Slug Remedies
Forum Archives
Sydnie
Posted: May-19-2004 at 12:06am
I am soo soo sorry that I forgot all about this!!! I wasn't reminded until my girlfriend decided to give me back some rough sided cement blocks that I had given her. A few years back I had a huge white babys breath. It was planted in a smooth big cement planter. The slugs love it. It had to be 'slug proofed every spring! I moved it about three yrs. ago into a rock wall near another babys breath I had planted in a rough cement rock planter. Come that spring I had forgotten about both. Noticed growth and was busy with other stuff. (Spaced it off!) Later when I got back to that part of the garden the pink was thriving and you could barely tell that I had a white one. I thought that maybe the slugs just preferred the white and disliked the pink. So I took a little succulent that I had almost given up on having because the slugs liked it so well, and planted them in a rough block on my patio. It is still there. They come up every year & thrive & the slugs don't touch them!!! Now I am thinking about a raised garden bed in these next year. This year I'm doing a raised 'slugs love these flowers' bed! Try it!! One block doesn't cost a lot! OK OK the coffee experiment was a bomb. No one had slugs. LOL. I am trying it again- (got slugs now, LOL) and using marigolds as bait! I hope that that helps some of you!!! This site is humungous. I have a hard time getting to all the 'rooms' and keeping up. LOL. PS I said 99.9 % just in case. There may be one lil' ol' slug somewhere that wants it soooo bad- he'd crawl over anything??!!
Janet B
Posted: May-19-2004 at 3:34pm
here's another tip for keeping slugs away from their most favorites plants (I use it on all my dahlias). I use old sandpaper bands (that are used on mechanical sanders) and just put them on their edge about 1/2 inch in the soil so they circle the plant I want to protect. Seems like the slugs don't want to crawl across the rough surface of the sandpaper. This is nice, as it stands up to rain, and I can re-use several years. Be careful though - there were a couple times that I must have trapped a slug inside the ring, and they had a great time eating the plant! I now put some slug bait inside the ring, just to get any that are hiding under the soil surface.
Sydnie
Posted: May-21-2004 at 1:58am
Janet- Great Hint! I can use it on my dahlia's and oriental lilies! Thanks!
DebbieTT
Posted: May-24-2004 at 1:44pm
So far so good, I have coffee grounds surrounding my Hosta 'Sum and Substance' and so far not one slug bite on it. About 10 feet away are plants that have all kinds of bites on them. So I know the slugs are nearby.
I am going to try some Delph seedlings this way and if they are untouched I will be thrilled. I have a few extra delph seedlings so I will be willing to sacrifice a few for this slug experiment.
Sydnie
Posted: May-26-2004 at 12:25am
Just started the coffee thing Deb. They are coming out and eating everything they can!
I forgot to mention about the rough cement blocks. IOnly one side has to be rough, they will leave what is planted in it alone! The blocks used as a 'bed' have corners with smooth spots and they still stay out. It's like one has a bad experience and they warn all the others. Believe it or not! LOL.
Red Hare
Posted: Jun-03-2004 at 10:14am
If you're ever at the Shelburne Inn in Seaview, Washington, where the Shoalwater Restaurant and Heron & Beaver Pub are located, and where our own Skyler tends their lovely grounds, be sure to linger in the entry for a few minutes and read the letters on the wall. One is to the owner of the restaurant from the Department of Agriculture, which accused the restaurant of raising European brown snails for use in their restaurant. The DOA emphasized that it is a noxious pest and should be eradicated. It sounded like they were afraid the snails would get loose and scamper away before anyone could catch them. The other letter is the reply from the Shoalwater to the DOA, informing them that they weren't raising them, but collecting them from the wild as they do mushrooms, and the "French method" also aimed at reducing the snail population.
Anybody out there using the French method of snail control? I assume our slugs are a close relative of the European brown snail.
Sydnie
Posted: Jun-18-2004 at 10:19am
I could give a resturant a good deal if they were interested in buying.... couldn't we all ! LOL. Great tidbit Jeannean!
How about copper. In my bog for my Monkey Plants I'm trying copper pennies??? I don't know if this is stupid or not. LOL. Just an experiment. I'm afraid coffee would backwash into the pond. I wasn't sure if that would hurt the fish and or balance. I heard that they get some sort of electrical shock or something from copper??? Anyone know??????????
Lisa A
Posted: Jun-18-2004 at 10:43am
Hmmm, not sure this is a good idea, Sydnie. Copper is toxic for plants and aquatic life. This is the reason, I believe, for notices to please not throw in pennies into public ponds. Maybe we have some resident pond experts here who can offer solutions against slugs in bog gardens.
Copper is a deterrent for slugs in the garden. I think they get a shock when their slime meets copper. I have heard that copper bands are better than copper wire because the additional width makes it harder for slugs to cross safely over it (they can't bridge over it). I've used sticky copper band tape on containers in the past. Seemed to work for me.
Jeannean, Dulcy Mahar wrote a very delightful column for April Fool's Day regarding the discovery that PNW slugs were remarkably similar to the French snail, which is in decline (don't know if this is true or just literary license). At first I thought, Woohoo! And then it dawned on me that it was too good to be true and it was April Fool's . . . bummer. LOL
I have heard that some people - iron stomached people, I guess - will eat slugs like escargot. Frankly, that is too much of an ewwww factor for me. I think there was a nursery in Washington that would hold an annual Slug Fest. One year they had a tongue-in-cheek contest for slug eating and it surprised them when people took it seriously and it was a popular event. Does anyone recall who did this?
Sydnie
Posted: Jun-18-2004 at 10:56am
EWWWWWWWWWWW !!! I missed that one. Yuck ! Can you imagine! I am getting out of here and removing my pennies. Thanks so much for that info Lisa. You kept it from being the experiment that killed all my fish. It never even crossed my mind that copper might be toxic, since you always see them thrown into ponds. But I guess I really haven't seen them in fish ponds. Thanks again! Maybe the Hosta bed would like them better. LOL.
Red Hare
Posted: Jun-18-2004 at 2:48pm
I never thought of using copper pennies as a mulch. It would be interesting used with a potted plant. And it would cost just - dare I say it? - pennies!
bakingbarb
Posted: Jul-05-2004 at 8:47pm
Home Improvment stores sell copper tape for roofs to keep the moss away (I am clueless about this) and I have read in OG about using copper tape around the garden.
BakingBarb
Sydnie
Posted: Jul-08-2004 at 10:17pm
Pennies and coppertape. Hmmmmmm. May have to experiment with that, too. I still don't have my normal amount of slugs. This is ok though. LOL! I'm not complaining mind you!
bakingbarb
Posted: Jul-11-2004 at 9:45pm
I have slugs, they love living in the lettuce. Of course I planted enough to share I mean how selfish do ya'all think I am! But it is nasty to find little slugs in the middle of the head of lettuce. I think I am going to order from Gardens Alive they have Escar-Go. When we used it before it worked for me but have not had it here and have only been gardening here for 5 months. I copied the info from them about it. Tell me what you all think.
Signature Product. Escar-Go! is a unique blend of iron phosphate (it occurs naturally in soil) and a bait that lures slugs and snails away from their hiding places.
Repeated studies have shown that these slimy mollusks will eat Escar-Go! before they will eat nearby plants. As soon as slugs and snails ingest even a small amount of Escar-Go!, they stop feeding and begin to die within 3 to 6 days. You may not see the dead slugs and snails in your garden because they often crawl away to secluded places to die. But you will notice that your plants are no longer being eaten!
BakingBarb
EmilyK
Posted: Jul-12-2004 at 8:31am
I've used that remedy, but under a different name. The main attraction, for me, was that the product is supposed to be safe for all sorts of other critters that aren't slugs. I'm not sure how much it reduced the population--as we've all noticed, there aren't as many slugs out there for the last couple of years. It's been a long time since I've seen a bananna slug in my garden--the ones I have trouble with are the little, tiny black/grey slugs. I'm not sure if the bait has been very effective on those--maybe because they are already burrowed deep into the crowns of the plants (mostly hostas). I did try to drop the bait right into the crowns as well as sprinkling it around, but I still have a lot of slug damage. I'm not sure that the slugs actually prefer the bait to the plants ???
EmilyK -- Port Orchard, WA
Sydnie
Posted: Jul-15-2004 at 10:43am
Baking Barb Escar-go Sounds ok - I haven't used that tho'. They do like hostas don't they Emily! I always thought they should add slug info to nursery tags- at least in the PNW. LOL.
Gardening for the Homebrewer: Grow and Process Plants for Making Beer, Wine, Gruit, Cider, Perry, and More
By co-authors Debbie Teashon (Rainy Side Gardeners) and Wendy Tweton