Slugs

Well, went to harvest some lettuce today and found slugs, go rid of all that I could find, cleaned up some dying lettuce leaves, what do i need to do to make sure they dont come back? I looked on everything else and didnt see anymore. Any thoughts or suggestions?:scratch:

A flat saucer of beer is a good trap. Or you can lay a small board on the surface of the Mel's mix, the slugs will go under there during the day to hide, makes easy pickins.

You can get some copper tape, sold in garden supply centers and departments and wrap it around the exterior of your SFG. Slugs can't cross that barrier. The copper tape gives them a small electrical charge... the copper reacts with the slug slime.



My SFG is in the slug capital of the world, Western Washington, where we consider slugs to be our state animal, and no slugs in my garden!

I am trying to post an reply...but my cat Fluffykins is chasing the darn trowel cursor!



Out of the way Fluffykins I can not see the screen!

Daniel9999 wrote:I am trying to post an reply...but my cat Fluffykins is chasing the darn trowel cursor!



Out of the way Fluffykins I can not see the screen!

Lol! Too funny

shendrix wrote:You can get some copper tape, sold in garden supply centers and departments and wrap it around the exterior of your SFG. Slugs can't cross that barrier. The copper tape gives them a small electrical charge... the copper reacts with the slug slime.

This is a myth.
Here are a few previous threads.

https://squarefoot.forumotion.com/t7833-slugs

https://squarefoot.forumotion.com/t6375-got-slugs

https://squarefoot.forumotion.com/t2045-slugs-grubs

https://squarefoot.forumotion.com/t11449-slug-eggs

https://squarefoot.forumotion.com/t7415-slugs-and-sluggo

Slugs and Copper Tape

Camprn, Beyond the realm of this forum there have been many studies done that do show that copper tape can work well. shendrix seems to be saying it is working in his garden. That there are obviously variable involved that we don't know is granted, as your picture shows. One study I read (I think it was UCDAvis) suggested the copper needs to be inches wide and best when there is a flange as well. I remember seeing in the orange groves in California piles of snails (no slugs there) below the copper tape on the citrus trees. So is this because of a difference between east and west coast conditions?

Would you please post links to study results, I sure would like to read them.
I really like the velcro idea.

http://www.ipm.ucdavis.edu/PMG/PESTNOTES/pn7427.html
http://eap.mcgill.ca/MagRack/JPR/JPR_29.htm
http://basiccopper.com/copper-foil-slug-snail-barrier.html

I can not find the really good now. It showed the results from tests with various widths of copper tape etc. But Google today is not helping.

I think 3" and turned edge seem to be important but in UK they are using copper mesh and copper impregnated fibers with success. But I can't find it now. argh

There is lots of studies on copper control of freshwater snails. Both for aquatic culture and intermediary host control of parasites in Africa.

here is my problem: where there is beer there are dogs drinking beer So copper wire doesn't work ? I guess I could try the velcro or board over garden. Kinda yucky to pick those things up Ewwwww

Kind of gross, but I found if you sprinkle a bit of salt on slugs, they dissolve into a pool of slime.

There may be some way to use a salt barrier if the beer doesn't work...

copper wire and beer have always been my cure
one year I bought predatory snails and it worked well until they had eaten all the slugs, then they died and the slugs came back
so the answer, well i it was easy it would be no fun,

gg, I'm not positive about this, but since I've found slugs down in the MM, I'm thinking they dig almost like worms and could come up from the bottom?

Can anyone advise us on this?

CC

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Slug


It is not advised to add salt to the garden to combat slugs as the increased sodium will harm plants.

The slug trap I use is if and when I see slug damage I water the garden then place a short plank on the ground between the plants. The next day I will check during the late morning and the underside of the wood plank usually has numerous slugs hiding under there. Beer traps, shallow cans or plates set in the garden with beer attracts and will usually drown slugs.

ONE GREAT solution for slugs...... go NORTH .... slugs do not like the cold

Or go south. I have never seen a slug here in Georgia.

I live in zone 3 (about 45 miles North of Anchorage) & it seems as though our 5 acres is a metropolis of slugs!!

You know I grew up in the middle of British Columbia zone 3 and I had never seen a slug until I moved to Oregon.
I still remember a night when we first moved down there, after making a romantic dinner complete with candles etc, and my DH being one of those types who goes out to get one thing and gets distracted and moves onto something else......
Well there I was sitting there with dinner wondering WHERE my DH was and there he was out there looking for slugs.

I hate slugs. I hate slugs. I HATE SLUGS!

That said, I planted flowers in the middle of a sluggy haven here, and I knew it. So I started the great slug war of 2012.

My slug war consisted of a multi faceted attack. First, I planted slug candy (petunias), and then, at 6 foot intervals I placed bowls of beer. At dusk, I would go out armed with a plastic spoon, and a plastic bag with salt granules in it, and actively slug hunt the suckers. They were easy to find, racing toward my petunias and beer afterall. I'd hunt for 20 minutes on most nights, any that I found were tossed into the plastic bag with the spoon. At the end of the hunt, I'd seal it up, drop it into my garbage and be on my way. Any latecomers typically zipped over to the beer, and sealed their fate.

My best night hunt: 142 slugs. My best beer record: 64. Once your plants are older, you don't have as many problems with the guys. I even had petunias thriving after a few weeks of consistent slug hunting.

We also have snails. Snails pop by the way when you salt them. Weird.

This year, I am planning the hunt again, and also adding a slug killing army - ducks. I hear they are awesome at slug slaughter. They're coming in April hopefully.

Mulch is a slug's best friend. They don't like sand or gritty surfaces.

We moved to this property just about 5 years ago. The old place was just 4 miles South of here & just slightly lower elevation but there were no slugs. I did hear that you could use copper to surround your garden - apparently slugs won't cross copper. Does anyone have experience with this?? I stopped planting lettuce because the slugs feast on the leaves. Every leaf you pull on has a slug - ewwwwe - slimy buggers!

Should have read page 1 first. Saw a video here on a slug crawling across the copper tape - go figure! There's some good links to other posts on slugs. Beer does good but seems I need a moat of it around my garden. I do know our ground is really wet & heavy with clay so I had to bring in lots of good soil. Does anyone have problems with slugs under hoop covers to control the water saturation? I did not plant in it last year so I hope I won't have problems with slugs this year.

yolos wrote:Or go south. I have never seen a slug here in Georgia.

There are plenty here in South Carolina - if it's a wet year. In dry years you see very few.

I heard that slugs wont crawl across saw dust....if we can find some we are going to give it a try....hubby is also going to take either plastic bottles or soda can's and cut them so they have sharp and pokie edges and place them around the seedlings and see if it will keep the slugs away.....

happy gardening
rose

Last summer I gave up the War on Slugs after trying beer (which was fairly expensive) and going out with a flashlight (worked but who wants to do that every night) and realizing I was just infested with them. So like spinwind ^ , I decided I needed an army and ordered some ducks which should be here in May. They're supposed to be prolific slug eaters. May as well give a nice home to some hungry ducks and get rid of my slugs at the same time. We'll see how effective it is.

I did hear that coffee grounds in a ring around the plants helps, as slugs don't like to crawl on anything sharp-ish. In the same way, crushed eggshell helps. That benefits the soil as well.

Slugs do have positive attributes, they help the soil kind of like earthworms. We need slugs. Just not competing for our food.