Slugs

[Susan W]

Those slimy slugs! I know they are around, but hadn't been bothered much with the herbs. This spring thought I'd put in a few spinach plants, both in ground and containers. These slugs must be related to Popeye.

I'm doing the dishes with beer, somewhat effective, but needs done on a nightly basis, and not effective if rainy. I try to go out every PM with the flashlight and check for them. This PM had one cup with warm soapy water, a salt shaker and flashlight. I couldn't remember what one dumps them in, but figured this would work! Salt works well if you don't get it around the plants. I am thinking to salt the rims of the containers, kinda Marguerita style for slugs. I put some pieces of non metal window screen under a couple of containers. They just sprint across that. Sigh

[imafan26]

copper works as a barrier but only if they are excluded from the start.

I used to use salt but, it is not good for the garden so I switched to fertilizer. Might not work for you since it is not organic.

I have switched to a new slug bait, Sluggo. It contains iron phosphate instead of methaldehyde so pretty much it is fertilizer.

The wet board propped up on a brick does work. You would have to go out daily and clean it off.

Usually I go out early in the morning or in the evening especially after a rain with a zip loc bag and chopsticks. I put the slugs and snails in the bag and zip it up. No chemicals required. I usually find the slugs under plants and especially under and in pots and in tall grass.

I put out slug bait in containers tipped on their side and place them between the pots to avoid getting them in the plants.

[Susan W]

Thanks for tip on Sluggo, the iron based bait. As it happens, a fellow vendor at the farmers market said the same thing. I got a bag, different brand, and sprinkling some around key plants.

[hendi_alex]

I'm hoping that my chickens develop a taste for slugs! Though we have lots of slugs, the damage done is minimal, except when plants are very small. Still, this year, I'll likely be more aggressive in culling these slimy pests. Might try some copper solution, some slug bait, plus pick and feed to the chickens.

[imafan26]

I went out a couple of days ago and found that the slugs topped my cucumber. Today I went out and there is just a dried up stalk, all the leaves are gone. I guess I'll have to grow another one (different variety, as I don't have any more Diva seeds left). I did some cleaning up (6 hours) of the pots around the garden. I still have a lot more to go, but I did get 4 snails and 16 slugs, that does not include the slugs I cut with the clipper that never made it to the bag. I'm also missing some corn seedlings. AAAARRGGGHHHH! Darn Slugs!

[shadylane]

Got Toads?? Works the best for me.

I have used the beer treatment in the past, it works. Just place a shallow dish at ground level fill it with beer. Dose not have to be fresh. I find it messy and one needs to follow up on changing it out from the dead slug residue

[imafan26]

Thanks for the tip. I'll try that too. No toads here.

[Susan W]

I do the beer dishes, hunting with flashlight, now the pellets. With this continuing rain the slugs may win!

[imafan26]

I buy so much bait, I should have stock in the company. I usually go out with a bag and pick them up while I am watering. I am using the newspaper mulch for the first time. It is working at keeping the weeds down and moisture in, but the slugs do like to hide under it too.

[rainbowgardener]

I buy so much bait, I should have stock in the company. I usually go out with a bag and pick them up while I am watering. I am using the newspaper mulch for the first time. It is working at keeping the weeds down and moisture in, but the slugs do like to hide under it too.

That might be OK, works as a slug trap. I often recommend people put a board down flat on the soil. Lift it up in the daytime and you will often find slugs hiding on it. Then it is easy to dispose of them from there. Your newspaper might work similarly.

[applestar]

I just got this in the Smithsonian Magazine e-letter:

New research, however, suggests that there might be simple ways to ward off slug damage. A study published this week in the journal BMC Ecology by scientists at the University of Natural Resources and Life Sciences Vienna shows that earthworms burrowing in the soil can protect plants overhead from being a slug’s next meal. Further, higher plant diversity also decreases the destruction slugs can wreak on individual plants.

Read more: https://blogs.smithsonianmag.com/science ... z2TpFABxgg

[imafan26]

I got two African snail and two slugs watering this morning. Unfortunately they also got another squash.

Keeping weeds and down so they don't have a place to hide and managing runoff from watering would also help.

I am not doing that very well. I have weeds as tall as I am. I don't really have grass, I have weeds in the back yard. I really need to weed whack and cut everything shorter. And I have low spots where the ground stays pretty wet most of the time. And I plugged the sprinkler heads that used to water the grass there years ago. When I pulled out the weeds that were over two feet high the other day, I uncovered so many slugs that I lost count.

[6sparkpug6]

Diatomaceous earth is good for controlling slug problems. The good grade is the one that I use for my garden (with my dog walking around I don't want to use any chemicals... Although I don't like her around when I'm putting it on the ground as some of the particles are in the air). It is a hassle added it after it rains though, especially because the slugs love coming out after a nice shower.

[imafan26]

I used diatomaceous earth in the past, the problem with it is that it doesn't work very well after it rains.

I got some of my hair after it was cut and put it around the plants. It doesn't kill the slugs but it sure does annoy them.

I have a lot of earthworms but they don't seem to be slowing the slugs down much.

[rainbowgardener]

Yeah diatomaceous earth works well for me against slugs. But it has to be re-applied after rain. Since we have had so much rain this season, I haven't even tried. Oh well!

[applestar]

For some reason, I'm not seeing many slugs this year despite the rain. I don't know if it was because I did diligently get rid of the big ones earlier in spring, reducing the subsequent generations, or if the extra rain has been good for the fireflies (they and their larvae eat slugs)

Some of the puddling and water holding areas (native bog garden, rain garden, mini rice paddy, swales, etc.) have been able to hold water for days at a time because of plentiful rainfall rather than drying up in a matter of 72hrs. The late spring (later frost and cooler temp) also helped by delaying the advent of mosquito, allowing me to not use goldfish and other mosquito solutions in the water for longer. Maybe other slug and slug egg predators benefitted, too.

...it could also be that my next door neighbor had their overgrown landscaping hostas divided and moved by landscapers in early June and no doubt discovered a huge infestation of slugs underneath, and THEY did a total slug destruction program on their property. I always suspected a lot of the slugs came from their hostas.

Whatever the combination, I hope it happens more often.

[j3707]

Someone I know puts bark dust all the way around her bed, she says the slugs don't like to cross it.

[j3707]

or if the extra rain has been good for the fireflies (they and their larvae eat slugs)

One more reason to be bummed we don't have them on the west coast...

[6sparkpug6]

or if the extra rain has been good for the fireflies (they and their larvae eat slugs)

One more reason to be bummed we don't have them on the west coast...

Over on the east coast in CT, I've only found one firefly this whole summer (as well as a ton of slugs)... Are there any flowers or companion plants that deter slugs?

[imafan26]

Slugs and snails can like to hide in planting beds especially ones that are dark moist an undisturbed. Cleaning up around your yard and the neighbor doing the same probably did decrease the numbers for you. I have so many weeds and potted plants slugs and snails are in slug heaven. They are the most destructive pests I have in the garden with the birds coming in as a close second.

I find slugs even in the pots eating the roots, they get in the drain holes, under pots, rocks, pavers, mulch, they even were on the neighbors walls during the day.

[rainbowgardener]

Over on the east coast in CT, I've only found one firefly this whole summer (as well as a ton of slugs)... Are there any flowers or companion plants that deter slugs?

Alliums (garlic, onion, etc) planted in and around your veggie crops are said to deter slugs and snail as well as a number of other pests.

[j3707]

Alliums (garlic, onion, etc) planted in and around your veggie crops are said to deter slugs and snail as well as a number of other pests.

Haven't tried many onion varieties yet, but the slugs ate all my Walla Walla sweets last year.

They do leave my garlic alone.

[6sparkpug6]

I find slugs even in the pots eating the roots, they get in the drain holes, under pots, rocks, pavers, mulch, they even were on the neighbors walls during the day.

What I usually do is line my pots so they can't come up through the hole (just the black, porous stuff that you can put in your garden- ah the name of it is just slipping my mind right now...).


Thanks rainbow- I'll have to try it next year!