Teaching Birds to Eat Invasive Slugs/ a Poison Free Slug Killer

This project is not an act of cruelty, but helping/ forcing invasive slugs into the food chain!

In Denmark, where I live, the slugs have invaded the gardens. Not more than 5 years ago, there were hardly any slugs in our garden, but they have come from other countries and keep on laying eggs. They have no natural enemies here and therefore there are now thousands of them in our garden! They are gross, and they eat our vegetables and flowers. When we collected them for this project, ALL of the slugs you see in this picture, were literally found in about 2 m^2 of our garden in about 5 minutes. Gross!

However: Birds, hedgehogs and other animals can eat them! They just don't know, because it is so recently that the slugs have come here. So this is the plan: To teach the birds and hedgehogs to eat them.

What you need:

• A brick
• A birdbath
• Water
• Too many slugs

How it works: Slugs can't swim, and birds and hedgehogs need water. So every time you find a slug, place it on the brick island, and it won't be able to escape! Then when the birds and hedgehogs come to get a drink, they will notice the slugs. And eventually, they will eat them! Once they find out that they can eat them, they will automatically start looking for them other places in your garden!
So basically, this is not a cruel way to get rid of your slugs, but a way to help/ force them into the food chain. A lot of people use poison or salt to kill their slugs, but using this method, you are feeding birds and hedgehogs instead, with the same results!

Even though this is a slug killer, we don't want them to suffer. Therefore you must place the birdbath in a shady place, so they don't dry out in the sun.

Also, as you place the slugs on the brick, make sure that you don't accidentally push them into the water - again, we don't want to make them suffer by drowning.

Place the brick in the middle of the birdbath. Make sure that the brick doesn't touch the birdbaths edges, so the slugs can't escape. Now fill it up with water! Put just about 3 - 5 cm (1,1 - 2 inches) water in the birdbath, no more. This is because we don't want hedgehogs to drown. The poor bastards aren't that smart ;)

Snails are harmless, so please don't put them on your island. These small fellas are just chilling out in your garden, and you don't want to hurt them. It is only the invasive slugs we want to keep down!

As I said before, there are A LOT of slugs in our garden!

ALL of the slugs on these pictures, were found approximately inside the red line I drew on the picture, in about 5 minutes! It is completely out of hand...

Just use a trowel to pick up the slugs and place them onto the brick island, but be careful not to harm them.

Like I said before: This project is not an act of cruelty, but helping/ forcing invasive slugs into the food chain!

Now all you have to do, is to wait. It probably wont work the first day, but in about a week, it should be starting to work!

Now all you have to do, is to look out for slugs to place on the island, so that there are always a bunch on the brick. If you do this once daily, it should be enough!

Good luck with your invasive slugs, I hope this will work for you, as it is for me and my mother! :)