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Children friendly but slug un-friendly!
Dear
Martin...
Last year we decided to
try and grow some broccoli & cauliflower in our small garden.
We set aside two veg patches and planted our young plants which had
been bought from a garden centre. The plants took no problem and
gave a what would have been a great crop. This would have been the
case, however they were totally decimated by slugs, snails etc. To
be honest it was our first attempt at growing anything and we never
put any slug pellets down as we have two young children. At the
time of planting our children were 2 years and newborn. A year on
and with the spring approaching, we dearly want to try again and
grow some fruit and veg. What would be the best possible route for
us to go? We are concerned with how dangerous slug pellets can be
with small children? Would you totally advise against using them?
Ultimately we don't want to plant but for the final result to be
nothing on our plates!!
Martin says... Dear Sean
Many thanks for your
recent enquiry regarding child and pet friendly methods of
controlling slugs in your garden.
I can relate to your fears on
the use of chemical products and I certainly would try safer
alternatives myself.
Fortunately these alternatives
do exist and in my opinion, using Nemaslug is the answer. This completely
natural form of slug control relies upon nematodes –
naturally occurring microscopic worms – to hunt out and kill
slugs in the soil. This treatment is mixed up in a watering can and
watered onto the soil; as nematodes exist in the soil anyway, the
background numbers are boosted and the slugs pay the price. Each
application of nematodes lasts roughly 6 weeks and all you need to
do is keep the soil moist for them to be effective. Most
importantly, Nemaslug is harmless to children and pets and is
completely safe to use in a family
garden.
You can back up the nematode
effect by placing some
slug traps
around the garden; a good trap
is reported
to catch up to 100 slugs on a
good night! We also supply slug pellets which are certified organic – they contain ferric
phosphate as the active ingredient and again, are perfectly safe to
use around children and
pets.
As you can see, there are
numerous effective alternatives to standard poisonous slug pellets
and for this reason, I don’t see any reason to use
them.
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