SLUGS! How do you deal with them?

[SeanS]

It's spring down here and the slugs/snails have come out in full force! This week has been exceptionally wet and rainy so they're really having a great time in my garden. I've already lost some foliage on one of my trees and a trident seedling. I've put down some "Sluggem" snail/slug pellets in the grow beds and my seedling trays, but wanted to hear what other options I have?
Does copper really work? Is it worth building a small copper stand out of copper plumbing piping for my seedling trays? I've thought about trays filled with water that I could stand my seedling trays in (raised out of the water) as a sort of mote, but that would be unwieldy and take up too much space.

How do you deal with slugs and snails?

 

[Wires_Guy_wires]

Copper tape around your pots helps a great deal.
Two strips of copper tape or copper wire, with a 5V battery in between work better, the slugs are great conductors.

Beer traps are also pretty useful, and you only need the leftovers, the rest is for you to drink up.
Leave 20% in the can, cut the top off with a can opener, add some water, push it in the dirt so the rim is at ground level. The snails and slugs get drunk, dive in deeper, forget their way out and drown.
Just make sure you empty them on a bi-daily basis. Because it's going to smell weird pretty fast.

 

[Shibui]

We had good success with beer traps at our community garden. Slugs and snails are attracted to the yeast (or something) and climb in and drown. The beer does not need to be fresh or consumable quality so can use waste from the hotel or left overs from local home brewers. You do need to manage and renew the beer regularly and replace after it gets diluted with rain. @Wires_Guy_wires is absolutely right about them getting smelly. Lots of decaying slug meat fermenting in beer makes for a ripe smell after a couple of weeks!
I also trap snails and some slugs in my garden in upturned plastic plant pots. They hide in the dark places during the day so I pick up the pots every day or 2 and dispose of anyone hiding there. Numbers dwindle pretty rapidly.
Also use slug and snail pellets when needed and I spread some in the poly house today. I've been using one with iron as the active rather than metaldehyde. Not sure how it compares for effectiveness yet.

Have not had a chance to properly check the effectiveness of copper as a barrier.

 

[Lutonian]

I just go out on damp nights with a torch pick up all the snails and slugs stomp on them put them in the compost bin.

This work never ends but does keep the numbers down to manageable levels also keeping trees of the floor helps.

 

[Carol 83]

When our kids were little, my sister's mother-in-law would give each kid a flashlight and a salt shaker. Find a slug, pour salt on it.

 

[SeanS]

When our kids were little, my sister's mother-in-law would give each kid a flashlight and a salt shaker. Find a slug, pour salt on it.

Send them my way!

(the kids, not the slugs)

 

[Graft]

We have hedgehogs in our garden, we have no slugs!!!

 

[hinmo24t]

When our kids were little, my sister's mother-in-law would give each kid a flashlight and a salt shaker. Find a slug, pour salt on it.

yep. brutal watching them squirm though. id rather throw them away from garden or crush them for instadeath

 

[Lutonian]

When our kids were little, my sister's mother-in-law would give each kid a flashlight and a salt shaker. Find a slug, pour salt on it.

We have hedgehogs in our garden, we have no slugs!!!

Nice I haven't see a hedgehog down my way in about 10 years too much concrete and roads.

A balanced ecosystem really help keep everything in check

 

[Graft]

Nice I haven't see a hedgehog down my way in about 10 years

 

[Lutonian]

yep. brutal watching them squirm though. id rather throw them away from garden or crush them for instadeath

Can also stomp them bare foot if your hardcore, nice and squelchy between the toes

 

[leatherback]

?

 

[penumbra]

I've been using one with iron as the active rather than metaldehyde. Not sure how it compares for effectiveness yet.

This is the only one I use and it works well for me.
Slugs avoid travel on lava or pumice. They also hate diatomaceous earth but it does not last long. Never tried the beer trap but I know it is a very old and respected method of control.

 

[penumbra]

View attachment 333387


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First I thought that was scat.
I couldn't eat escargot. It tastes like mud to me. Really nasty mud to boot.

 

[Ruddigger]

I pick em off the bottom of my pots and throw them in my koi pond. The fish love em.

 

[penumbra]

I pick em off the bottom of my pots and throw them in my koi pond. The fish love em.

I seldom see slugs here but my koi are always hungry. I have hundreds of frogs and maybe they eat the slugs.

 

[hinmo24t]

View attachment 333387


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id be down and have enjoyed snail salad a few times. french love their snails right? i saw a guy who harvested them on his property on tv once.

i eat everything. sushi, thai, giblet livers hearts turkey necks gizzards, tins of anchovies, head cheese, chicken feet, pork fat for life (spam), liverwurst, mortadella cheapest hot dogs made, etc. etc. i havent had tripe yet

 

[Carol 83]

i havent had tripe yet

You aren't missing anything.

 

[SeanS]

I bought some copper tape at the hardware store earlier and have encased my seedlings pots/trays in a 2” wide copper barrier, plus the SLUGGEM snail pellets.

I had some of the iron based pellets down too but after this week’s rain I’ve noticed the pellets have gone soft and mushy and formed a thick paste on top of the seedling soil. Not great when I still have trident seedlings sprouting daily. The pellets I have down now are not iron based but are lighter and like little spongy/airy blobs which I think are better for the seedlings. I found some bald-dead slugs this morning inbetween the pellets so I know they work.

I also bought some copper pipe plumbing bends so I’ll make a little stand with copper supports, hopefully the slugs won’t try climb up the copper.

Why do slugs exist?

 

[leatherback]

Why do slugs exist?

Because there was an ecological niche.