SQWIB
Greener Thumb
Posts: 970
Joined: Tue Feb 16, 2016 9:21 am
Location: Zone 7A - Philadelphia, PA

Don't make the same mistake I made.

I feel terrible so I wanted to post this.
Earlier this year I had a nasty slug problem in one of my Hugelkultur beds and fought them for a week or so.
In my defense, I thought a slug was a slug.

Anyhow

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Leopard slug, This guy was huge, thats not a dime next to him its a quarter. and I'm a bit pissed that I offed 2 of them and found them to be beneficial.

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Depending on what you believe on line they can be considered beneficial or a pest

https://www.opalexplorenature.org/leopardslug
"Leopard Slugs are a gardener’s friend. They don’t damage healthy, living plants, but they do eat other slugs, including species that can damage garden plants and vegetables. By eating dead and rotting plants, as well as fungi, Leopard Slugs recycle nutrients and fertilise the soil."

https://eol.org/pages/452590/overview
"Also known as the “greenhouse slug,” this invader is a generalist that has wreaked havoc on horticultural plants worldwide (Kaya and Mitani 2000). This gastropod eats fresh and rotting plants, more specifically tubers, fruits, leaves, roots, bulb flowers, ornamental plants, and perennial herbs (Kozlowski 2012)."

I will keep an eye on these guys but to be honest I never recall seeing them on any of my plants, only on the ground eating rotting tomatoes.
Today I learned a valuable thing... Don't off anything without researching it.



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