and at lease 6 runner beans my cucumbers are now going to be grown inside as they are chewing them off faster that the speed of light I hate the little xxxxers especially the slimy slugs

Celieanne86 Mon 17-Jun-24 16:37:41

There won’t be any fresh runner beans from my garden this year as the first lot I planted were decimated by slugs apart from one plant so I hopefully planted a few more and this time they didn’t leave any so I gave up. I’ve planted a couple of tomatoes in the conservatory and fingers crossed they are ok but the other morning I found a big juicy slug on my kitchen floor now that was taking the you know what urghhhh

BlueBelle Mon 17-Jun-24 17:38:37

Do you know what Celieanne I ve put my baby cucumber plants in the conservatory as the snails ate my original ones over night anyway today I saw the telltail silvery trail IN the conservatory !!

Witzend Mon 17-Jun-24 17:47:50

keepingquiet

It's nature I'm afraid. Maybe try some slug resistant plants.
I'm sorry for the loss of your children but the slugs didn't murder them anymore than we might murder a lettuce we then add to a salad.

Yes, I’m well aware that it’s Nature - but I’d imagined that GNers would take my wording with just a teeny little sprinkling of salt.

Millie22 Mon 17-Jun-24 18:48:32

My cornflowers have been eaten away so all I've got is nibbled leaves. So disheartening.

My daughter planted sunflowers from seed with the children and they are all a sorry sight.

Just too much rain and too many slugs and snails.

grandMattie Mon 17-Jun-24 18:51:11

I have protected my sunflowers as in the photo. To date, it has worked 🤞

keepingquiet Mon 17-Jun-24 19:14:59

Witzend

keepingquiet

It's nature I'm afraid. Maybe try some slug resistant plants.
I'm sorry for the loss of your children but the slugs didn't murder them anymore than we might murder a lettuce we then add to a salad.

Yes, I’m well aware that it’s Nature - but I’d imagined that GNers would take my wording with just a teeny little sprinkling of salt.

Ah! Sprinkling salt on slugs is another way of killing them I think. I was serious about murdering lettuces though!

Esmay Thu 20-Jun-24 11:11:53

Petunias aren't my favourite plants , but I like the splash of colour that they produce .
I planted mine out with alternative slug and snail repellents .
They worked for a couple of days - one day out shopping and I've returned to completely decimated plants .
I can't even tell what colour they were .
So I've uprooted the lot and transplanted them to pots on my front doorstep - a dry area , which is slug and snail free .
But I'm wondering if they will recover .

maybeaye Thu 20-Jun-24 11:25:52

I had some courgette baby plants that got completely eaten, as well as a Hosta plant that my mum gave me that disappeared. some years are worse for slugs and snails than others (this was a bad year), but this year seems ok (am in Scotland), anyway, I got more courgette plants and had to cover them with a muslin cloth teepee and I managed to save them from the wee beasties, however, was a bit of a pain to use. I also put down a cauliflower husk which kept them busy eating that for a few days. I can't bear to kill things even slugs etc. lol

maybeaye Thu 20-Jun-24 11:27:43

Forgot to say that when they were babies, I covered the courgette plants with the end of a large plastic bottle to keep them safe...

2020convert Thu 20-Jun-24 11:30:05

I’ve lost plants too. Have to be crafty with obstacles like hessian and salt trails (no good in all this wet weather) plus netting around the sunflowers I have left. Coffee grounds too. Last year I had silvery trails over my indoor rug EVERY night! Couldn’t find the culprit. Vac, brush, steam cleaned - next day - trails again. Then out paper between the rug and the patio doors sprinkled with salt. That worked, no corpses though. Next time I didn’t put the salt and paper down … yes! Back again. Finally stuffed the tracks of the patio doors with cleaning wipes doused in white vinegar. Success!

sweetcakes Thu 20-Jun-24 11:38:41

They have done the same with my hosta but left the flower spike alone. One gardener on TV said not to water in the evening saying that it doesn't give the water time to dry on paths and grass so making it easier for the slug to get about they suggested late afternoon 🤷🏻‍♀️

BelindaB Thu 20-Jun-24 11:44:31

Slugs are alien enemies from the depths of the cosmos, sent here to make sure we starve to death before the master race reaches earth...I managed to keep some seedlings free of them by balancing the tray they were on on 4 smaller pots and sprinkling salt around them. Voila! no slimy trails and some dead slugs.

Kittycat Thu 20-Jun-24 11:46:12

I’ve tried all the usual to save plants, especially my poor old Hosta. Best thing I’ve found is very old fashioned and very messy Vaseline round the top of pot about 2 inches wide. But I didn’t check in the middle of the plant where there were two smalls snails hiding! Lacy leaves! Btw egg shells didn’t work either.