Any tips for keeping slugs at bay?

I doubt if they have it there for slugs--it's popular (and cheap) material to use for paths, or some people use rocks/gravel as mulch, so it's probably for one of those things and if it prevents slugs too that's just a side benefit.

well, I just sprinkled sluggo all over my beds today.... crossing fingers and hoping puppy doesnt get sick.... I'll also keep doing the wet newspaper thing and see how things go. :o)

Look what I found today.

keep it on your side of town!!!! or i'll send this!!!

It ran right over the penny

Oh My

I will corral my snails, you keep That thing over your way!!!

with the ponds, i find all kinds of neat creepy things. i spend more time trying to identify wigglies than watching fish........that snake was over 6 feet long last year. don't know where he went. hope he stays away. this one stays under the water. he's only 6 inches. maybe the snakes are why i don't have TOO many snails...... sure you don't want one?

and I was thinking of a pond area.

I have One green snake that shows up every now and then, to many gecko's/chameleon's to count ,a few frogs and doodle bugs everywhere. (and something they called a skink?skank? it's a brown striped lizard with legs) I saw 3 ladybugs today.

I was going add the pond to counter the mosquito's, not add freaky creepy slithering crawlies! lol

I just got rid of the mice/rats?- 4" dark grey w/pink ears and long pink tails (just like the one's in cartoons!) by spreading the cat box cleaning's along the fence lines behind my flower pots. City mice sure look different then the one's we have in Hempstead. I know the snakes could have kept them down , but that's okay..

Ran right over that penny, huh? And no sparks?? Well that figures- darn these "safe" methods, anyway. Will he crawl over three inches worth of pennies?. It's frustrating to read on the internet about the various slug deterrents and then try them and have them fail...I felt that way about the beer. I ended up tossing the wasted beer into a five gallon bucket, then walked around my yard, collecting slugs and throwing them in there. Guess what- they didn't drown. They were entirely capable of crawling out of the beer and the bucket.

You can keep your snakes, but I wouldn't mind some more little toads...I guess they do like slugs, too.

OK, if you want frogs, definately get a pond. two years in a row now....man i wish i could put more than one pic at a time!!!

and after that.....

this is a pic of a fake!! skull in the front pond. it only show about 100 tadpoles. i'm looking for where i saved the pics showing hundreds and hundreds of them

Oh MY!!! That must be like Club Med for toads!!

it's a blast. becuase of the ponds, we get more frogs than i can count every year. some ugly like those before, also lots of these

My son would be in HEAVEN!!! great photos!

I'm not sure if pennies are 100% copper or not, or even if they are there may be some sort of coating on them--they don't seem to get that greenish aged look very quickly so I suspect either they're a blend of metals or there's some coating on them to prevent oxidation (which would also prevent the copper from reacting as fast when the slug crosses over it)

They haven't been made of copper since '82 - '83.

Last year someone wanted to try covering the earth with pennies in the hope it would deter slugs. I don't recall a positive experience.

Dumb question of the day: where would I buy toads?

They still do have copper in them, maybe not 100% but there's still some in there. That's why pennies are actually worth less than it costs to make them since copper got expensive recently.

you might try some out of the way pet stores. because they're food for most snakes, exotic stores that sell snakes would have them. just toads, though. no tree frogs. (pretty enough to be pets, i mean)

5% copper coating on pennies.

Thanks, lenawest. I'll check the yellow pages. Would spring be the best time to buy them?

My son and I went on an expedition one year... we went everywhere looking for frogs or tadpoles. Couldnt find any in the pet stores, so then we hit all the local areas with ponds and marshes. We looked for weeks and weeks, to no avail. Here is one of my favorite pictures of him... he is intently peering in a pond looking for tadpoles, ready to scoop em up and bring em home. ...

I would love to find some tadpoles or frogs for my pond. Especially if they eat the slugs!

What a blondie he is! That's a great photo.

Toads do love slugs. They'd be the ideal answer.

all the pics i have of frogs messing around are dated between may and august each year. the tree frogs are a little later - sept to october

Toads aren't really ideal though for dog owners, though, because they can be poisonous if eaten. In fact I think most if not all secrete poison if bitten. My dogs are small, so I really worry that they will one day get a hold of one of our little toads that I frequently find around the yard. I sort of have a love/hate thing going on with our toads. Guess we don't have enough to completely eliminate the slugs, though.

My dogs seem to be afraid of them....the cats on the other hand: when a cat comes in drooling, the first thing we go look for is the dead frog!!

...and let's not forget about frogs and warts...or is that a fallacy ?

I have 4 Min-Pin's and a inherited Chihuahua which joined the Pack last year. I don 't mind letting them into the garden if I cover the strawberries (they all have a sweet-tooth!) But .. I have to watch them, they tear stuff up trying to get to a chameleon. When they roam around in the basil and rosemary they bring a little of the garden inside.

One summer evening I didn't watch close enough. The Momma was running her usual figure-8's around the yard with three dogs ( The Daddy and two little ones) chasing her. They did it 4 or 5 times, then came to a stop in front of me. The momma dog was looking at Me, I was looking at the 3 looking at Her. Then I looked at her and saw.. 4 legs and a butt sticking out of her mouth. Two legs on either side of her mouth, and the butt in front of her nose. I made it worse, of course. I hollered and started the figure-8's again, but this time I was with them. Finally caught her, but she Would Not open her mouth. I had to get Hubby involved. Held her, Pried her mouth open and the frog fell out unharmed by it all. Washed her mouth/eyes and face off with the spray nozzle as fast as possible, and
watched the little Bugger closely for a time. My niece is a vet tech and lives with us, so we have in-house advise.

She learned her lesson! She now Stands on them with her front paws when she finds them, and barks for me until I saved her.(and the frog)

I read that Frogs love slugs. Do they like mosquito's? That is a Major problem here at my house. I have frog pots out, and have peeked and found a couple each summer. Just the bottom of medium busted upside down flower pots, in a cool damp spot, tilted half in the ground /half on mulch/sticks so that they can squeeze in and hide. (from my dogs)

The frog pots attracted slugs one year. I used the beer bait (bait that was what it boiled down to, the few that fell in did so by accident I am sure) and I had the Time to keep it
fresh and full.

whozzat08 - I do think frogs eat mosquitoes, yes! But the best thing in the world to get rid of mosquitoes is bats. We have quite a few bats around our house and they kept our backyard relatively mosquito-free for most of the summer until heavy rains (and the resulting standing water) caused what we still refer to as The Mosquito Infestation from Hell. At that point, the bats couldn't keep up. But I'm a HUGE fan of bats!

Too bad bats don't eat slugs. :(

I forgot the part about using the beer bait - Under or inside- the frog pots.

Outside my Grandmothers house in the Pharr ,Tx, we had bats in the old palm leaves left hanging on the palms.
I wonder how a person could get them started. Good question. Mine would be Fat, and have job security.

Every Year I have the MIFH !! I have been tempted to invest in a Bee suit! Last year the neighbor next door had some kind of spray/misting installed around their back yard. The first week they used it , this mist came into My back yard and it smelled Horrible. I think they couldn't stand the smell either, because the next time I smelled it in use, it smelled like the Orange house cleaner. I could handle that. I rushed out and worked as long as I could when it stopped misting. It seemed to work. The mosquito's were not so bad.
It was installed late last summer, so I only benefited a few times.

I wonder if that would bother/harm bats?

I have tried smoke pots, candles, smoldering old rags, misting bleach, lemon juice, Dawn Dish washing liquid and even ((very diluted)) Lemon ammonia where I am working. I did not think of Orange.
I end up dragging a box fan or the (osculating) fan on a stand and the electric cord to where ever I am working. Not to keep cool, just to keep the swarms away.

FYI.. I have a High contact allergy to any kind of Deep, Raid, Skin so soft, etc..

.Egads.. I have tried anything/everything suggested... like putting a little cooking oil in any standing water, misting Vinegar on Me and my clothes

I will look into more frogs and read up on Bats.




This message was edited Mar 17, 2008 5:34 PM

I had never heard that dogs can be harmed by contact with frogs. My cats also catch them and bring them and lizards and mice to my doorstep as 'gifts' and the cats have never been harmed.

whozzat, I thought I had the only wacky dog in the world who ran figure 8's all over the yard, house etc! He's a teacup poodle and doesnt do it as often as when he was a pup, but every once in a while I guess he has excess energy to burn and just starts running like mad! lol!

A funny about my pond and dogs/cats: I installed a small pond last summer. The dogs arent often allowed in that part of the yard. a few weeks ago I let the poodle and datzie out in the yard with me. My kitty was sitting on the fence, sunning himself. Datzie saw kitty, kitty ran along the top of the fence, datzie followed along the fence edge, and found himself in a pond! LOL! When I pulled him out, he just kinda looked around, looked at the pond and you could just see the expression in his eyes....Where did THAT come from! LOL! Kitty just sat at the end of the fence, licking his paws and started sunning himself again, he knew he was safe on the fence, as long as he was next to the pond! I think kitty set up datzie! lol!

Cats (like girls) just wanna have fun.

Frogs/toads aren't the only things that can make dogs sick. My greyhound, Ella, ate a woolly bear caterpillar last summer. I saw her stoop to pick something up outside and wasn't quite sure what it was. She came inside and immediately started hacking and gagging and making the most horrible noises, then vomiting up watery bile, then gagging (very loudly) some more. It was horrendous. I've really never seen anything like it. I thought she was dying. I even attempted a doggy Heimlich maneuver. Finally, I woke my husband and had him sit with her while I ran to the computer (what would we do without the Internet?) to look up her symptoms.

I had suspected that what Ella ate was either a woolly bear that I'd seen out on the patio earlier or a small pine cone. When I looked up the toxicity of each of them I learned very quickly that, while not toxic, the woolly bear was definitely the culprit. Their "hair" is actually a defense mechanism made up of small barbs that stick to the inside of a predator's throat and soft tissues. Once a predator has eaten a woolly bear, they're unlikely to eat one again!

Ya learn something new about animals every day.

Our Lhasa gets violently ill, instantly, from turkey. Now we know better and so does he.

About bats.
The "Bat Conservation Organization" has a newsletter and plans for making bat houses. http://www.batcon.org/news2/scripts/newsletter.asp?newsletterID=43&ref=61

Thank You Bubba_MoCity! Plans are in the works to make a new home. If Hubby doesn't do it, I will.

I've been a member of the Bat Conservation for several years.

Always glad to find someone else that wants to use nature to control the critters.
DW & I take good care of our toads - by fall all are huge.

Disturbed a few in the garden when I dragged out the leaf cover - must have been 4-6" deep. Will add those leaves to the compost this weekend.

Y'all, coming to the RU in College Station next month?

If you see any of these snakes, let them be. Slugs and snails are a major part of their diet. Also they don't get too big; I haven't seen them much over a foot. Best of all, they aren't aggressive. I've handled many and have never seen one TRY to bite. In warm weather, they normally come out at night. You're only likely to see them after a cool shower or on a Spring day.

I have large pink/lavender flowered clover, and tiny yellow flowered clover. I always pull the yellow, but keep the pink. It just looks pretty, and warns me when it is time to water when I put it in the base of my flower pots (pots w /trees)
One of the "free" bulbs from a catalog buy, was a few bags of Shamrocks. I planted them, and forgot about them 'till the next year.. Wow I found two 4 leaf clovers! Pressed and framed now.

I am now the owner of a Bat house *Lowes*. It is tiny, but gives me an idea of what the finished product looks like And it is going up ASAP. I will read up on the information that I printed out along with the house plans to figure out the best place to put it.

I would Love to go to the RU, it's so close! but...

I am my Mom's caregiver 24/7 Just getting time outside for the garden is isn't easy right now. I was very house bound until someone told me about the wonders of Baby monitors! . A Lot of the plants that should be outside are inside in pots. With the new BM they are slowly going back outside. Gardening has become my Therapy.

I am thinking of putting in a small shallow 12" deep "frog pond" with some rocks and water loving low plants, in a shady area. Hubby has some bottoms of plastic 50 gal drums laying around he used for making feed troughs. I should be able to put that in and keep it up.
What do ya'll think? Do you think that would attract some frogs? or do I need to visit the pet stores for live frogs? I have the distilled water for my aquarium use to start it.

I want get started Now!!

Oooo! Good luck with the bat houses! I've heard it can take up to 2 years or more for bats to find and start using them. You might want to ask around and see if you can find information about lures. We're lucky here in that our bats were here when we moved in. We're still thinking of adding houses so more of them feel welcome, though.

if you do buy frogs at a pet store....make sure that they are frogs that are native to your area. Alot of pet stores bring in exotic frogs to sell and then those frogs populate the area instead of native frogs.

oneanjl- That was a Kitty set up!

and I will watch for native frogs. I am going to start on the frog pond this weekend.