slugs

I'm having a problem with slugs, again! What is the best product to get rid of them? Thanks. Sue

Reply to
Brian
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There is a product on the market called "Sluggo." It is a high iron product which the slugs eat and die. It is a naturally occurring active ingredient and is accepted in organics for use as directed. It is very effective. Turning over any wood where they can hide and removing any of that type habitat is also helpful in managing slug infestations. Lowes Home Center sells Sluggo, just ask them where their organic section is.

Victoria

Reply to
animaux

Runner ducks. They eat slugs and all kinds of bugs. In addition, they keep the mulch aerated in their search for food. I get fresh eggs, too, much more delicious than chicken eggs. Very useful critters. karen

Reply to
AnonnyMoose

Ducks love slugs.

Reply to
Travis

There's also a slug-killing robot I heard about on NPR. Boy would I like to see that in action -- but only once, out of curiosity. I wonder if you can get it with a voicebox & have it shouting,"Danger! Danger, Slug Robertson!" and "Die slug bastard die!" every time it finds another one.

Sluggo is a completely non-toxic slug bait that really does do them in but functions as a mere nutrient for plants. Sluggo works even in the rain, unlike other slug baits which are toxic to pets & not safe around veggies & then don't even work when its raining & the slugs are actually in motion. It's best to take care of the slug problem in damp autumn then there won't be so many to worry about laying eggs come spring.

-paghat the ratgirl

Reply to
paghat

A low tech method - fill a saucer or pie tin with cheap beer. The cheaper, the better. Good way to use PBR. Slugs love malt. They crawl in and expire.

It is non-toxic, just be aware that after a while, you have a slug-beer stew, so you have to check them every few days, add more swill as necessary.

The neighbors will be curious as to why you have quart bottles from really swine brew in your recyclables. Tell them that you can quit any time that you want to...

Reply to
Louis Ohland

Field studies show the majority of slugs crawl into it, then right out, unharmed -- if it's shallow like in a pie tin. A few will be killed by the alcohol content but that evaporates off in about an hour, & the only reason they would die thereafter would be to drown. Slugs can only drown in water that is deeper than their "foot" can reach them back out of. If a Yoplay yogurt cup (with inward-reaching walls) is sunk partly in the ground (not all the way or beneficial insects will fall in) slugs will crawl into it after the scent of the beer malt, & can't crawl back out.

The beer has to be changed DAILY; slugs can't smell old stale beer & won't find it. Slugs have favorites, too. A study at the University of Colorado discovered slugs dislike some beers & just won't pay attention to them. They did rather like Michelob & Budweiser. They were MOST enamored of Kingsbury Malt, which is not alcoholic & never kills slugs toxically, but the Corado study used DEEP "professional" slug traps that drowned them. A University of Ohio study used shall beer traps with "lids" for the sake of population & species studies. These were not supposed to kill the slugs, & didn't kill them. The "hide box" beer traps attracted a lot of slugs, which liked the beer enough to hang out in the trap (clinging to the roof) for easy count & species assessment. Essentially beer in a hide-habitat made them happy rather than dead.

The Entymology Society of America did a study to see how metaldehyde snail bait worked compared to beer. In greenhouses, with beer traps, they caught about 300 snails, to every 28 snails caught by metaldehyde bait. This study was a while back & they didn't compare Sluggo & EscarGo, made from the first muluscide that honestly WORKS, even when wet, & which is totally non-toxic to anything but muluscs. It is pure iron phosphate, which snails like the taste of, but which causes them to slime themselves to death, unable to eat a thing more in the meantime. Imagine having your mouth full of jello which you can neither swallow nor spit out, & you slowly starve to death. How sad for the slugs! The little bastards. By comparison metaldehyde baits first of all don't attract many slugs, and attract ZERO slugs when it is matted down with rainfall or waterings. So that stuff has to be DRY for snails to eat it, but snails aren't so active when days are dry. If they do eat any of it in the rain, because the toxins cause the slug to dehydrate to death, this often doesn't happen if it is raining. It works a bit better inside a box where slugs can find it dry on a wet day, but essentially metaldehyde bait isn't very appealing to slugs either way, as the Entymology Society comparisons proved.

But back to the fun Colorado study. Slugs don't like Rainier Beer, Strohs, Pabst Blue Ribbon, Coors, or Millers. Anyone who likes these beers lacks even the good sense of a slug. Anheiser-Busch beers were across the board better liked, inducing one soul to suggest a new brand, Slugweiser; but nothing equalled non-alcoholic Kingsbury Malt in slug appeal, so alchies who don't dare have anything around the house but near-beer are in like flint. Slugs didn't like flat beer at all, they wanted it fresh or none of it. Slugs also don't like wine. Gallo Wine was slightly more appealing than plain water, but not by much.

Here's a more complete slugpost:

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the ratgirl

Reply to
paghat

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