As I clipped my beer cans to make slug barriers, I wondered if all of you know about this great slug "barrier".. Clip strips about 2" wide from aluminum cans...put them at the base of any plant the slugs love, clip the ends together (or staple) and bury it in the ground about 1//2". The slugs won't go over the rough edges. I have done it successfully...and am about to put them out again as the beasties are having banquets!!!
Aloha
Slug Solution
Great idea! Do you have a picture of it Carol?
Will take one tomorrow... Great suggestion.,..explanations can get so lost....!
Carol
My pots are on cement pavers in the greenhouse, so I have been using the can contents to drown them; however, my neighbor has a Sour Gum tree that has dropped plenty of gumballs around, and I am going to surround the slug eaten pots with these. Does anyone know if the slugs spend the day under the pots, or buried in the soil?
Polly...I would say under the pots or under anything else where it is cool and damp...from what I have seen.
Aloha...great idea, my only problem is getting the cans away from DH who brings them in for $'s !!! I take it you mean to cute slices of the can, every 2 inches, like you were cutting a log roll...right?
Picturelady...yes, like cutting a log roll. But I find it easier to cut "body" of the can the long way, then cut the ends off the can. Then you are left with a sheet of aluminum from which to cut strips (and easier to fit around trunks). Then I use paper clips to keep it a ring. Here it all rusts fairly quickly but still works.
I was also told that coffee grounds will keep them away...but will also make the soil more acid.
I just came in from placing gum balls around the base of my two most slug eaten plants - I pushed them into the soil. I sprayed off their leaves, which have been covered by a sooty aphid type bug, and sprayed a mixture of half alcohol and water on the wet leaves. (Makes me a bit heady from the fumes).
Alohahoya, this may be the answer! Great idea to surround the stem base!
I finally used some commercial slug and snail killer last week, and they have not abated at all. They even climb up the insides of the GH walls. Ick!
Pollygardening...does the alcohol/water mix take off the sooty mold?
I've also been told that diatomaceous (sp?) earth repells the slugs (rough on their tender little bodies)...and crushed egg shells. The can rings are easier...kinda tacky looking at first, but one gets usd to the effect!!
The sooty substance is begun by aphid infestation, and they will wash off, and die from the alcohol water. I think a secondary invader feeds on the aphids, and that causes the soot. The blemish remains after the spraying.
These aphids reappear at least every other day.
But I think your barrier solution at the base of each plant is the way to go for the slugs
How's about some FREE gumballs, Kaufmann?.
(Or sit close to DH and recover his cans!)
Gumballs??? they repel slugs??? Do you have to chew them first??? I never heard of this one before...
Don't forget too, there is also the copper barrier you can purchase. It is supposed to give the slugs a little shock. It comes as a 1" tape that I put on the outside of a raised bed, it kept them out for several years. It also comes on a 3" moulding type material to put around larger areas. A friend used the 3" type...on a bed next to her house. The slugs climbed up the stucco of the wall & got into the bed! They are clever little fellows!!
I have heard this works well too...
I was wondering about the sooty mold...because we get a lot of it. It is caused by the aphids making excess "sugars" that drop all over and mold...simple as that. But once on the leaves...I can't get it off. We had an orange tree that was covered with it...and that tree never produced an orange. Once I got rid of the ants the aphids were gone and the mold washed off after about 6 months of rain. That tree produces the best oranges in the world, now! Just keep the ants down. Here, they live in the soil under the tree. I sprinkle powered Sevin around the base of the trees and the ants take it to the nest as they plow thru it. ZAP! But then the rain washes it away and we head off for another round! Tanglefoot is good to put in a band around the trunk...ants can't climb up.
Sorry to change subjects...LOL
We had such a mild fall here -- even 70 degrees two weeks ago (15 now!) - all the spring problems showed up on my camellias and broadleaf conifors.
They are covered with the sooty mold. The Tanglefoot is a great idea; I can easily put it around the base of all these shrubs. I used it years ago at our riiver home to discourage snakes from my Purple Martin houses, and 'coons from my Blue bird houses. forgot about it!
I haven't seen any ants in the GH, but good to know the secondary source of sooty mold.
The gumballs are very prickly little sharp balls, and the slugs won't crawl over them.