How Do I Keep Slugs Off My Plants?

The impact of serious slug attack can be devastating. In the worst case scenario plants never fully emerge from winter dormancy or grow at all as the tender shoots are eaten away as soon as they emerge from the soil. Poisonous slug pellets, bought from the garden centre and scattered around each plant, provides temporary respite. But these pellets are dangerous to children and other wildlife including fantastic slug eaters such as hedgehogs and many birds. Some gardeners rely on nightly slug hunts, killing their prey or hurling them into nearby fields. Others use beer traps, crunch eggshell around the plants and some swear by a tangle of human hair to protect their plants slug killing nematodes can be bought but they are costly as are copper rings to circle your plants. One solution is to only grow plants in pots. A thick smear of petroleum jelly round the pot rim seems to work. Hen will at slugs but all you seedlings too. Ducks are voracious slug eaters and tasty too