snails and slugs

We have snails and slugs in the garden.

Has anyone found a good way to get rid of them?

Reply to
Cal Who
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Sluggo ($5.00/lb), and a similar product from Ortho ($2.50/lb) that uses Iron (ferric) Phosphate, which is lethal to gastropods (snails and slugs) and used as a nutritional supplement for humans.

Use 24 hours before planting to protect seedling, and it's good for at least 2 weeks.

Reply to
Billy

it's a good use for stale beer in shallow saucer trap. supposedly they find it and drown themselves. i have yet to try it because we have many of the following:

brown snakes (mid Michigan, USA) they eat them (along with other things). very fun creatures with a lot of character and spunk. they will stand their ground and strike more than you would think for a snake that doesn't get very large. non-poisonous.

or hand pick them in the early morning (if you are an early riser type person) or at night. i think a red flashlight is useful for this, but i have not tested.

songbird (hoping the martians don't come for me with stale beer or the red flashlight...

Reply to
songbird

OK to use around, for example, lettuce near harvest time?

People actually ingest it intentionally?

Has it worked for you?

Maybe we'll try it. The stuff we been using is dangerous to animals (including us)

Thanks

Reply to
Cal Who

Does not do enough to make any difference.

I don't think so!

My wife does this every morning and relates to me the large number so killed. But they keep comming!

Have you actually solve a problem that you had with them? We've even used a dangerous chemical, that I forget the name of, to no avail.

Thanks

Reply to
Cal Who

Sluggo( or iron phosphate particles) will handle the problem. It is necessary to replace the Sluggo after a rain.

Reply to
Steve Peek

Not according to the label, and my experience. Rain doesn't dissolve the ferric (iron) phosphate. However, after 2 weeks, you are on your own. The ferric (iron) phosphate may still convey protection after 2 weeks, but at a reduce scale. That said, with continued use, there are fewer and fewer slugs and snails. About 6 weeks, usually cleans up an area, unless it is surrounded by a snail and slug infested area. Even with that, marauding snail and slug are GREATLY reduced. I live in the redwoods, and a neighboring town hosts an annual "Slug Fest". Snails and slug aren't rare problems to the region.

Reply to
Billy

Yes!

Yes!

YES!

Most snail baits are, but not iron (ferric) phosphate. I add the ferric in parentheses because that is the scientific name for the compound (ferric phosphate), but you will see it on the label as "iron phosphate".

Reply to
Billy

All good suggestions, but the red flashlight probably isn't necessary (I suspect you mean 'red' so as not to scare the slugs off) since they don't move very fast. Now 'night crawlers' are a different story & red light would help ;-)

Reply to
Wilson

Iron phosphate seems to be widely accepted by 'organic gardening' groups & societies. It is more expensive than the met-aldehyde type, but much safer for everything except gastropods.

Reply to
Wilson

Cal Who wrote: ...

yes, we've removed much of the wood that used to be used as decoration and bed borders. also we've been improving drainage to eliminate some moist hiding spots they like to use during the day. we've also made it harder for them to get to the plants we'd like to protect (collars, raised boards, open spaces they have to cross to get to the plant and then back at daybreak, etc) and they are more easily preyed upon by other critters (crossing those open spaces).

also encouraging predators and wildlife has been more useful for taking down the grasshopper population. the thrashers like poking around and finding tasty treats. it all works together. i'd much rather accept some loss and have the critters around to feed off of the slugs than not. raccoons used to come through and flip the boards on regular basis, but now that the boards are gone they've been doing other things stirring through the mulch going for the worms and grubs.

only a few plants indicated trouble this year with the slime trails on the leaves and i determined it wasn't enough to worry about and left them alone. the columbines are hardy enough to suffer a few leaf losses. then they were dug up and moved anyways since we wanted to turn that into a strawberry patch.

no specific chemical used here yet for them. the beer was heard about but no reason to try it.

oh i forgot to mention before that putting down nearby boards as places they can use to hide and then when you go out in the morning to flip the boards up and deal with the slugs. that will help knock down the population. a nice, no chemical way of improving things...

if you have a huge population i would look around at what else is going on to see if i could eliminate that source or improve predator access...

songbird

Reply to
songbird

Thanks

Reply to
Cal Who

I take it garden snails and slugs are not gastropods. Right?

Thanks

Reply to
Cal Who

Thanks

Reply to
Cal Who

Reply to
Cal Who

We did as much as we could (including the beer traps) but in the mooring there are still many hundreds that need picking off. Think we'll try Iron Phosphate

Thanks

Reply to
Cal Who

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Iron (ferric) Phosphate, which is lethal to gastropods(snails and slugs)

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Wrong. Safe for everything, except gastropods: not safe for gastropods

Reply to
Billy

Guess we have too much not under our control because we have not been successful. I'm going to look for Iron Phosphate

Thanks

Reply to
Cal Who

One other thing:

Some people use about 1 part ammonia to 5 parts water as a spray. Do you know anything about that? Is the sudsy kind OK? OK for vegetables like greens? Need to wait before eating?

Thanks again

Reply to
Cal Who

Reply to
Steve Peek

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