Rudbeckia is a staple of many UK gardens and it is easy to see why. if you are planning on growing your own then you will want to know if slugs are going to be a problem, do slugs eat Rudbeckia?
So, Do slugs like Rudbeckia?
Yes, slugs do like rudbeckia and will eat it given the chance! They are particularly fond of young rudbeckia plants when they are just emerging from the soil.
If something is eating your Rudbeckia then here are some top tips to find out whether it is slugs or not.
Look for irregular holes both on the inside and edges of leaves. A slimy trail is usually a dead giveaway that either slugs or snails are your problem.
Even if you don’t see a slimy trail though it doesn’t mean it’s not slugs. Sometimes the slugs are really small and don’t leave much of a trail, other times the trail just gets washed away before you see it.
If you want to confirm whether it is slugs eating your Rudbeckia then one of the best ways is to go out once it has gone dark and see if you can find any slugs hanging around your plants.
How to deal with slugs
Slug pellets
The classic way to kill off slugs and it does work, there are however drawbacks.
Firstly the little blue pellets aren’t safe to have around if you have pets or young children who might digest them accidentally.
Next, there is the fact that they may be harmful to slugs’ natural predators like hedgehogs who eat slugs killed by pellets, therefore, ingesting the poison themselves.
And then there is the mess they leave, lots of dead slugs on the surface of your garden with nasty trails everywhere.
Nematodes
This is a natural and organic way to kill slugs. There are all kinds of nematodes, which are tiny little creatures that live in your soil, some of these nematodes kill slugs.
This is completely natural and is what happens in your soil all the time. By adding nematodes you are just increasing the number of the slug killing type.
One of the advantages of this method aside from the fact you don’t have to use poison is that part of the way the nematodes kill the slugs makes them burrow into the ground before dying, so no nasty dead slugs lying around!
Control slugs NATURALLY by applying Nemaslug Slug Killer, which contains natural nematodes, that are effective at controlling slugs, but unlike chemical controls, are safe for children, pets, birds and wildlife.
Torch & Bucket
The manual method, and as is often the case with the manual method, this is very effective but time-consuming. Wait until dark and go out into the garden with a torch, some gloves and a bucket and start collecting slugs.
This is best done on a damp night after heavy rain as then the slugs will be everywhere, happy hunting!
Slug Traps
You can set up traps to capture slugs and then dispose of them how you wish. There are lots of different ways to do this but one of the more popular ones is a beer trap.
With a beer trap, you set a container, usually a plastic tub of some kind, level with the surface of the soil. You want it level with the surface so slugs can easily get into it but you want the bottom to be deep, so they can’t get out.
You then fill the bottom with some beer, which slugs adore, and leave it. The slugs will make their way into the trap and either drown or be waiting there come morning for you to get rid of them.
One downside to this apart from all the slug carcases you will be getting rid of is that the beer is so potent that it can apparently attract slugs up to 200 meters away and therefore bring even more slugs into your garden than were there before!