Vanisle_BC
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Slug patrol

Three nights now I've been out in the small hours, in pyjamas & wellies with my LED headlamp on, handpicking slugs that are decimating my cole crops. They are not the common black slugs I used to have (and spent about 3 years defeating). These are very small but still voracious. They are a pale brownish colour - Taupe? Puce? Designer mushroom? - and some only about 1/4" long retracted, 1" fully stretched. They seem to be exclusively nocturnal.

I've had a lot more success finding them since I realized they climb up the black plastic mesh fencing that surrounds my beds. Don't know why they would do this but when they do they are easy to spot. Last night I got 25 of them.

It's a bit eerie out in the black night when I see the bright pinpoints of the neighborhood cat's eyes as it watches me, crouched & wary; wondering what the heck I think I'm doing out in HIS world!

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TomatoNut95
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I've heard to sprinkle DE around the bases of plants to prevent slugs from crawling up the plants.

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applestar
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Ah, we don’t have the BIG slugs here — mostly those little ones that you described. If same, they mature at about 1.5 to 1.75 inches stretched out. I used to have lots — you can probably find my slug hunt report from way back somewhere. Recently I see much less of them and more tree frogs (3 different species... maybe 4)

Vanisle_BC
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I'm still hunting those little brown slugs in the dead of night. - usually get 1-2 dozen and I'm up to 176 total. I thought of posting to the Garden Jokes thread about my new cabbage variety 'Laceleaf' but it really isn't funny.

SlugDamage.JPG

Here's the experimental strategy I came up with to protect my newly transplanted cauliflower seedlings: close fitting collars of 40 grit sandpaper.

CauliCollars.JPG
Wish me luck.

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applestar
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Are you trying any of the attractant/trap method? — board or thick/corrugated cardboard (check underneath, collect and dispose), citrus scrap like half grapefruit or segmented orange or if you juice, half an orange ... if like me, you tend to peel grapefruit, you can put down the inner sac bunched together. These and any other attractant traps should be placed AWAY from the garden bed.

Vanisle_BC
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@Applestar, I hadn't thought of traps away from the garden beds. Good suggestion, thanks.

ElizabethA
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For my past slug patrol methods, I buried little Dixie cups filled with beer in various places in the garden. You basically sink the cup of beer into the dirt up to the rim. If it rains a lot in your area you can put up those little cocktail umbrellas. I was gardening in the desert at the time, so I didn't need the umbrellas. I caught lots of slugs this way with no poison!

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That's an interesting way to catch slugs, ElizabethA!

Thanks for sharing and welcome to the site!
:)

Vanisle_BC
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ElizabethA wrote:
Mon Nov 30, 2020 5:18 pm
For my past slug patrol methods, I buried little Dixie cups filled with beer in various places in the garden. You basically sink the cup of beer into the dirt up to the rim. If it rains a lot in your area you can put up those little cocktail umbrellas. I was gardening in the desert at the time, so I didn't need the umbrellas. I caught lots of slugs this way with no poison!
I've heard of the beer trap before but not your solution to the rain problem. I get a real chuckle visualizing your garden beds, all decked out with tiny umbrellas. - In a variety of colors, I hope.

imafan26
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The snails were not as active during the hot summer, but they are definitely making a comeback. I did use beer and yeast traps before, and they work, but I usually use iron phosphate and if I can get myself out early enough a zip bag with some salt in it and a pair of gloves or chopsticks for the daily snail patrol. I haven't found that many lately. I am averaging less than 5. I need to get out earlier. My record stands at 32 snails in one morning.

Right now they are after the beans. I found two snails in the pot of marigolds next to it. One of the snails was at the top and the other was near the drain hole.

I did not use umbrellas on my beer bait, but that is a neat idea. I actually put a board on top of two bricks and put that over the buried pie pan of yeast bait. It keeps the rain out and attracts the snails because they are always looking for a shady place to hide. I did put it away from the garden. However, while it works, I still need to bait closer to the garden to get the ones that are eating the plants. I throw bait in my rabbit foot ferns since it is a favorite place for them to hide and it is only a few feet from the vegetable garden.

Vanisle_BC
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My goodness; slugs have beer & umbrellas and get handled with chopsticks - what next?

@imafan, when you speak of snails do you mean the ones that carry spiral shells on their backs, and do those do much damage? I seldom see them; almost exclusively I see b'naked' slugs. A few years back I could collect up to 200 black slugs in a single morning; mostly off the wet grass. After maybe 3 years of hunting them, and winging them high over the deer fence onto the gravel side-road, they declined to near extinction. I used gloves, not chopsticks; much better for throwing. (Chopsticks, really?) Now I'm seeing a new-to-me slug variety; very small putty-colored creatures that do a lot of damage despite their size.

imafan26
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The large snails you describe are the African snails and that is what I have the most of. Some of them have shells that are 4 inches. I also have bush snails, curtesy of some hitch hikers on a habanera orchid I bought at a nursery a few years ago, but I don't see them much. I have four different kinds of slugs, the black slug, black slug with the line down the back, grey slimy slug, and the blond slug. The blonds and greys are the hardest to kill. I think the African snails may eat them. When I have more Africans, I hardly see any slugs. Most of the slugs are under pots or in the pots. I have to put screens in the pots to try to keep them from crawling in the drain holes. I even have had African snails climb into my dryer vent and block it enough that it affects the dryer.

I have cannibal snails, although there are never many of them. I don't see them very much. Those eat the slugs and snails. They eat plants too, but they are the keepers.

I just thinned out the aloe patch. The snails like to live in there. It is next to the beans that the snails are devouring. I have to put out snail bait again.


The sun is not coming up till after 7 a.m. now, and I should be able to get out to snail hunt, but I am just not getting out in time. I am only catching one or two snails a day. I am finding mostly empty shells. I did find snails under some pots. I tried night hunts, but I can't see where I am going much less anything else, so I prefer to do my snail hunts in the early morning.

Actually tongs work better than chopsticks, the larger snails are hard to pickup with chopsticks, but unlike tongs they are disposable. Sorry, I am not wasting a good cooking tong on snails.

ElizabethA
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I just learned another slug repellent idea for raised garden beds! Just put copper tubing/wire on the tops of the beds! I'm going to try it this year!

imafan26
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Copper tape and copper bands will not deter a hungry snail or slug. However, hair works pretty good. Cut up hair into small pieces and lay it around the plants like a barrier. The slugs and snails get caught in it and spend all their time trying to get rid of it. I find snail in the orchid roots when I repot the orchids and they like to hide in the ferns and under pots.

Vanisle_BC
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imafan26 wrote:
Thu Feb 18, 2021 12:36 pm
Copper tape and copper bands will not deter a hungry snail or slug.
Agree about the ineffectiveness of copper. For an experiment I made a circle of copper pipe and laid it on the grass; collected a half dozen black slugs & put them inside it. For a while they wouldn't cross it to escape; would rear up when they got close to it. But eventually they just braced themselves and got across while arching their bodies as high as they could.

ElizabethA
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Thanks for the heads up! Maybe I'll try the hair trick! Fingers crossed!

ChiMom546
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We have peppers in container on our porch and the slugs were very happy for a while. We didn’t have copper wire so I took a piece of wood I Abe and cut a tiny half moon in two piece for a stem hole. I them glued a ton of pennies to it and put it around the stem and it worked, also I put Vaseline around the rim and that seems to work. I just have to reapply the Vaseline because of rain and my dogs trying to lick it. I am not sure which one worked, but the slugs seem to stay away. With the exception of my husbands jalapeño plant. He topped it off early and it’s now growing into a crazy bushy plant. Well those slugs went nuts one evening. He pruned the bottom leaves off and it seems to keep them away.

imafan26
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Cleaning up debris and and taking the lower leaves off bushy plants help. The snails and slugs. like to hide under and between pots, in the holes of cmu blocks, under rocks, and in the drain holes of some pots. I have caught snails in my dryer vent (usually the dryer cuts off from overheating because they are blocking the vent (they are usually already dead from the hot air.) I also find them hiding under the kale and Italan parsley leaves so I have to clean up the lower leaves of those plants so they won't have anywhere to hide. They like to hide in the aloe patch and they will even eat the cactus. I have a lot of ferns and bromeliads under the plumeria trees and they like to hide there. They climb the walls of the house and they climb the trees to get to the orchids hanging on the trees. I even have to move my strawberry baskets once in a while and check inside the container because they like to hide there. They will eat the strawberries as soon as it is ripe.

They like moist dark places like fern patches and leaf piles especially in places that aren't disturbed much. Usually, when I start seeing more snails and slugs in the garden. I will bait around the pathways to the vegetable garden and also throw bait into the fern, aloe, and bromeliad patches. Also under the orchids and cigtrus trees. It has to be done every two weeks. One tablespoon per square yard. The lower leaves of any plants in the vegetable garden like the lower leaves of kale, parsley, and cabbages are places they like to hide in the day. So, on the plants that are tall enough, I have to strip off the older leaves and feed them to the worms. Iron phosphate is safe to use around vegetables, but it does attract snails and slugs so you have to be careful not to get it on the crop.

For places away from edibles, methaldehyde lasts longer. Just cannot use it if you have pets. I use granular methaldehyde or Deadline when I can get it around the ornamentals that are not near any edibles. I don't use the buggeta formulation because the carrier is bran and that does look like dog food.

My vegetable garden has better snail coverage than the ornamentals. I am finding more snails in the ground cover and orchids than anywhere else.

My record for snails and slug on a hunt was 32. Almost half of them were caught in the 5 minutes before I went to work. I tried snail hunting at night. I can't see a thing, not even where I am going, so I prefer to do my hunting in the early morning about a half an hour before sunrise to about and hour after the sun comes up. I can see what I am doing then and it is easier to spot the snails than at night.

Some people said that snails like to be on sidewalks at night so they will deliberately bait the sidewalk with dog kibble that they have moistened and go out after 10 pm and collect the snails while they are feasting.

The other thing people use are graprefruit rinds. The fruit is halved and the pulp removed. The shell is turned cut side down on the garden and the snails will go into the shells to hide during the day.

I ask the beautician for my hair when I cut it and cut it into small pieces and put it as a barrier around the plants that the snails are going after. I don't mind torturing slugs and snails. They can't eat anything once they go over the hair. They spend the rest of their time trying to get it off.



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