Slugs
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My hogbox has become The Fox and Slugs! I don’t mind the fox visiting but the slugs are queuing up to go in. I’ve used copper tape and wildlife friendly pellets but to no avail. How can I stop the slugs?
Are your dahlias close to the feeding station? My hedgehog’s feeding station is overrun with slugs at the moment.
I tried putting the food bowl in a larger tray of gravel, as I’d read that that would work (apparently most slugs don’t like dragging their bodies over gravel, but my slugs are super-slugs and they don’t mind’;[[[[[[[[[.llll,; apologies, that’s the cat typing too!). It didn’t work so I’m interested in the dahlia idea._
I don’t think hedgehogs mind that much where they eat, as long as they feel safe.
Our feeding station, is an upturned plastic box on our York stone patio.
The lid acts as a “litter tray,” so poo and wee are mostly contained and the lid just needs a wash and scrub over a drain every morning. Slugs aren’t a problem, they’d be fried by the time the reached the station from the border in this weather in the daytime and would lose too much moisture attempting to cross at some distance from a border either over a low wall or down two steps at night.[url=https://ibb.co/xFggSwv][img]https://i.ibb.co/SfmmXHT/P1050358.jpg[/img][/url]
I’ll try planting dahlias near The hogbox but I really need an instant solution to my slug invasion.
The dahlia’s won’t discourage slugs, in fact they attract slugs. I put strulch down around the dahlias to prevent slugs – it’s the strulch that works – so you could put your feeding station on a thick layer of struch – or to be honest just accept that the slugs like a free meal too – some of them are good for the garden, they aren’t all bad
Surely the slugs are a good thing? They are what hedgehogs love to eat. If they are not being eaten then surely no hogs are using the box.
Hi Chico_W
You are right, some slugs are a good thing. There are loads of different types. some help to clear up the garden waste and break it down, some eat meat and some eat new young plants. The large ones which tend to congregate around hog food on damp nights tend to be the large ones which I believe don’t do any harm in the garden but are a bit big for a hog to take on – with their little mouths! They tend to go for the small or medium sized ones which are much smaller – the small ones are the ones which reportedly do most damage to plants – so it’s good the hogs eat those! But the large ones not being eaten is not an indication of whether there are hogs around or not – they tend to ignore them.
Unfortunately it’s the large ones which most people see and don’t like, assuming that they are the ones which cause the plant damage, (as well as the slime). But they are probably the most useful ones to have around, for the garden. Everything has it’s place and it’s purpose.
Good morning. I agree that some slugs are actually beneficial in the garden but, unfortunately, not for hedgehogs. I was advised by our local hedgehog rescue expert recently that hedgehogs only eat slugs as a last resort, when no other food is available, and that it is a hazardous diet because slugs carry lungworm and pass it on the hog. So I think it is a good idea to dissuade slugs from eating the food in the feeding station. Having read the suggestions here, I’m going to try a shallow gravel tray inside the feeding station. I’ve found that gravel will dissuade slugs from attacking tender plants, so we’ll see if it works. I hope so – it’s been damp this week and a couple of evenings (after dusk) I’ve found big slugs actually in the food bowl!
That seems odd. I often hear the crunching of the hogs eating a snail even when there is plenty of other food in the garden.
Hi Goldfish61
Some hogs eat slugs when there is other food available – so not as a last resort. It just depends on the hog. Slugs can carry lungworm, but that doesn’t mean that all of them do. It wouldn’t be possible to stop hogs in general from eating slugs if they wanted to eat them, even if you kept the slugs away from feeding areas. But as mentioned previously the hogs don’t eat those really big slugs and tend to ignore them – a bit difficult for their small mouths – they tend to prefer the small or medium ones.
That is interesting Kitty878. I’m sure I have the world’s largest collection of slugs and snails in my garden, but fortunately have a pair of thrush that enjoy smaller snails which helps a bit.
I am interested because I believe the smaller (crunchier) snail shells are a good source of calcium, and snails a good source of various vitamins.
I have no knowledge of such, just my opinion from keeping chickens actually.
Recently I have seen gi-normous slugs going into the hoggies’ biscuit trays. At first glance I thought they might be mice, they are so big! Strangely they don’t go into the wet food.
These huge slugs are the orange bellied type, supposed to be good for eating decayed stuff in the garden I’ve heard. I haven’t seen the hogs eating anything except the food provided though.Hi Daffydil,
Yes, I go hedgehog watching in person so I can tell where the crunching of snail shells is coming from. I assume they eat slugs too but that doesn’t make much noise! I was reading an interesting article that said they won’t attempt bigger snails with a shell diameter over 13 mm or so, but the smaller ones they eat with gusto. I suspect you’re right about the nutrition value, the article suggested the gastropods are easy for them to digest, so much so that they were indistinguishable from the rest of the stomach contents unless they happened to eat a bit of shell or the horny tongue thing that slugs and snails use to eat with. Although it also seems they don’t much care for the slime- another reason why they don’t bother with the larger slugs, who seem to produce more of it? I saw some videos of them apparently wiping slugs with their feet or rolling them on the grass to remove the worst of the mucus.
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