Need Lt Summer/Early Fall weather Predictions for newcomer

TIme to start looking for the slug eggs, too-eliminate a whole generation at a shot. That's probably the best of all.

Hi Kris-glad you all made it here safely and are getting settled in.

Pix. I got a hand held one if you want it? I got a bigger one. And yes those bottle squee's hurts after awhile. Will bring it to the swap.

Suzy, This may be a dumb Q and I most likely know, but am brain dead at the moment, how do you find them?

Tills

Pixy - I don't toss the slugs. I use the shovel to dig a divet, place slug in divet, chop in half & bury (in the divet) by covering with soil.
The flying residual comment is one of personal experience: if you are too close to the slug getting chopped, it is possible that the innards will splatter you. Trowel is a poor choice; long-handled shovel - better.

Tills - I find clusters of slug eggs in a variety of places: under pots & rocks, in the soil & bark, at the base of plants with lots of ground-hugging leaves, in pots...

Okay, I must be dumb I never see them or I don't know what they look like, Someone show me???

Got to go to bed, been a bad day had Auditors from Calif. all day really stress out. they fired 2 employees this morning, they will be there again in AM
Nite

Hi Tils, they look kind of like very small fish eggs,clearish to light-brown, and are in clusters of eggs about the volume of a teaspoon or so.

Hope today is a better day for you! :)

Tills - one time I thought i had found the motherlode of slug eggs - they look like translucent small pearls. Well, so does some of the slow-release fertizer! I had a good chuckle over that one.
You may not find them in the the areas you have planted. Instead, there could be lots in the unworked areas of your property. I think they tend to lay them close to plants/roots so the babies don't have to travel far for breakfast. And I don't think there are picky about the cuisine choices when young...

Yes, they are perfectly round and come in a cluster, but will separate if you disturb them and look like slow-release fertilizer. Sometimes you can see them clustered in between two slugs (are they mating? None of that in MY yard!!)

I will dispose of the eggs, but can't bring myself to kill the critters. I put them in the bag I use to pick up after the dogs or fling them into the center of the yard or into the neighbors' woods.

Speaking of pests, though, I have to brag about Sahara. She caught a domestic rat-sized mole last night. And then she came and dropped it at my feet when I asked her to (remember, she's not a working or herding breed, but a sighthound. It's unheard of for them to drop their trophy for the yooman). Anyway, I left it on the deck and let her pick it up again when she went out as a reward for her efforts.

Felt bad for the mole (although dogs are much more humane than cats in the way they hunt), but am thrilled at the idea of one less set of frozen mole hills to stumble over in the dark this winter.

Katie, I also feel bad killing slugs out right. I've come to terms with this by A. either tossing them over the fence, or B. putting out beer; I figure that way they at least have a good time first. I want to make a garden art slug trap; an old west saloon looking building with a sign saying “Slug Pub” over a pie pan with enough of an opening for the slugs to go in.

I generally try to let nature be, even when I'm cursing at the holes in my plants. I figure if I get enough bad stuff something will come along to eat it. I hate to try to remove the bad things, because far too often the solution doesn't make a distinction between garden friends and foes. So other than squashing a few bugs personally, I live and let live.

The ants have crossed my line though. They ranched so many little aphid/gnat looking things on my second year carrot that I couldn’t collect the seeds. They were doing the same thing to my Raspberry plant. I’m not sure how I’m going to get rid of them, but they have got to go. I have a minor phobia against ants anyways and hate having them in my garden, but as long as did no harm I was going to let them be. If anyone has any suggestions please let me know. I’ve had some success on my raspberry with using cinnamon, but I need a more permanent solution.

Sounds to me like if there were no aphids, the ants would move along.
I have no slug-killing guilt. I used to, but not anymore. I kill with impunity. Just call me a slug murderer. I admit i have to kill the large ones really fast and I say a small prayer of apology to the universe. Then I don't look.

thanks for the offer, Tills, but I have several sprayers on hand. I just never thought of mixing up such a large bath of ammonia water, though. Don't know why. It's clear that I could use a large batch.

Sorry to say this but I am a slug Hater!!!! It does not bother me in any way, cut, squish, bait or whatever it takes. I have no neighbors to toss them to, the road is to far away, the woods they just come back. Here you fight mean. And any other pest that wants to eat my babies. I will go out of the way to move a spider who is in a bad spot and put it where I think it would help, I do not hurt them, nor any thing good.

They (eggs) must be hard to find here for me I have so much deadfall and greenbelts around me plus the wetlands behind me and 70 ace rs of untouched land all around me. I may never find them. But then I saw something I dread more than Slugs, the other day driving to work on my side of the sound I saw some nests, and it tares me apart to think about it. It happens every 7 years. I have a alder grove behind me and they love them, to start the nest then the babies thousands and thousands of them will eat everything in there path.You can not go anywhere without them getting on you, the deck is covered, the lawn looks like its moving. You drive down the road its covered with them.
I have been through this 3 times in 20 years, Its not fun. The best way of attack is to find the nest before hatch and burn it. not that easy. Them you get out the big sprayers with stuff you hate to use, but you have really no choice, you can't flip them to the neighbors. This is war!!!
Most of you on the other side of the Sound get sprayed, we don't its are battle.
Does anyone know who or what I am talking about? Trivia Q

Tent caterpillars?

Not this time of year. Must be fall web worms.

I never said what time of year LOL

And the winner is Zhinu.
They are the worst of anything I have ever known besides Locusts, but never wittness that. Tents, I have. In the 20+ years I have lived here we have been hit real hard 3 times, the only thing they don't eat is the lawn.
Tills

Mary - you said you saw them the other day driving to work, so you did say time of year . . .

No, I said I saw the nests. Which made me think of them, they never go away. and the thought of them coming which is in a year or 2.

I thought I was doing o.k. in the Great Caterpillar War of 2002, hand picking them off my young apple trees for several hours every night after work. Then one day I came home in the evening and my son ran over to me yelling, "Mom, there's an army of caterpillars marching across the driveway!" Sure enough, there were millions of them marching westward toward our place from the Alder woods next door. I guess they had eaten all the leaves in the woods and were out to find more. The sheer number of them was completely overwhelming, way past the possibility of hand-picking and more were coming every day. I tried soaking clothesline rope in garlic oil and tying this around the tree trunks (limited success). I got BT spray (a bacteria that kills the tent caterpillars, but also any other caterpillar that eats the leaves you spray). The BT was pretty expensive, but it saved my trees from complete defoliation. Later, when the moths emerged from the caterpillar's cocoons, I put pans of water under the porch lights to drown a few. Then, when the moths laid eggs, I looked for their gray capsules on the tree branches and picked them off ( they look kind of like pipe insulation). Thankfully, nature ran its course, and many of the caterpillars succumbed to death by wasp larvae. The wasp lays eggs on the caterpillar's head. I hope I have not been too graphic for the gardener who might be faint-of-heart! I hear you, Tilly. They are absolutely TERRIBLE.

This Fall, though, I have had some kind of caterpillar in my apple trees making tent-like structures. It is the wrong time of year, and they look different. I guess they must be those webworms. Not so many to be overly alarmed, but them I don't know what might be lurking in the woods next door. Scary thought.....

I remember that year, my bro and his DD just moved up here, they had a very tough time of it, that was the 2 time for me. You couldn't even walk outside. She was pregnant at the time and has a fear of bugs. Was very bad. The last time was in 06 but not that bad in most areas, Mosly in the Ludlow area In Jefferson Co. That was nasty.
We had some, sprayer ready for battle. But they had clear cut the back 40 of my Neighbors the year before and it was easy to spray and we burned what we could.
What I worry about now is, the Alders have grown, and all the things that I have done and the joy I have made. Can be shattered so fast.

Thank you Holly, I pray they never hit that hard again. I have not seen a webworm? Don't know what they look like, But I have a Rose Slug, or to say the CoOp says I have. I have not found it as yet.

Here is a picture

?

Sorry about that It didn't come through. I hope this time it will a picture of Web Worms

Hey, Ladybug! Guess you're an old timer by now. Kids must have almost finished the school year, etc. How's it going? How many horses do you have? I am so jealous. Did you find a vet that you like? When I lived in Fall City, we had the most astounding banana slugs. Here in Seattle, they are just "normal." At least they are big enough to see!