nematode questions

 I believe nematodes can be a very effective way of control slugs
(previous posts largely agree).  However...

After a few applications do the nematodes reproduce?  I.e. are there
diminishing returns after, e.g., three applications?

Do nematodes get totally wiped out after winter (British)?

I would be interested to hear if someone had tried a course of
nematodes succesfully one year, and not bothered the next - but noticed
a continued decrease of slugs.

 
? wrote

What makes you think they would be effective the first year? They weren't
for me and that's after two applications. I am convinced they are a waste of
money, and that's after using it according to instructions.

--
Regards
Bob
In Runnymede, 17 miles West of London

 wrote:


I used them last year and they seemed to help but the point is
obviously that we don't know how bad they would have been without
using the nematodes. Was the decrease due to nematodes, weather, bird
predation etc?

A hunt on the web found

   www.maths.gla.ac.uk/~mab/Biocontrol/Modelling.html

which suggests that they do work but only reduce populations by about
25 - 30% and require repeated application. Somone else on this group
raised the question of how far do slugs travel. Is it worth spending
all that money for a reduction of 30% if they are only going to be
replaced by slugs from the neighbours garden?

JB

 
"JB" wrote in reply...
to "Bob

At about £25 for two applications you have to save a lot of potatoes from
slugs for it to be worth the money.

--
Regards
Bob
In Runnymede, 17 miles West of London

 'Growing success' have a new wildlife friendly slug-killer.  Maybe that
would do the trick.  I've got admit the nematodes aren't cheap.  We
have cats, hedgehogs (infrequent enough to leave plenty of slugs of
course), plenty of visiting birds and an 8 year old - so the tried and
tested killer pellets are out of the question.