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I use slug pellets as the only deterrent. The pellets purchased by amateur gardeners have a chemical in the pellets called bitterex to deter anything else from eating them, they are blue coloured so birds won't eat them. Hedgehogs, thrushes, frogs and toads won't eat dead or dying slugs or snails and so are not affected by the pellets.

When all the stories hit the headlines about dogs being killed by slug pellets what the reporters always failed to report was that this was the pellets bought in bulk from agricultural suppliers and used on farmland. These pellets were bran based and did not contain bitterex so dogs ate them - mainly farm dogs - and died. This has now been rectified.

We use slug pellets all the time as we have a plant nursery and we also have healthy populations of thrushes, toads, frogs, glow worms (which dine exclusively on small snails) and hedgehogs.

Lynn xx