I am in big trouble I can already tell. A big year for snails. I got these in just a few minutes in one little corner of my garden.
ESCARGOT anyone??
This one I may keep as my pet. He came when I called.
OMG
Those look like big trouble to me Kell.
You have a lot of hungry mouths there.
It's bad enough when I step on a slug here but I
can only imagine what it sounds like stepping on
them guys. Crunch!!!
~Ahhhhh~ The sound of }}}}}}Crunchy{{{{{{ Snails.....
R* O* C* K* S !!!
This message was edited Mar 18, 2005 6:49 PM
Yummy....nah, just kidding.
I have slugs in the shady half of my yard, but not quite this big as these bad boys...are these radioactive? Live near a power plant? LOL
I can't bring myself to kill 'em, so I fling them with a shovel over the fence behind my neighbor's garage. Nice of me, huh? I'm pretty sure the impact takes care of them, especially as they are sans shell.
Shhhh, please don't tell PETA.
Jackie
Oh my gosh! How big are those things? I can just see my kids trying to save them all.... It's a good thing they are not in my yard. The kids try to relocated the slugs. *gag*
I'm telling you. Just spray with coffee and they will have a heart attack. ( I say this as I drink my 4th cup. I feel a little weak) I spray at night and it really does the trick. Knocks them down without poison.
OMG I think I have only seen one slug in my life they must live all next door to you Kell, ever tried slug stew LOL
ruthm, what exactly do you do, I have a pot going everyday and if I can find something cheaper than sluggo and such I would definatly go for it. Never thought of coffee but I know a beer will kill them.
Wow, you have them BAD!! I use the slug powder on the ground, they eat it and dry up(smells like malt). Also eggs shells will cut them when they crawl over them. Sand is also good and keeps soil dry on top.
Kristi: I can see it now, a fishpond full of those beautiful creatures, just for your girls.
Not trying to go off subject but do eggshelss really cut them? Ive seen pics of slugs/snails moving over the sharp end of a razor blade with no ill effect, supposedly due to the slime they put out. But this make me wonder if that works.
Yuck. I have lots of snails and slugs also.
My gosh, kell, I have never seen anything like that even on the wet coast. I have found a few babies, and tiny slugs so far but not a herd! I use a 1;10 ammonia in water solution this time of year all over to kill eggs, etc. I have no idea how effective it is but Ken Beattie is the source. Eating them--no problem as long as there's garlic butter!
kell, your posts really crack me up. i think you should mark some of their shells and track their movements around the yard. haha.
Dravencat, just put a cup of old coffee ( I use more ) in a sprayer. I use the ones with a hose and a trigger sprayer. Go out at night and spray it right on the plants you know are targets. If I have some left, then I hit the cracks and the crevices. You can see them kind of go nuts after it hits them. I have empty shells all over.
they're soooo cute!!!!!
KELL I just sent you email telling how to get rid of those slugs.
Cool, Im gona try it next time I have coffee left over. Ill nurse a pot of coffee all day so by the time I turn it off its pretty strong stuff. almost mud.
Boy, I can sympathize Kell, I was just cussing the slimy buggers on Tuesday for eating down all my seedlings in a tray I had on the side. I found a really good information site that I will put a link to, and I did something from it, I laid a sheet of aluminum foil down under the trays & darned if they have not returned. I was actually contemplating how much it would screw up my paper shredder to run foil through to make foil confetti for my beds. hehehehe
I have always used copper wire around my pots with great success because it causes a chemical reaction with their slime, and apparently the foil is almost as good.
http://ucce.ucdavis.edu/files/filelibrary/616/10570.htm
I really like that coffee idea too, my husband makes the WORST coffee & I am not even picky so you KNOW it's bad, lol, now I will know what to do with the remains. And he will never need to know, he can just think my taste buds fell off and I started drinking it again....HARHAR
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This message was edited Mar 18, 2005 7:29 PM
this is copy of email I sent to kell on how to get rid of the slugs.
Terrific Garden Tonics.
have you heard of Quackgrass ?
you take 1 part dried quackgrass blades finely chopped, 1 part wheat bran, and 1 can of beer,
mix the quackgrass and bran in a bowl, slowly add the beer, it will have the consistancy of cookie dough chop it into small bits, let air dry overnight then sprinkle on the ground around your plants. good luck :)
Quackgrass?? Where might one find this critter? I have some bran for sure LOL....maybe I can find a can of beer in the back of the fridge from last year hehehe...we keep it around for guests on hot days lol...as you can already guess, we don't have many of those either. :)
Toss some Salt on em', they'll melt away! Be done with em'!!! lol Grossssssssssssssss
How do people eat those slimy nasty things? It's almost as bad as raw oysters I'm thinkin'? This just proves you don't have to be rich to get escargot LOLOL!
BrugAdict is right. A box of salt in your hand and a flashlight in the other go on slug patrol each night. Evenutually you will get them all.
2nd thing, get a duck. They love them.
Whatever you do, don't do the Quackgrass trick. It doesn't take much to get that stuff started and believe me you don't want it.
Jeanette
lol Jeanette!!!! I wish I had a duck but he would get attacked by my guard dog! Not getting any Quackgrass either LOL
Wow Kell those buggers are huge. Guess all the rains you had brought them all out.
Yuck, one word! LOL!
J
I agree -- YUCK!
It does seem like a big year for them here, too. I have done the beer thing and that works...and I feel better knowing they die happy. I will have to try coffee as well. I don't like to use chemicals unless absolutely necessary.
I do like esargot...I hope I don't recall this thread the next time it's on the menu! YUK!!
It's a good (bad) year here for the snails as well. I find whole communities in my yucca plants. I used toh ave flowers on my primulas, now all I have are stems. The snails are the size of dollar coins! I can't actively kill then, but I figure the flight through the air into the road, or my neighbours back yard will do the trick? Hmmm, I wonder if the neighbours just keep firing them back??.
I love escargot, but I don't find the variety of slugs and garden snail we have here appealing. Those big ones are pretty cute. Salt will work, but I keep thinking about the warning not to over salt brugs. I will use something that will not hurt the animals, the Safer brand name, hope it works...
I never heard of coffee or Quackgrass. I do it the old fashioned way. I water late in the day and then go out at about midnight with a flashlight and big shoe.
MG99, I remember one year I planted tons of petunias and the next morning I went out and there was nothing left at all. I kept looking for a sign I had planted them. I was in shock. LOL Clean plate club.
That coffee spray sounds like it deserves a try. Hope you can coral those slimy little boogers.
I, too, had slugs/snails destroy an entire crop of petunias I started from seeds, I could not believe it when they 'disappeared'. I've never used them again because of it, switched to geraniums, cladiums, which apparently aren't on the snail/slug menu...
It is truly amazing how they can make a plant just disappear over night. I know I thought someone had stolen mine! LOL. A petunia thief. I now know snails do think of petunias as particularly delicious.
I still say they're cute....
A few years ago I brought one in for a pet
he ate the paint on the walls.....
Snails and Slugs sure can devour your plants in no time. They just love my tender hosta when they are popping up! Well this year there may not be such a Hosta Slug Fest. With all our dry weather I have not noticed many of them sliming around. I have also noticed when cleaning some areas the eggs from them sluggies are all dried and shriveled up. That maybe one good thing that has come from the dry spell here in my Garden.
another spray for those slugs is mix 1 1/2 cups of ammonia, 1 tbs Murphys oil soap and 1 1/2 cups water spay where you see signs of the slugs.
I pour all of my left-over coffee into the watering can and feed my plant with it. I never knew the slugs didn't like coffee? I wonder if it will be systemic in my plants now and make them resistant? Wouldn't that be nice.
I bought the little beer breweries last year and they didn't do jack - guess NY slugs are beer drinkers!
LOL Sequee!
Keep the recipes acomin'! Writin' all of em' down for future use! Thanks all of you for some great information :)
Slugs are the worse. I hate them. So slimy. I used to not be able to touch them, but now when I see them I grab them. I try to wear gloves when snailing and slugging though. Nothing worse than slime fingers. I have to use Ajax to get the slime off!!
Oh now that is making me ill....yuck Kell! Do wear some gloves when trying to go snailing and sluggin' k? The worst is to get it under your fingernails @!!!!! I'm grossed out...