Help I am being over run with slaters

[Mark Seaton]

I have had several years of great vege crops since finding Mark's you tube channel and growing all manner of vege crop.
However over the last couple of years my harvest, or indeed my actual success of getting anything to grow has come to an absolute chore.
I was having what I thought was almost non existent germination and seedlings eaten before they could take hold. I first thought it was snail, but eventually found the culprits to be slaters.
I have tried the catch and kill with orange halves and tried iron based snail pellets, but this only slows them for a short period and they multiply quicker than I can get rid of them.
This year I planted out over 20 cucumber seedlings only to lose the lot over a period of a week, I even planted them in several different raised beds to try and avoid them from the worst areas, but the little buggers are everywhere.
I thought about just abandoning any crops this year, but the trouble is there is so much organic matter in the beds which will just feed them for years, so I don't think that will help.
Has anyone got any advise on what else I can do?

 

[JP 1983]

Put chooks in the beds and let em have at it

 

[Mark Seaton]

Put chooks in the beds and let em have at it

I did think about ducks a while back to try and combat the snails, maybe I will need to fence off the area and do just that.
I wonder if there is somewhere I can borrow some ducks and chooks

 

[Mandy Onderwater]

Sounds like you have a true infestation on your hands. To prevent really harsh chemical spraying and whatnot I would definitely recommend letting some chooks go wild instead. They'll have a little "holiday" at your property, probably happy with the extra stimulation.

 

[Loux-Jeanette]

I honestly never knew that slaters, or rolly pollies as I know them, could be such a devastating issue in the garden. After looking up what a slater was, I found that the above advice seems to be the easiest after the initial hurdle of borrowing some ducks or chickens. Then I thought that maybe going forward if you perhaps put out nesting boxes or something of the sort to invite more wild birds to your property, perhaps then in the future this won’t be an issue again. Good Luck! I really hope you conquer the little guys and get your garden back.

 

[JP 1983]

Here in Aus, another natural control is bin chickens (ibis). They love digging under leaf litter and mulch for greeblies like roaches and slaters.

 

[McCaffrey]

Slaters can be invaluable decomposers in the garden. They like to live under mulch where they help break it down. If you are using a hard mulch, like wood chips, this is too hard for slaters to break down in which case they’ll eat your soft plants. But if you have a softer mulch, they prefer to stay out of sight underneath it and will eat that instead. I learnt this from experience. I now have millions of slaters (I feed handfuls to my quail) but they don’t eat my seedlings. Hope that helps.

 

[SamfromWA]

A friend of mine believes slaters break down toxins, from what she described to me about her own experience it made a lot of sense. I think she just let what ever wanted to grow in that area grow and let the slaters do what they wanted and eventually they went away. She also started seedlings indoors until they were a little bigger before planting out.

 

[Cathy]

I think slater bugs are in biblical proportions right now... I've got what looks like thousands and they are fine if the plant leaves don't touch the ground.

It was that bad I did let the chooks out to roam and clean it all up!

 

[Mark Seaton]

I honestly never knew that slaters, or rolly pollies as I know them, could be such a devastating issue in the garden. After looking up what a slater was, I found that the above advice seems to be the easiest after the initial hurdle of borrowing some ducks or chickens. Then I thought that maybe going forward if you perhaps put out nesting boxes or something of the sort to invite more wild birds to your property, perhaps then in the future this won’t be an issue again. Good Luck! I really hope you conquer the little guys and get your garden back.

I really don't need any more birds, they already eat pretty much all of my fruit and half of my tomatoes, then attempt anything else that they can get their beaks into, Unfortunately they only fly around and snap at the little flying bugs and don't go through the gardens to get the slaters or snails.

Slaters can be invaluable decomposers in the garden. They like to live under mulch where they help break it down. If you are using a hard mulch, like wood chips, this is too hard for slaters to break down in which case they’ll eat your soft plants. But if you have a softer mulch, they prefer to stay out of sight underneath it and will eat that instead. I learnt this from experience. I now have millions of slaters (I feed handfuls to my quail) but they don’t eat my seedlings. Hope that helps.

I too thought this and left them alone, but as their numbers grew, so did their appetite. I use triple c mulch, so it is a soft mulch, but as with anything, if there is a sweet choice, they will have at it.

A friend of mine believes slaters break down toxins, from what she described to me about her own experience it made a lot of sense. I think she just let what ever wanted to grow in that area grow and let the slaters do what they wanted and eventually they went away. She also started seedlings indoors until they were a little bigger before planting out.

I have been doing that and got some success, however until the plant is mature it is still vulnerable, the little buggers will chew all the way around the base of the stem and drop it like a logger in the 1900's.

Thanks for all your responses, Obviously I am just going to have to live with it for now. I will revisit the situation when winter is drawing to a close and see if I have more success next year.

 

[AndrewB]

Eco organic slug & snail pellets work amazingly well for slaters. It's just pelletised iron powder, which will break down naturally in the garden, not metaldehyde like they usually use.

We put some in slug traps & there were hundreds of slaters in them a few days later.

Good for knocking down populations that get out of control.

 

[Cathy]

Eco organic slug & snail pellets work amazingly well for slaters. It's just pelletised iron powder, which will break down naturally in the garden, not metaldehyde like they usually use.

We put some in slug traps & there were hundreds of slaters in them a few days later.

Good for knocking down populations that get out of control.

Will definitely try this in my garden

 

[Mandy Onderwater]

@Mark Seaton and @Cathy , how have the gardens been going? Did anything work for either of you?