Using ferric phosphate on slugs

[geordief]

Has anyone experience with these? I have had a lot of trouble as they are very quickly taken by the birds (and also mice I suspect)

My workaround is ,for now , to lay lengths of flat timber between the rows, and put quite a lot of the pellets underneath.

I seem to be having success this way as the crops seem to have been untouched despite there being quite a collection of slugs underneath the wood when I do the rounds.

Has anyone got any suggestions or tips as to how to use this product (since I am not following the instructions shown on the container) ?

[Pavel314]

I made a copper barrier around the mushroom garden in my basement to keep t he slugs away. I had a length of 1" copper tubing in the barn and bought so me copper elbows at the hardware store to connect them. Given the price of copper these days, it wouldn't be a good anti-slug idea for a large area.

[geordief]

Well,I also have back up or complimentary methods. One that I am using now is coffee grounds tightly around the base of individual plants ,especially cabbages etc since the slugs are very partial to them and after a night's vandalism like little better than to sleep it off at the base of the trunk during the day.

They do particular damage to the new shoots that appear at the bottom of the plant so I hope that by making this an unattractive area for them they will not develop a habit for feeding on my broccoli and kale.

Other methods have been home brewed nematodes (instead of the bought in kind) where I collect a very large quantity of slugs in captivity and wait until they die . Then I collect the funereal juices and spay this around areas of the garden in an attempt to spread the contagion to the previously healthy slug population.

But ferric phosphate pellets are the new white hope in my armory and that is why I am asking for help, in preventing the birds (or possibly mice) from getting to them before the slugs do.

[songbird]

huh, never used them, but have not ever heard before of any creature being particularly interested in eating them either...

sounds reasonable...

dead slugs or alive slugs?

the common methods i hear about which don't involve ferric sulphate are to use the boards to have the slugs go underneath and then in the morning to come out and flip the boards over so that the birds can get at them or to drown them in some yeasty smelling liquid which attracts them. the other approaches are to use a barrier around the plants (copper strips seem to be recommended the most, with the prices of copper it might be worth learning about and creating some copper strips from another base metal and copper plating the outer layer).

i've had a few slugs on things here, but i figure that since they are not eating much i don't try to control for them. the frogs, toads, snakes and birds seem to be keeping up with them.

songbird

[geordief]

The slugs under the boards look very sick and I suspect they are terminally poisoned .All the same I kill them off to be sure.

I had never heard before about birds eating the slug pellets but I am certain something is doing it.

One day I thought I would lay the pellets barrier style around the base of the individual broccoli plants (as I thought they were particularly vulnerable) and did I not see a rat break cover very shortly after (in the daylight) and run back into the bushes when I disturbed it.

An inspection showed the pellets had nearly all gone.

Piling the in this way was an open invitation to the good rat but more normal ,sparse applications also disappear almost overnight and so I suspect birds or mice.

In any event my new technique of protecting the pellets under boards has worked well even if it more laborious.

I have tried all sorts of methods aside from these ferric phosphate slug pellets but I have great hope for them if I can overcome this hurdle (the fact that they are being eaten by something other than just the slugs.

There is one other suspect I have in my sights and it is the rabbits that I know also visit. But I doubt very much it could be them.

[geordief]

Thanks. It sounds good but it is really the same thing as I am doing now.

When I use an old piece of timber the birds and mice are kept out..-and I get to cover a largish area quite easily.

Are you using ferric phosphate pellets yourself Bob ?

[geordief]

I had the same problem ,at first. No sign of dead slugs.

However now ,when I put the pellets under the planks I see plenty of slugs and the proof of the pudding is that they can be within an inch or two of vulnerable plants like lettuce or baby spinach and there is ,surprisingly zero damage to the plants.

This for a week or two now.

So this is it. Look to see if there is any damage to the plants and if there is none you know that ,slugs visible or not your aim has been achieved and the plants have been protected.

But it is a lot of work . I have to go out each morning and check that there are still pellets beneath the planks.

Still, on the plus side ,by doing it this way my stock of pellets goes a lot further -and they are quite expensive compared to metaldehyde pellets .

[geordief]

Yes I am fairly sure they are dead or very sick (I take no chances and I kill them with a stanley blade but I think they are nearly all moribund)

Now I would much prefer it if I could just scatter the pellets in a reasonable way as it advises on the container but no one has told the birds/mice or whatever to please leave them for the slugs.

At this stage of the season there is no longer so much in the garden to protect but I feel (for my circumstances = over run with slugs and without any real dry weather ) that I will have to continue with this (and other complementary methods).

I can't really bring myself to use metaldehyde as I fear that it could be damaging wild life (although I wonder if there are not ways of using it to prevent that happening )

[geordief]

No I don't think so (not unless the slug problem is fairly minor in the first place).

Yes I have been also using the board method before I started using FP pellets.In my opinion it works much better with the pellets . But I still kill the slugs when I see them to be doubly sure.

Perhaps when I gain confidence all that will be necessary will be to make sure that the plants are not getting damaged (and then I will just leave the slugs to die)

[geordief]

Well,I do think about that and sometimes try to remember a particular slug and see if it has moved the next day (I suppose I should put a marker against it) but even if they are not quite dead I don't think they do any feeding and ,as I said the proof of the pudding is whether or not any damage is caused.

In the past ,before I used pellets one of my techniques was to leave the dead slugs in place in the hope that they would provide an attraction for other slugs(you know I suppose that slugs are cannibalistic)

I imagined the venue might grow in size exponentially but it never really seemed to work very well.

Another idea I have had is to destroy the slug "slime trails" since they follow each other and I thought that once I had cleared a particular area it might help to "rough up" the soil but I have never actually bothered with putting that into practice.