That sinking feeling when you slide open your greenhouse door ready to be amazed by how much your young plants have grown, only to find they’ve all been eaten! It’s even more distressing when you’ve got them to a decent size and have planted them out only to find that you’ve just provided a hearty meal for ravenous slugs!
It’s not that you haven’t fought bravely in the war on slugs. You’ve already defended with eggshells, sticky tape or even beer cans, but it seems that whatever you do, their raids keep getting behind your lines every night. It feels as though even a helicopter napalm strike would have a slug survivor ready to nibble your lupins. There is however one company that professes to have the answer.
Nemaslug claim that their product will stop slugs for up to six weeks per application so we decided to give them a test.
So what’s the principal? Well, basically it’s nematodes. These are microscopic worms that actually multiply inside the slug, eating it as they go. Sounds ghastly, but when your family is down to it’s last lettuce it’s survival. Them or us.
So once you hand over your dosh the nematodes arrive via the post. As soon as you get them you must either apply them or cool them in the fridge, these chaps are alive and you want to keep them that way!
To apply them it couldn’t be simpler. Just tip the packet contents into 10 litres of water and stir vigorously. This acts as your ‘concentrate’. Now get a 10 litre watering can with a coarse rose and add one litre of this concentrate. Then top up the can to the full ten litres and you’re ready to kill. Now just use this mix to water the areas that you want to protect from slugs. Done.
The slugs are killed below ground between four and twenty one days after the application. The nematodes protect your crop for up to six weeks
So, when to use? Obviously when your young plants start to appear, or just before. Also in the Autumn as this reduces the number of slugs laying eggs.
The only down side is that the nematodes do not kill snails.
Price? About £10-£12 to cover 40sqm. Not bad if it saves your plants!
We found during our tests that it completely wiped out our slug problem. A great relief and now a regular on our garden supplies list!