Easy anti slug 'pellet' that doesn't harm wildlife or pets

[Marge]

After much annoyance with slugs destroying favourite plants in my garden (and I had tried slug pellets though I didn't know they were so harmful to birds etc., also sand and the like), I was told to try putting down porridge oats.

I placed the porridge oats on the border in a erm.. border line form and found these 'pellets' saw off the slugs no problem.

How it works, (do not eat your dinner whilst reading this!) the slug eats the oat and it causes the slug's stomach to expand and burst. The bird/hedgehog/frog eats the slug and gets rid of it, and the wildlife itself is not harmed.

[Grey]

little saucers of beer work well too.

[The Helpful Gardener]

Little saucers of beer are HUGE attractants (will call slugs from a hundred yards!; might take them a day or two... )

ALWAYS looking for a natural slug killer; will try that...

Thanks Marge!

Liked the desriptive bit at the end...

HG

[Marge]

Hey, it's kinder than one person's method in a gardening mag I read a while ago - he put under method of slug control: shotgun! ... I admire his restraint

[The Helpful Gardener]

Now THAT'S a solution

[Guest]

Marge~When you say porridge oats - is that the same as old fashioned oatmeal ? Since I operate a Ramada Express for slugs -aka my garden- I will give this a try. Want to make sure I am using the right product.

[Marge]

oatmeal is ground porridge oats so I imagine it would work too

[The Helpful Gardener]

THIS is what I started this forum for; a place where we could exchange ideas with each other. Good stuff, Marge!

Scott

[Marge]

aw shucks

[opabinia51]

Ha ha! This is great. The ever popular method for slug detoration in my organic gardening club is Copper strips. Apparently, you place them around the plants or beds and it deturs slugs.
I have also read that coffee ground detur slugs and mites.

[The Helpful Gardener]

Not sure about the coffe grounds, but the copper works...

S

[SquashNUt]

I posted earlier this spring about my slug war and I have been trying many ways to collect and kill said slugs. They are a never ending problem here.
I have tryed some pretty crazy things including the old standards. Beer ,Slug-go and traps.
The one that has worked for me the best is : I take 2 buckets of water , one has soap in it , one plain. I dampen sheets of newpaper and right around dusk place them on the top of the plants. For delicate plants I put some supporting stakes , so that it does not crush them. When the slugs come ip to the top of the plants to feed they hit the wet paper and stick to it upside down. Right after dark I go back out and roll up the paper and put it in the bucket to kill the slugs.
I make mental notes to where the worst place are and do them again the following night.
Damp newspaper placed on the soil between the plants all night has also helped too.
MY slug bait for my traps is home made : Pureed lettuce scraps with sugar and salt in it , is working the best for me. A damp peice of newpaper placed over cottage cheese containors. That have been set down in the soil , make cheap traps.

[opabinia51]

For the previous two years before now, my South Bed has been totally infested by slugs. Last year, I did a lasagna mulch in the bed with one part as coffee grounds. I had read that coffee grounds repel slugs and this year.... no slugs. So, I guess they work.

[The Helpful Gardener]

On the slug front, mulched the hosta bed this year with pine straw and not one slug; NOT ONE...

HG

[SquashNUt]

The reason your mulch is doing so well is the slugs can not eat fermented stuff. I have little to no slugs where I have lots of mulch.[/b]

[rrrbs29]

I use slugo. It isn't harmful to humans or pets. I sometimes have to reapply the pellets, but it works pretty good.

[opabinia51]

Is Slugo a poison? If so, I am always a little leary about using poisons because of the fact that poisons are not species specific and will also interrupt the soil habitat.

[SquashNUt]

Slug-go is made of Iron Phoshate and corn gluten. Iron phosphate is naturrally in your soil. Your dog could eat it in moderation with no problem.

[opabinia51]

Well Gluten is made from plant protein that that is definately made of carbon so, we have an organic solution to slugs!! Good on you Squash Nut! Thanks for the clerification.


Actually, I just got to thinking. (Which is a scary undertaking in it's own right )

Iron phosphate is definately a salt. I am wondering if the corn gluten counterbalances the salt content of the fertilizer. I'll have to ask around my organic gardening club about that. Any information from others would be useful as well

Appreciate your input Squashnut.

[SquashNUt]

You'll find Slug-go a little expensive. Both times I have bought it I have paid $10 per pound. I just reciently found a product with the same percentage of Iron phosphate at Home Depot for 2 lbs for $7. It is made by Schult's . You might want to check that out.

[The Helpful Gardener]

Or try the oatmeal

HG

[opabinia51]

Here are the results of my research on Slug-go: (The information is from one of the members of my organic gardening club)

You are getting a might beyond my chemical knowledge but, that said I can offer the following as I know it. Corn gluten is actually a pre-emergent herbicide often used to control certain grasses. Iron phosphate is the pesticide (which is not used under organic regulations). It tends to sit where it is put as it is not readily dissolved in water and doesn't evaporate.
I assume that is why it is used in 'Sluggo' - the snails / slugs like the
meal but the iron does them in as it stays around and "catches" them
eventually. I do not think there would be sufficient carbon in the meal to prevent harm by the salts. Eventually the iron phosphate, I imagine, would still effect earthworms and the like and not be beneficial to the soil organisms.
I would want to be very careful to stay within the application rates.

Ever tried coffee grounds to control slugs?



So, I would recommend that people did not use this product.

[The Helpful Gardener]

Corn gluten IS used as a control for broadleaf weeds, but can be used on lawns. The iron phosphate is as Opa says, long term, so I reiterate...

Try The Oatmeal...

[SquashNUt]

Has any one tryed the oatmeal?
My Gardens Alive catalog does not say the Their Escargo is eviromentally freindly but does not say it is organic. It has been promoted as organic by many so I am suprised that it is not.
I am very unhappy to find out after spending such a large amount of cash to buy some thing organic that it isn't.
I do know that I have been very unhappy with the performance for the amount of money spent.
I am going to try some oat meal, along with my lettuce traps. I put my coffee grounds in my compost and still have slugs in it so I don't have much faith in that.
Has any one tryed fresh coffee grounds. I wonder what effect they would have on garden worms and beetles?

[opabinia51]

Fresh coffee grounds will still be quite acidic and high in caffeine. I haven't actually tried it myself but, you could always try it and tell us what happens.

If you just want to slugs to stay away from your plants, you could do the copper strip thing. Just take a strop of copper (available from your local garden store) and tie it around the base of your plants.

Another tip I recieved at one of my organic gardening club meetings was to lay wire mesh on top of the soil around your beds and the slugs can't move across it.

[SquashNUt]

I might be able to use the wire mesh idea to keep the slugs from coming into my yard from the neighbors. What kind of wire mesh are you taking about? Like rabbit or chicken wire?
We are to the point where we are thinking about making a barrier of wood with some type of sharp metal on it. I have come up with the idea of canning jar lids with many hole punched in them or cut up pop cans that would make the slugs crawl acrooss sharp edges. But the wire mesh sounds good, less labor to use it. I think. great Idea. I think I have enough scrap 1/2 x 1 inch wire to make a barrier. How wide would it have to be?
I collected some slugs last nigh and put them in a containor with oat meal They ate it all right, I am thinking if I put some diamacious earth and oat meal in a trap that may be a good way to go. They will also eat corn starch. Either one mixed with DE kills them. I want to keep them in the De as long as possible that is why I am mixing the food with it. I don't want to dust my whole garden with the DE.
Not sure if this makes sense.

[opabinia51]

Chicken wire would work just fine. You can also lay the copper strips in the same fashion and apparently the charge that accumulate on the copper repels the slugs as well.

Never tried these things myself but, according to everyone in my gardening club, they work.

[SquashNUt]

My neighbor ,who says he has no slugs, told me that it is my compost pile that is the problem.
He implied if I threw away my compostables and bought steer manure like he does I would not have a slug problem.
It looks like I am having some luck with the corn starch and DE mix. I am dusting know day time resting places rather than my whole garden with a mix of 1 part De and 2 parts corn starch. I am hoping the slugs will not only be cut by the De but will eat it as well. I have had them die in a jar after about half hour after eating this mix.
I was wondering what the organic circles thought about spraying slugs with soap or amonia.

[opabinia51]

Didn't even finish the first sentence before I had a response.

Do not throw away your compost and rely on steer manure alone. Bad, bad bad. First of all, excess steer manure can accumulate salts which degrade soil structure, kill soil microbes and burn plants.

Compost actually helps to rid the soil of slugs when added because not only is it a fertilizer but, it is also a mulch. And through some discussions here, I have learned that mulch deturs slugs. Also, through adding compost to your soil, your plants will be that much more healthy and therefore better suited for dealing with the slugs themselves.

Good luck with your slug problem. For me, as previously said; coffee grounds, leaf mulch and manure solved my problem. The slugs are apparently repelled be the coffee grounds and the mulch as a whole (which is now soil) has made my plants extremely healthy and they have never done so well.

[The Helpful Gardener]

Mulched the hosta garden with pine straw and not a hole, not a chew on the bunch (and I did find some slugs in the cutting garden so they are there...)

HG

[rrrbs29]

One therory is beer in a container. They crawl in and die or simply dissolve or something. My guess is from the salt content. I don't use it because my pets would get DRUNK. :wink: