Planning New Strategy for Eternal War on Slugs (UGH)

[digitS']

I think I've got it - plastic bottle.

Should work with beer, if it is placed in a sloping hole. I've used beer before but have since learned that some folks use water & yeast.

Steve

 

[catjac1975]

http://www.gardensalive.com/escar-go-slug-snail-control/p/2111/
I used this product several years ago. I really do not have a slug problem anymore. It is not advertised that it will eliminate them for good but that seems to be what has happened to my yard. At least they are not in vast numbers. I have read about a snail that you can purchase that eats slugs but I have not been able to located it. We get a lot of garden snails, which I do not thick do damage. My grandsons and I go on snail hunts to feed them to the chickens. They come out after a rain and is quite the sport for Grandmas and little boys.
And the beer in a tuna can dropped into the soil really works well.

 

[catjac1975]

I have read about rolling up a newspaper at night, wetting it, laying it in the soil and collecting it full of slugs in the morning

 

[lesa]

The copper idea really does work... I had a bunch of copper tubing that I laid around the border of my veggie garden. Made a huge difference. That would have been a pricey solution if I hadn't had the tubing already. Just saw the idea of gluing pennies around the edge of a raised border or pot. You can also leave wood or cardboard in your garden- and pick it up in the morning. There will be lots of slugs attached to the bottom and you can squish them, or salt them...Good luck with the battle!

 

[Lavender2]

We had a slug explosion 3 years ago and I resorted to Sluggo. It worked very well. Every year is different so I can't say for sure that it beat them back forever, but I have not seen numbers like that since. I only applied the Sluggo where they were feeding the most, as the slugs usually come back to eat in the same area.

It is very wet here, swampish, and the great toad population probably helps control them. The year of the explosion we had two months of rain, almost daily. Toad heaven!

 

[digitS']

http://www.gardensalive.com/escar-go-slug-snail-control/p/2111/
I used this product several years ago. I really do not have a slug problem anymore. . . .

The Escar-go has the same ingredient as the organic Sluggo. Iron phosphate. And, there is something that the slugs want to eat. It is an "inactive ingredient" so they don't need to tell us, I guess. But, I will also guess that it may be like chicken feed OR nutritional yeast . . ?

I think I will put those plastic bottle traps on the floor along the center posts & bench legs in the greenhouse. I've got to put ant bait down there every year because the piz ants make nests down there . . . and then show up in the containers on the bench . May as well have a couple types of traps. Slugs can kill a tiny seedling overnight.

These critters can't fly - the only way I can see the slugs getting to the flats of plants is climbing those posts/legs. Of course, they can slime up the walls and drop from the ceiling . . . .

Steve

 

[kathiesgarden]

I am going to use Sluggo this year. I love your idea of the soda bottle thistlebloom!! I am also planning early morning slug hunting excursions. I was hoping that they would be frozen out this year with the cold, but read that they can withstand very cold temperatures. I have tried the copper strips, but unfortunately is not practical in some of the areas that they're attacking There is supposedly a beneficial nematode available in Great Britain that is very effective, but is not available in the US so it's Sluggo for me!!

 

[kathiesgarden]

The Escar-go has the same ingredient as the organic Sluggo. Iron phosphate. And, there is something that the slugs want to eat. It is an "inactive ingredient" so they don't need to tell us, I guess. But, I will also guess that it may be like chicken feed OR nutritional yeast . . ?

I think I will put those plastic bottle traps on the floor along the center posts & bench legs in the greenhouse. I've got to put ant bait down there every year because the piz ants make nests down there . . . and then show up in the containers on the bench . May as well have a couple types of traps. Slugs can kill a tiny seedling overnight.

These critters can't fly - the only way I can see the slugs getting to the flats of plants is climbing those posts/legs. Of course, they can slime up the walls and drop from the ceiling . . . .

Steve

Sorry you're battling slugs too. We live in the same general location (Eastern WA, ID). Do you have the kind with a nasty grey body with black stripes?

 

[digitS']

I imagine so, Kathie. The small ones are a general and constant nuisance.

Is the large leopard slug a problem for you? Limax maximus (link)

I only found that guy in the greenhouse once that I can remember. Of course, his offspring may have been some of the little ones. The monsters are here and there but just have to be really chewing up some vegetation to get to their size! I'd almost prefer to have the banana slug around like I lived with in the Redwoods. At least, they stand out against a dark background!

Steve
http://eol.org/pages/452590/details

 

[Bluebonnet]

I have spent a good deal of time this winter planning a new all out attack on the slugs that are probably wintering over in my garden right now. I hate those ugly slimy varmits. This year, I am going to try more baiting and trapping. I'm going to be especially careful to keep the beds clean of debris and watch the mulch around the plants. I know ducks and geese will eat them, but I'm not ready to take care of a gaggle right now.

I'm an early to bed, early to rise type and here in the Northwest, in the midsummer, it's still light at 9:00 (too late for me) so I can't take advantage of hunting them at night.

Do any of you have problems with slugs? What do you do?

You do not have a slug problem, you have a duck deficiency.

With that said, if you do not want them around but can not add a duck, get yourself some really attractive plants, set them out and then go and round them up in a jar. Dispose of, repeat.