Yikes...! Slugs are waging "turf" wars all over my 4-nerve daisy blooms, cosmos blooms and many others. Does anyone know of a good natural or organic method of ridding my flowerbeds of the little varmints? I can't use poison bait or similar stuff because of all the critter activity going on under my plants, i.e. lizards, toads, snakes, mice, birds, etc.
My petals have holes in them, lol...
Melanie :)
Beer would work against slugs, but it might also drown a few innocent victims. I'm not bothered by slugs. I'm too isolated now, but when I lived in the city, I put out short lengths of lumber or other material for the slugs to hide under during the day. I'd go out every morning to scrape the slugs into a plastic bag and put it in the trash. I really didn't see much difference in the slug population. I finally broke down and bought Sluggo. That helped reduce the slug population. At least, for a while.
http://www.planetnatural.com/site/sluggo.html
You could try Diatomaceous Earth or DE, it lacerates them, or little strips of copper here and there.
I usually just put a board out there and they congregate under it and then throw them in the pond. The fish love the slug fest.
I agree with both above. Either do it manually, or use one of the products on the market. If you have pets aound the garden, there are a few baits that are OK with pets. It will say on the label. I pulled one out of my garage, and it is "Garden Safe" brand Slug & Snail bait. I probably bought it at WalMart or Lowes. It says it can be used around pets & wildlife. Also says "remains effective after rain or sprinkling". It is in a small pelleted kind, so it is easy to broadcast. Remember, it is a bait, so they have to eat it, and they will die days later. Of course, it will not undo any snail damage already there. It is early in the season, and new growth should cover it up. Hope this helps... tosaho, aka SandiO
Did any of you read the Heloise column the other day where the woman carries those little packets of salt around w/her when she goes into her yard so that if she spots a slug she just sprinkles the hapless critter w/the salt and watches it disintegrate? I know salt works but.........
Ann
Yes, salt works, sprinkle them with salt and they dissolve. Of course, you don't want to sprinkle salt all over the place, only on them. Too much salt can be harmful to soil and plants.
A very light sprinkling of wood ashes on the soil around the plants also works, and a light
sprinkle of ashes will not hurt the soil, but keep it light, too much is not good as it will make the soil too alkaline.
Josephine.
Wow...I get back home from work....and you guys have given me some great ideas! lol, I remember feeling curious about whether salt would really dissolve a snail...so as a wee child, I tried it...and lo and behold...that hapless snail melted right away, and I burst into tears...feeling so remorseful that I still feel bad about it today! lol....Thanks again, everyone.....I'll try some of your ideas. :)
Melanie
I have something chewing on my hostas. It looks like snails, but I haven't seen any. If it's not snails or slugs what else would it be? I haven't seen grasshoppers yet either.
I'm not sure, Silver....what with all of this wonderful rain, there are all sorts of creepy crawlies on the move right now. Could it be beetles, perhaps? I seem to have some small ones doing a wee bit of munching as well....
Melanie
Do they feast at night or in the day? Can you get a picture?
I've seen grasshoppers here. One was drowned in the rain barrel -- hooray! (I don't like anything to die, but when it comes to uninviteds who eat my plants... well, you know...)
Put a saucer of beer on the ground, with the rim as close to the ground as you can get it. The gnomes who live in your garden will drink the beer and repay you by leaving dead slugs in the saucer. For some reason garden gnomes think we like dead slugs.
lol brigid...I love that bit of wisdom!
As far as the beetles, they seem to be hanging around during the day...they're real small..but seem to be munching on my petals along with slugs and pill bugs. :p I'll try to get a photo...
Melanie
I have a bumper crop of snails this year. I've got some that are HUGE and funny striped, kind of gray and green. I've been putting out snail bait and collecting them early in the morning and disposing of them. They really love my Amaryllis blooms and the new foliage on the salvias. My Amaryllis blooms look like lace they've eaten so much of them.
I know all about those giant snails...crow....When I moved to San Antonio from Boston, I couldn't believe how big that particular kind could grow. They decimated my tomatos....chewing huge holes in them during the night...Luckily, in my new house, it is too arid and unshaded for them to survive out here. They sure can do some major damage!
Melanie
This is the first year I have had snails. I have the huge ones all the way down to the teeny tiny ones. I have been hand picking. After over a week and a hundred or so of the big ones, I discovered I had slugs on my daylilies and iris in another bed. I decided to declare war and put out some bait but continue to hand pick. Tonight I didn't see any slugs and I picked only 4 big ones and a few small ones. They haven't known what has hit them. :-)
lol Doodlebug....I know what you mean... I wish I could put down a poison bait....but am so afraid of harming all of my other critters. I'm definitely going to try some of these ideas. It can't hurt! :)
Melanie
Well, I've had beer traps and they do work very well, though they are pretty yucky to clean out. But I haven't seen a single snail. Usually I see them in the morning still munching. I put a pretty good layer of coffee grounds around my hostas in pots. We'll see if that works. I'm keeping a close eye on the new leaves coming out. Haven't seen anything else munching either.
The best treatment that I've found is iron phosphate with yeast ("Sluggo"). It comes in long-lasting pellets; slugs and snails eat them and then can't digest any more so die. The pellets break down and release iron and phosphorus into the soil, so it's also a fertilizer but non-toxic.
You can buy it at organic gardening centers for about $10-20/lb., or order it online from sources such as Rincon-Vitova (if you need a lot) for around $2-3/lb plus shipping. I've had pretty good luck with this. And, if you avoid pesticides, some of the common ultra-dangerous slug and snail baits that contain mercury etc., you'll encourage the harmless snakes and other critters (sounds like you have these already!) that eat slugs and snails.
BTW: DO NOT use diatomaceous earth (DE). It makes me sick to see all the people who are trying to be "organic" spreading this all over. DE is the remains of tiny sea creatures that had sharp spiny "shells", and the powder scratches the protecive cuticle layer of insects and sticks to/dries out slugs and snails. It is an indiscriminate killer and will wipe out your beneficial insects too (plus it can do major damage to your lungs if you breathe it in).
Be very careful with what's supposedly "organic" -- much of the organic market is anything but, with people pouring "natural" poisons all over the place, releasing non-native insects (foreign ladybugs, praying mantises, etc.) and just generally destroying what's left of our native fauna and flora. There's almost no regulation, so naive or sleazy marketers can stick the "organic gardening" label on nearly anything and make people feel good about thinking they're saving the Earth. Copper sulfate for rose diseases is marketed as an "organic" approach, yet copper runoff is a major poison for streams, lakes etc. (and isn't so good for you or your other plants either). Some of the most sincere organic gardeners I know use very dangerous substances that kill all sorts of creatures because there's an "organic" or "natural" label on the product. Well, arsenic, lead, mercury, uranium, cyanide, botulism toxin, tetanus bacteria, rabies virus and hundreds of thousands of other dangerous substances or organisms occur naturally too, yet we'd never spread these around our yards.
It's hard to be totally "organic", but you have to look very carefully at what people are trying to sell, and the potential impact. Sluggo seems pretty safe to me (a biology professor and researcher) though, compared to most else. Beer traps are even safer, if you can catch enough of the offenders -- I'd try those first. BTW, it's the yeast in beer that attracts them, so a pinch of yeast in water works well too.
Thank you for that wonderful bit of info, viridis....I have to agree with you...I find it appalling to see my neighbors using deadly poisons so indiscriminately without thinking about the outcome. And again...we have to be careful and aware of buying products marketed as "organic" which can have just as many lethal compounds as regular poison bait. Ah well......its the "let them do their thing and eat my flowers" versus control and eradification. A middle ground is what I am looking for, lol. Thanks again.. :)
Melanie
Thanks for the tip about the yeast attracting snails. I never thought of trying just yeast. DH always complains about me "wasting" his beer on snails.:) I'll try yeast.
I need to try that as well....
