Slug Defense

Just out of curiosity, I've been putting out beer traps & getting an average of 70 slugs a night.

Poor things. I really have no need to kill them & they ARE beautiful. But my front garden is walled & bounded by gravel areas, so it would be easy & nice to have a slug-free area once the resident population was eliminated.

Slugs are beautiful? Summer, have you been drinking again?

Well, how do you think I got enough leftover beer to trap 70 slugs?!

You are so funny. Hope you are soon slug diminished.

Actually, I bring home a sealed jug of poured-out beer from work each evening, along with a massive bag of coffee grounds & iced-tea leaves.

I look like a bag lady schlepping through the parking lot. Or just a waitress with a serious habit ... of some sort.

I'm biding my time, waiting till I'm in good with the dragon lady who runs the kitchen, before asking for the eggshells. Figure I can keep them in my purse, maybe my apron pocket.

Well, you know I think they're beautiful, too . . . nice image of you walking out of the bar . . .

One comment about eggshells. We used to put them in with the compost and found that it takes way too long for them to become anything other than eggshells. Now I throw them out as I think their remains are ugly in my gardens.

Eggshells do work, they are strange looking in the soil, I agree.
I am trying sawdust & wood shavings, we have a workshop nearby that is happy to be rid of them.
The slugs hate that the sawdust sticks to them, seems to be effective so far, and looks tidy to boot.
Will keep you posted.

I am mighty weary of this cloudy rain stuff. PNW has many good points, I just have to remember them.

A wide collar of coffee grounds around the delicacies seems to be impeding the slugs. Still getting 50-70 a night in my beer traps, so that no doubt helps.

I just walked up my driveway and noticed about 3 slugs. So I went out with a plastic bag to pick them up and dispose of them. Turns out there were about 10-12 of them, all congregating around and having a slug party. I had no idea they were such social little buggers!

Did you know there are insects that eat slugs? I just got back from my monthly master gardener meeting and the topic was beneficial insects and the rove beetle eats slugs. I wonder if we can buy those like we can buy ladybugs. Me thinks I could make a fortune!

Slugs themselves eat slugs! I dump out all the night's bodies near the beer traps & that alone attracts more.

Oh, maybe they were all gathering to duke it out. More likely they were comparing notes re tasty spots in the garden to recommend to each other.

Ew... I didn't know that slugs were cannibals...

Caught a baby mallard yesterday, red-billed, so-to-speak, with a long string of ooze hanging from its bill. It was stuck there 30 minutes or so until it finally washed off... The duck family often leaves the pond to visit the back porch - slugs like to congregate there below the bird-feeder.

Yes, slugs are definitely cannibals. When I cut one, I leave it right where it falls, and the next day threre will be more to cut, eating on the dead carcass.

Not to be gross..but I have found the slugs consuming dog poo. Yum!

Oh my gosh!!!!!! They truly are omnivores....

Slugs are very efficient recyclers. Without them we'd have a lot of dog poo, garbage, bug carcasses, old plants laying around.

Each week before mowing, I pick up after the dogs and add all the slugs with it to the bag. I can't kill them, so I figure that going off live to the land fill to eat to their hearts desire isn't such a bad thing . . .

Now I'm bummed. I often pick up dog poop and slugs and put them all in the same bag. I was doing it to get back at the slugs. And now you're telling me I was just giving them treats?!?!?!

I will kill slugs any possible way I can. If I have the clippers in my hands, they get cut in half. (Very satisfying.) Or I use Julie's tool. Or into a plastic bag. I like to cut them in half with a trowel too. Then there's the sluggo plus. I also pick them up and throw them over the fence into the neighbor's yard. It's not the ornamental part of their yard, only the wild untamed part that they never come into nor take care of (little payback for all the berry vines we have that mostly come from the neighbor's).

I'm a terrible person.

^_^ Sometimes I can kill them, sometimes not. If not I throw them into the road. Depends on my mood.

I use beer traps. You can buy them in most decent garden stores, or get a 6 pack of Mickey's Big Mouth and drink only about 1/2 a bottle and partially bury it. Leave it a couple of days then don't look inside. Just dump in compost pile. Really the darker hoppier the beer the better for slugs. I need to put some out tonight.

Will they really crawl into a small beer bottle opening?

I'll bet they would if there was a Hosta on the other side . . .

This message was edited Jun 27, 2010 9:19 PM

Yep, or a delphinium... They will cross h-e-double hocky sticks or high water to get to any delphinium I try to grow....

I heard that beer works because they are attracted to the smell of yeast... I wonder if just water with a bit of yeast and sugar would work the same way as beer?

Just jumpin' in here after not being on my computer much at all for the last month . . . I've actually been in my gardens whenever I could - plus got a second dog a couple weeks ago and have been spending time with both the pups.

I don't drink at all, but had left over beer in my fridge from my late husband's wake almost two years ago . . . the slugs were so bad I decided to try some and filled shallow old ash trays (again, from my late husband) and voila! Had a disgusting amount in both containers the next morning. The second night wasn't nearly as successful so I figured the word was out as I'd still seen a gazillion of the little monsters. I think I'll try some of the darker stuff. And I just might try some yeast in water with sugar!!! Now if THAT worked, what a money saver that would be.

(Gwen, they positively destroyed every single leaf on all three of the Solidasters I bought in that coop purchase you made - I called them much worse than little monsters then!)

MIckeys Big Mouth has a big opening compared to skinny necked bottles.

Some of the slugs living in my yard would have to have the big necked bottle - they are disgusting enormous (from eating all my plants)!

Carole, the slugs in my garden are at an all-time high this year. Maybe this is 'peak' year for them and they'll go down in numbers next year. (Somehow I doubt it.)

Hopefully your solidaster will come back next year. I didn't buy any of that, but slugs sure have munched on other things here.

What you want to catch are the little tan/gray buggers, they are the European slug that eats our plants. The Giant NW Slug eats detritus from the ground and only helps build nice soil.

I've heard the large 'banana slugs' do not eat plants, but since I see the big black/brown guys munching away on plants on a daily basis, I know they eat plants too. I assumed the little tan/gray buggers were the babies. Interesting that they are a separate species.

I haven't seen a banana slug in our yard for a really long time. We never had a lot here in this house, but I'd see one or two at least. They weren't yellow like the ones in Calif. They were more an ugly translucent color with blotches on them.

Next time i find a banana slug chomping on one of my plants, I will take and post a photo and try to dispell that urban legend.

LOL You don't even have to take a photo. I know that in California, in the Redwood country, where there are gazillions of big yellow banana slugs, they do eat plants because I've seen that with my own eyes as well.

I was kind of surprised when I heard it the other night in a lecture on bugs and insects in the garden.

Beer traps can be made from plastic margerine tubs or similar plastic tubs. Notch out from the upper edge of the tub about one inch down and one inch across. On a small tub, make two of these; larger tubs can have 3 or 4. Half fill with beer, place the lid on, and leave it alone for a couple of days. If you are squeamish, like me, use the yellow margerine tubs. You won't have to even see the dead slugs. Discard the whole thing in your garbage can. Of course you will need a continuing supply of tubs, hard to do when you don't eat margerine. In that case, remove the lid, and pour the disgusting mess into a black plastic sack and refill tub with more beer. I use Sluggo, but have to use often because of the rain. It is not as effective as Deadline, but appears to be safer. Thanks to all of you who reminded me of beer traps.

I have some "commercial" beer traps that I actually paid for but no longer use because of the disgusting mess. Thanks for the good thoughts, kerrybee. I am sure sour cream containers or deli salsa containers would work just as well.

Yogurt tubs could work in lieu of margerine size tube..just a thought. Here is a lovely banana slug picture that I found on the internet for all of you dying to see a picture of these creatures. I was deathly afraid of the very slow moving creatures when I was at summer camp in CA back in the 60's. In fact I was kicking and screaming one afternoon on a hike down to the creek. (known habitat of the yellow monsters) To get down all the way to the creek we had to crawl under a barbed wire fence. I just threw a fit and got my leg caught up in the barbed wire and slashed a nice gash in my shin. I was bleeding so bad everyone had to crawl back up under the fence and we went back to the base camp. My Mom had to come get me from the camp and I refused to ever go back. Had to get a tetnus shot too. I do not have very fond memeories of these ugly yellow slimy things. I about freaked when I saw one at the Oregon Garden during one of my many visits.

I'm glad we don't have those. To pretty to kill.

Bea, that does not look like what we consider "banana slugs". I will have to post a picture, but that is way yellow-er than I have ever seen one. Maybe we are incorrect in our ID.

http://oregonstate.edu/dept/nurspest/banana%20slug.htm

Those are the kind of banana slugs you find in California.

Gwen..yes the yellow ones are found in CA. That where I grew up. That picture I posted was fron a Santa Cruz location. As I remember them the ones that scared me the most were about 10"-12 inches .
The one on Kathy's link are pretty ugly too.

The only places in my garden the slugs have not discovered are the raised vegetable beds. I put sluggo on the ground around them and that seems to work. Everywhere else, they are having a feast. I'm going to try the water with sugar and yeast.