DD Drill and SLUGS

Humble Village Farmer

Member
BASE UK Member
Location
Essex
I dont get this idea of letting slugs eat covers instead of a crop, to me all that does is encourage the buggers to breed even more so create more problems down the linr
It depends if there's anything to eat the slugs.

When we first started, we had disastrous slug damage. Of course rape and wheat were grown with neonicotinoids then. I remember looking at some ww dd into rape volunteers and each rape leaf had 5 to 10 slugs on. That was 9 years ago and we lost some of that crop.

Same field this year, also wheat DD into a clovery mix intended as a green mulch. I knew there were loads of slugs in the clover so pre slugged it with 2kg per ha of sluxx.

Thought I would see how bad it was a week or so after drilling I popped down there expecting to find the worst, but all I could find was loads of centipedes (plus the odd slug of course).

Hoping against hope I looked up "what do centipedes eat" and the answer came back - slugs and slug eggs.

It's had no pellets since and the wheat is green - quite an achievement for me.

So in conclusion, I think we have been killing all our slugivores with insecticide. If you trained the slugs to eat a bit of Redigo deter first, they would then poison your beetles or in my case, centipedes.

Obviously I wouldn't like to guarantee this will happen every time but it's quite encouraging.

On balance, I reckon we still have more slugs than our cultivating neighbours but more earthworms too.
 

robs1

Member
It depends if there's anything to eat the slugs.

When we first started, we had disastrous slug damage. Of course rape and wheat were grown with neonicotinoids then. I remember looking at some ww dd into rape volunteers and each rape leaf had 5 to 10 slugs on. That was 9 years ago and we lost some of that crop.

Same field this year, also wheat DD into a clovery mix intended as a green mulch. I knew there were loads of slugs in the clover so pre slugged it with 2kg per ha of sluxx.

Thought I would see how bad it was a week or so after drilling I popped down there expecting to find the worst, but all I could find was loads of centipedes (plus the odd slug of course).

Hoping against hope I looked up "what do centipedes eat" and the answer came back - slugs and slug eggs.

It's had no pellets since and the wheat is green - quite an achievement for me.

So in conclusion, I think we have been killing all our slugivores with insecticide. If you trained the slugs to eat a bit of Redigo deter first, they would then poison your beetles or in my case, centipedes.

Obviously I wouldn't like to guarantee this will happen every time but it's quite encouraging.

On balance, I reckon we still have more slugs than our cultivating neighbours but more earthworms too.
We've not used any pellets since 2011/12 the year we went full dd, they all drowned during that horrendous winter, see a tiny bit of leaf striping but we havent grown rape since 2012 either nor used any insecticide gave up deter treated seed in 2018, hopefully the good guys will continue to work for me
 

Wombat

Member
BASIS
Location
East yorks
Was hoping the little buggers had had enough of the cover crop in one snotty field but they are having a right feast on the spring barley, due to a sprayer issue I couldn’t get the cover rounduped early enough with the rest in early feb so I think it left too much cover and moisture for them. As it was still green when it was drilled. Looks like some of it will be patched in
 

Humble Village Farmer

Member
BASE UK Member
Location
Essex
We've not used any pellets since 2011/12 the year we went full dd, they all drowned during that horrendous winter, see a tiny bit of leaf striping but we havent grown rape since 2012 either nor used any insecticide gave up deter treated seed in 2018, hopefully the good guys will continue to work for me
Pretty sure the deter has been killing all the friendlies without us knowing.

Doesn't matter though, so long as our nice friends in the supply industry did ok out of it
 

Renaultman

Member
Arable Farmer
Location
Darlington
It depends if there's anything to eat the slugs.

When we first started, we had disastrous slug damage. Of course rape and wheat were grown with neonicotinoids then. I remember looking at some ww dd into rape volunteers and each rape leaf had 5 to 10 slugs on. That was 9 years ago and we lost some of that crop.

Same field this year, also wheat DD into a clovery mix intended as a green mulch. I knew there were loads of slugs in the clover so pre slugged it with 2kg per ha of sluxx.

Thought I would see how bad it was a week or so after drilling I popped down there expecting to find the worst, but all I could find was loads of centipedes (plus the odd slug of course).

Hoping against hope I looked up "what do centipedes eat" and the answer came back - slugs and slug eggs.

It's had no pellets since and the wheat is green - quite an achievement for me.

So in conclusion, I think we have been killing all our slugivores with insecticide. If you trained the slugs to eat a bit of Redigo deter first, they would then poison your beetles or in my case, centipedes.

Obviously I wouldn't like to guarantee this will happen every time but it's quite encouraging.

On balance, I reckon we still have more slugs than our cultivating neighbours but more earthworms too.
Got to agree, the thought of using slug pellets or insecticides scares me. Having got out of using them I really don't want to start using them again, but also hoping I have bought a direct drill, although confirmation from Simtech would make me feel a lot better :)
 

Adeptandy

Member
Arable Farmer
Location
PE15
I don't know if it's on the label but putting some down the slot, even as little as a kilo a hectare can take the wind out of their sails.
I’ve been putting 3kg/ha down with the seed, yr 1 no problem, year 2 and they’ve hammered me in certain areas, generally where the cover was thinner 🤷🏻‍♂️
dine quite a bit of patching in on the WW
 

Humble Village Farmer

Member
BASE UK Member
Location
Essex
Got to agree, the thought of using slug pellets or insecticides scares me. Having got out of using them I really don't want to start using them again, but also hoping I have bought a direct drill, although confirmation from Simtech would make me feel a lot better :)
Interested in whether ferric phosphate in slugs would harm beetles that eat them?

Also I don't think the deter killed the slugs so the beetles would be attacking live apparently healthy ones which then passed the neonicotinoids onto the predator; whereas sluxx presumably will kill the slug so would it then be so attractive to a beetle or centipede if it was dead?
 

Renaultman

Member
Arable Farmer
Location
Darlington
Interested in whether ferric phosphate in slugs would harm beetles that eat them?

Also I don't think the deter killed the slugs so the beetles would be attacking live apparently healthy ones which then passed the neonicotinoids onto the predator; whereas sluxx presumably will kill the slug so would it then be so attractive to a beetle or centipede if it was dead?
Like a lot of things in farming, there are more questions than answers and opinions are like .............
 

Farmer Roy

Member
Arable Farmer
Location
NSW, Newstralya
Canola into a thick mat of oat straw.
No slug problems
Ended up going 3 t / ha apparently, which is quite a good yield here
610D20EA-96D8-485D-A9D0-E5BF65F07395.jpeg
892D9AB1-A80B-4DBA-9DB8-3C7C4C127DCF.jpeg
 

Wombat

Member
BASIS
Location
East yorks
Interested in whether ferric phosphate in slugs would harm beetles that eat them?

Also I don't think the deter killed the slugs so the beetles would be attacking live apparently healthy ones which then passed the neonicotinoids onto the predator; whereas sluxx presumably will kill the slug so would it then be so attractive to a beetle or centipede if it was dead?
We haven’t used insecticides or deter (it was sh!t and never did anything to the slugs anyway) or grown osr in probably a decade but still get plagued with the little buggers though.
 
Slugs are not a problem. Breakthru foliar feed has the same effect on them as salt but unlike salt has the opposite effect of helping the crop.
Number of ways of using it, along with glypho pre-harvest on WW and OSR where the seed is covered. This means the straw is covered and gives them nowhere to hide. Pre em along with herbicides. In OSR we have anecdotal evidence it has the same effect on CSFB. They come in have a nibble then move on as nowhere to hide either in trash or straw. ( We don't have the severe problem you do and these are observations by customers hundreds of miles away). Can be used in conjunction with other Agchems so cutting the need for individual passes other than in patch spraying.
Had a few problems early on with free carbs and bicarbs in the South water neutralising it but have the system sorted.
This order, Reactor ( conditioner) Agchem, Breakthru then Anchor to make it stick either to straw or to avoid it moving down the soil profile too quickly after rain. Obviously many generics so try some in a bucket first to confirm compatibility. 1kg /ha at £55/5kg plus Reactor and Anchor. Certainly not going to break the bank to try some.
We have large customers who buy it by the pallet for use on new rented ground. Users find slug numbers reduce to acceptable levels.
PS you can marinade worms in it and they just wriggle off into the distance. Try chucking a slug in, doesn't move far.
As far as the CSFB is concerned we follow up at egg laying time with the garlic mix which takes out the nematodes migrating to the stems. Need to put out yellow traps to get the timing right, occasionally twice in mild autumns.
 

marklr90

New Member
Slugs are not a problem. Breakthru foliar feed has the same effect on them as salt but unlike salt has the opposite effect of helping the crop.
Number of ways of using it, along with glypho pre-harvest on WW and OSR where the seed is covered. This means the straw is covered and gives them nowhere to hide. Pre em along with herbicides. In OSR we have anecdotal evidence it has the same effect on CSFB. They come in have a nibble then move on as nowhere to hide either in trash or straw. ( We don't have the severe problem you do and these are observations by customers hundreds of miles away). Can be used in conjunction with other Agchems so cutting the need for individual passes other than in patch spraying.
Had a few problems early on with free carbs and bicarbs in the South water neutralising it but have the system sorted.
This order, Reactor ( conditioner) Agchem, Breakthru then Anchor to make it stick either to straw or to avoid it moving down the soil profile too quickly after rain. Obviously many generics so try some in a bucket first to confirm compatibility. 1kg /ha at £55/5kg plus Reactor and Anchor. Certainly not going to break the bank to try some.
We have large customers who buy it by the pallet for use on new rented ground. Users find slug numbers reduce to acceptable levels.
PS you can marinade worms in it and they just wriggle off into the distance. Try chucking a slug in, doesn't move far.
As far as the CSFB is concerned we follow up at egg laying time with the garlic mix which takes out the nematodes migrating to the stems. Need to put out yellow traps to get the timing right, occasionally twice in mild autumns.
I am keen to find out more about using it for next season. Send me PM please and we can link up for a discussion.
 

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Red Tractor drops launch of green farming scheme amid anger from farmers

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As reported in Independent


quote: “Red Tractor has confirmed it is dropping plans to launch its green farming assurance standard in April“

read the TFF thread here: https://thefarmingforum.co.uk/index.php?threads/gfc-was-to-go-ahead-now-not-going-ahead.405234/
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