Looking at the photo of slugs on David’s lawn I can see why he had such a problem with them!!!
Here is his article explaining how he beat them, also some recent photo’s showing the excellent flowers he is producing with this system. –
Ever since I restarted growing orchids in 2016, I have had no end of trouble with slugs. Typically my Cattleyas would start into growth, with new roots appearing, only to have all the root tips eaten and the plant growth checked. The only respite was during winter when slugs are not active. I have tried to combat this with slug pellets, manually checking for slugs after dark and even pouring salt around the perimeter of the greenhouse at ground level, but none of this was fully effective. I finally decided that suspending the plants so that they were not in touch with staging or the walls of the greenhouse would be my only option.
I started to move toward this goal in spring of last year and over a period of a month or so I fashioned hangers from aluminium wire and ran 15mm copper tubing along the roof line and across the far end opposite the door. Once my orchids were all hanging up I removed the staging. My greenhouse has an interior of 2m x 3m and I can comfortably suspend 50 plants. I have been able to reduce slug damage to almost nothing. The only plant I have had damaged since, is my Paphiopedilum insigne, which is the only plant not hanging up, but is kept on a large, upturned pot near to ground level in order to keep it cooler and more shaded.
