Of 8 butternut plants on the allotment 7 have been razed. Only one is still even visible, let alone growing.

Ugh! I can't imagine having to deal with the amount of slugs you all have over there...

Ugh! is right! Unfortunately I can imagine having to deal with the amount of slugs (and snails) that floral has in her garden. Climate here in PNW in many areas is as hospitable to those slimey things as it is in UK. I use copious amounts of Sluggo brand slug & snail bait as soon as my hosta plants start pipping. It’s wildlife & pet safe stuff. It’s heartbreaking to come out and see all that damage. I know that these creatures serve a good purpose in the forests - they are wonderful composters - but OMG the damage to our gardens. I do understand the awful feeling when you see this damage floral. Just heartbreaking.

Same here. Despite going through 30 pounds of Sluggo a year we still get some damage. As long as I spread it once a week it keeps it to a minimum. One year we had some visitors ask, "Don't you have slugs"? Made me laugh. Of late crows and other birds have decided I spread the Sluggo as a treat for them. {shakes fist}

I do feel for you floral, it is disappointing to put in all the time and labor and then...

Floral, was this one of the earliest severe heat waves you can remember? That's my impression from skimming media reports from the UK.

Glad you're back to normal!

Yes. Hottest May temps on record. 95f at Kew Gardens on May 25th.

So @floral_uk z.8/9 SW UK, if you had to choose, considering only your garden, would it be "hot dry" or "cool and rainy"?

rouge I was wondering the same thing! Which is worse - the extreme heat or the slugs and snails? Hard choice....

:)

Dee

All my milkweeds are covered with orange Oleander aphids. I think I overwintered the aphids because they usually show up later in summer. If that isn't bad enough, the deer have eaten my 2 Spikenard, Aralia racemosa, all my white and red flowered Trillium, grandiflora, erecta and recurvatum. I was excited that my Wild Sarsapparilla, Aralia nudicaulis was ready to bloom, and unfortunately the deer got to it first. Deer are also very fond of Starry Campion, Silene stellata. An interesting thing about the Oleander Aphids is that they are only sucking the juices of the plants in the milkweed subfamily Asclepiadoideae. They don't bother with the species in Apocynaceae that aren't in Asclepiadoideae, like my Amsonia illustris, Amsonia hubrichtii, Apocynym cannibinum, Creeping Dogbane and Vinca minor. Nerium isn't in the milkweed subfamily, yet it's attacked by the aphids? Maybe the aphids also attack plants in the Nerium tribe of Apocynaceae?

"Cool and rainy"

Me too 'floral' and Dee. I will take lush and holey over dry and crisp. (And I as well am a cool, even cold weather person).

I know you have bigger slugs and snails than I have, but I still think it's worth a try on the diluted coffee technique - it has worked for me, on lupins, rhododendrons, hostas - a real game changer on my small but prolific slugs. I'm even trying strawberries again , wish me luck

I'm afraid coffee just hasn't worked for me. I've tried. For a start, in a wet climate it washes off the plants in no time. I spread all my used coffee grounds around the vegetable garden and the slugs and snails couldn't care less as far as I can see.

In the interests of using organic garden practices I’ve tried coffee grounds & egg shells too for battling slugs & snails. But, like floral I’ve found it doesn’t work. So Sluggo is my best tool. I don’t need as much as @SeniorBalloon uses but he has a very large property. Currently we’ve been having unseasonable rain & cool weather so when out walking my neighborhood between storms I count many snails & their trails crossing the sidewalks. They’re out for a stroll too. But, our forecast for this coming Friday is 99 F! Up from the high 50’s - low 60’s we’ve been seeing the past few days. Those slimey things will be back under cover!

A relevant question: Why am I seeing so many snails & so few slugs? Are they actually the same thing? I’ve only seen one slug in my yard this season - the rest are snails. That slug though - wow! It was as large as a good sized hot dog! Scared me but I got a shovel & threw it into my yard waste container so it could chew it’s way to heaven before trash pick up day.

Just checked on the surviving butternut. It's gone. All the slug pellets laid two days ago have been washed away by the rain. The coffee grounds around them are now incorporated in the soil. Lettuces which were fine on Friday are lace today.

Snails and slugs are not the same thing. Slugs may be less visible because they hide in the soil and under debris. They need to stay damp whereas snails can hide in their shells and don't need to be so shy.

Last summer we were gifted a bag of raw wool from our friend's daughter's sheep - hadn't really known it was useful in the garden, but now I've googled and some say it deters the slugs...

A few years ago I began noticing a larger population of black beetles in my garden, I see them all over the place and (unfortunately) they occasionally get in the house .... but I read that they eat slugs... so I got curious how to encourage them and found this :

https://www.vermontpublic.org/show/all-things-gardening/2024-05-26/with-beer-wool-and-seashells-you-can-deter-slugs-from-taking-over-your-garden

from the article:

A "beetle bank” is another inventive idea to try. Essentially, it's a circular raised bed, measuring about 4 feet in diameter and a foot or so tall.

Inside that raised bed, plant a selection of bunching grasses like bluestems and sea grasses. These types of plants attract the black ground beetle, which is a voracious eater of slugs and snails. The beetles hide in the tall grasses of your "beetle bank" during the day and once night falls, they go slug and snail hunting!

Anyway, you have my sympathies ! I've seen 3 tree frogs this year, so I'm hoping there are lots more out their finding a feast. My slugs don't usually show up in force until July, so time will tell what kind of year I have. One of the benefits of a chilly spring

Editing to say: I meant wood frogs, the only frog in Alaska