Crickets like beer and slugs seek revenge

Last week I set out a beer trap for the slugs which have been munching down my sorrel. I was not able to trap any slugs into the beer traps, however I caught numerous crickets each night in my beer filled yogurt container. Frustrated, I turned to more inhumane means of ridding myself of slugs. At the sight of two particularly large slugs on the side of our house, I ran for the salt (not sure why I felt the need to run, I don't think the slugs were going to run off on me). It was cruel, but I took pleasure in tossing the salt onto the invasive and destructive creatures. Two nights later, all my parsley has been eaten down to the stems. My money is on the slug community. I think they are exacting revenge.

Heidi

Reply to
Heidi
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Heidi wrote in news:IC31b.6867$r15.381341 @twister.southeast.rr.com:

I don't know if this is what you did, but the shallower and closer to the ground, the better. If you used a whole container, maybe the slugs couldn't smell the beer or decided it wasn't worth the effort.

-- Salty

Reply to
Salty Thumb

I've smashed about 15 slugs in my yard this year and salted 2. They've chomped through too many plants this year to be shown any mercy. Baby slugs keep getting caught in the fur on my dog's legs. It's really gross to find them in the middle of the living room carpet. I am, however, going to switch to beer in plastic bowls buried so that the top of the bowl is at ground level. I'm not sure that drowning is more humane than salting, but at least it's not pesticide.

Reply to
jel

Romans used to poison the wells of places from which they were retreating. It was the ultimate act of spite; if they could not live there then noone would. They would also salt the lands, so no other living thing could grow there. Besides killing the ground which is salted, the salt is almost always ineffective toward slugs because they shed the outer coat, leaving the salt behind and move on to your plants twice as hungry because they lost so much water.

If you'd like to kill the slugs without killing the ground around them, try picking them up and dropping them in a can of alcohol, vinegar or ammonia. Much less messy than trying to squash them, and not as dangerous to the soil. Garden store items such as slug-go and escar-go are also very effective without ruining the environment.

Dan

Reply to
dstvns

Is this actually true? I see little dried-up crispy things left after I go on a slug-salting foray (which I haven't done in years). Those nasty critters must have secret slug rehydration teams that come around when we're not looking.....

Best, Tyra nNJ usa z7a

Reply to
Tyra Trevellyn

Salt poured on a slug point-black will work. Salt poured around plants won't. However, copper borders will. something in their slime reacts with the copper and gives them a shock they don't like.

Reply to
jel

I wonder about this as well. After salting, all that was left on the siding were 2 streamy blobs, which did not retain the shape of a slug. It looked like Big Foot hocked a couple of giant lugies and spit them on our house!

Why is salt bad for the yard? I have heard of people spreading epsom salt on their yard. Also, I have used elemental sulfur to reduce the pH in our yard (we seem to have the only alkaline yard in the area...before the sulfur all my azaleas died...then I had the soil tested).

Heidi Raleigh, NC

Reply to
Heidi

In article , snipped-for-privacy@nowhere.net says... :) Why is salt bad for the yard? I have heard of people spreading epsom :) salt on their yard. :) Now you have some of the nicest beaches a few hours East of you that can give you that answer.... Sea and table salt are sodium chloride. Epsom salt is a magnesium sulfate.... I have a few cousins in Raleigh...yell a howdy out the window for me...Raleigh can't be that big.

;)

Reply to
Lar

Yeah, they're like little ghost busters. They come flying around in their Hydratormobile, get out and zap the salted fiends with their gatorade blasters hooked up to their backs until the victim's natural ectoplasm is restored to a like new sparkly sheen........

Reply to
BLueCoBra

Oh! You BIG meanies. Don't you know slugs have rights too? Now your all doomed to hell.. or have bad kharma... or something. Jest joking!

Reply to
J. Lane

You have obviously never poured salt on a slug and watched him fizz to death. Obviously, since salt *is* bad for ground/plants, this isn't a wholesale solution. But salt *does* kill slugs. I believe it has something to do with instant and complete dehydration.

*You* pick 'em up. I'll bait, drown, or step on 'em with sturdy wooden garden clogs. :-)
Reply to
Frogleg

Ick-ZACT-ly what I was picturing.

Best, Tyra

Reply to
Tyra Trevellyn

wooden

This sounds like table salt is just about as evil a RoundUp!!!

: )

Reply to
Phrederik

I've seen them shed their orange skin and go back off into the garden if you don't use enough of it...you pour a tiny sprinkle or two and in a few minutes it goes on its merry way. You have to pour a good handful of salt on it and on the ground to finally kill it.

Dan

Reply to
dstvns

Isn't this why California can't use well water and they're always fighting over more water from neighboring states? Their own well water table is heavily salted.

Dan

Reply to
dstvns

Why is salt bad for the yard? I have heard of people spreading epsom salt on their yard. Also, I have used elemental sulfur to reduce the pH in our yard (we seem to have the only alkaline yard in the area...before the sulfur all my azaleas died...then I had the soil tested).

Heidi Raleigh, NC

Heidi wrote:

Reply to
Heidi

Much more toxic. The effects linger and are very hard to overcome. Round-up just kills what it's sprayed on, and doesn't poison the soil.

Reply to
Frogleg

From what I read, diatomaceous earth is good to kill insects, but it becomes ineffective when wet. Slugs' "foot" is basically "wet" with a mucuous covering.

I myself normally pick them up with a plastic fork, put them in a transparent cup (like Starbucks cold drink) with water or even fertilizer solution, then cover it with another cup so the slugs could not crawl out. One or two days later I pour them back into the lawn when I am convinced they are "no more". I wonder if someone else in Pacific Northwest has tried this ... :)

Reply to
Siberian Husky

Southern California does use ground water. I grew up on it. My brother-in-law is president of a water company in Rialto that uses it. Arrowhead lake has natural springs from which the water is(or was?) bottled and sold. As Emelia stated there are many reasons for Southern California's water problems.... all of them tied to overpopulation. The water that comes from the Colorado river has the problem of having vast amounts of fertilizer dumped into it(not literally ... figuratively) and taste as such... Basically we have too many people on earth to sustain the way of life that Americans live. We are approximately 5% of the worlds population and we use ~25% of its resources.

Reply to
dkat

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