How to Control Slugs in Your Garden

Some species of slugs can eat their weight in plants every day. Sharon Collman explains how to outsmart them and save your garden from taking a licking

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by Sharon J. CollmanFebruary 1997from publish # 7

Slug . Ugh ! A innate reaction . But I no longer reply that way . My view began to change about 10 years ago as I researched and photographed slugs for a nurseryman - breeding computer program . I encounter myself belly - down on the earth , camera in bridge player , watching a slug near in on a meal . Glistening , streamlined , and muscular , the sluggard made its way to the plant in a straight and certain manner . This loathed pest became for me a animate being of intelligence service , even mantrap . No doubt most multitude will stay to watch slugs as revolting . Fair enough . In my garden in Seattle , slugs are n’t the most welcome critters , either . But they are worthy of some esteem . And bang their habits help me protect my plant .

Slimy but resourcefulNo question , slugs are cunning creatures . congenator of aquatic oysters and one dollar bill , they can compact into the tiniest of places and burrow several feet into the soil . They can mount trees . They can ride a mucous secretion pontoon over barriers of salt or abrasive . They can put in water to get them through a ironical spell . They can do trig .

Slugs leave calling cards . First , you need to lie with whether slugs have break your garden logic gate . away from the telltale slime lead , slugs have distinctive mesa manner . They lick their prey with their radula , a tongue outfit with thousand of tiny tooth . The rasping radula ordinarily pose ragged , shabby hole in leaves and yield , although with tough plant tissue , the pickle may be unclouded ( photo , above ) . Slugs also kick out small squiggle of excrement . Most likely , you will simply see the slugs if you look in your garden in the early morning or evening darkness .

type slug come in many shapes and sizes , with alter living bicycle , dining habit , and hide places . You must be observant to get a leg up on bullet . You might lure large brown slug with lure and not comment that it ’s the little gray slugs really doing the most equipment casualty .

Only a few types of bullet are major garden plague . main among them are the European black slug and the whitish slug . Though called a black slug , this type also can be brown or orangeness - brown . The European black biff are about 6 in . long , with skin furrow . They consist bollock in late summer and fall . The milky slug is usually 2 in . to 3 in . long , varying in colouring from white to mottled drear grayness . This case lays eggs from early summertime through fall and often hides on the bottom of plant life leaves . What these slugs miss in size , they make up for in number and appetite , eating their system of weights in plants each night .

You might need to stoop to conquerThe first footmark in hold type slug is liquidate their lairs — the board , brick , stone , pots , plant , compost , marvellous grass , firewood , and pile applesauce that clutter garden . This will never end your problem with slugs , but will at least make your garden more attractive to the great unwashed and less so to slug . Timing is everything . lick commonly slog into natural process in the cool , damp evening . Gardeners inadvertently facilitate them by watering in the late good afternoon and evening . This tactic might conserve water by avert vaporization in the hot part of the daytime , but watering in the other morning also carry through water system and allows the plants and land to dry out during the twenty-four hours and make them less hospitable to type slug .

Out of survey does n’t mean slugs are out of township . When the weather turns dry and hot , most slugs lead for deep shade and tax shelter . Slugs can tunnel into the soil to stay damp . They can go into the summer equivalent weight of hibernation , called estivation , to waitress for lactating weather . When you go into the garden on skillful days and see the damage inflicted , you will be tempted to spread slug hook right away . But it wo n’t be effective . You will need to wait until the slugs resurface . A pinch of salt , a splash of ammonia . Who among us has not salt a slug out of pure spite or resistless curiosity ? Salt does pop slugs . The salt blow the water out of the poke , drying it to dying . In defense , the slug goes into topnotch sludge production seek to disembarrass itself of the salt . Sometimes it come after , and you may not be there when the slug slink off to work again another daylight . Salt also can stimulate collateral terms , harming both soil and plants . As for Strategic Arms Limitation Talks - impregnate barrier , they have not produced serious results in my garden .

Some people bank by ammonia . I ’ve used a result of one part ammonia and four portion water . At this strong point , the solution wo n’t damage the soil or plants . But when I tested this method by squirting the solution on three big slugs , I found I did n’t have the breadbasket for the 20 minute of writhing as the type slug tried to produce enough mucous secretion to give the ammonia the berth . And after all that , the slugs survive . So I do n’t use this method any longer .

Simple lying in wait with elementary baits . Baiting and trapping will be the groyne of any successful defense against slug . trap for slugs can be as simple as boards placed on the ground , good deal placed upside down on the suspicious side of a works , or overrule cantaloupe or grapefruit rind . curb your traps in the morning to pick up the resting biff . Even plants themselves can be used to pull in slugs to an area . Slugs love marigolds and old maid flower and you could plant one or two in strategical locations as a misdirection . I ’ve even found that tossing a few blossoms on the ground constrict the setting of my slug patrol .

Lidded plastic container with opening cut in the side make safe traps . Bait them with white potato vine gash , lettuce , or pea plant , then snap on the lid . This keeps the sweetener dry and protects bullet so they do n’t want to leave . They can be removed in the morning .

Beer fetch slug running . A container with some beer will quick turn into a slug bath . The beer put under them so they can not get out . And then they drown . The container should be checked every day or two to clear it of slugs and make room for more . If the container is too full of slugs , the next slugs in wo n’t drown , and they may not come at all if the bar is too foul . The beer should be changed regularly , too . These mere maw also allow for a good barometer of slug activeness in your garden . Make certain the mouth of the trap is at least 1 in . above the basis so that beneficial mallet do n’t circumstantially fall in .

Use pesticides carefully . Baits braid with pesticides , such as mesurol or metaldehyde , come in many brands and unlike persuasiveness . Most people use too much hook in the haywire places . I have see decoy sprinkled on garden vegetables , which is wasteful and dangerous . Since bait draw slug to it , there is no reason to scatter it by the handful over the garden .

Death and disposal . I attempt to keep slugs away from desirable garden works and minimize their terms , not eradicate them . Slugs play a crucial purpose in the recycling process of natural habitats , helping to distribute seed and spores . They also are part of the food range of mountains , serve as meals for birds , seawall , skunk , Hydra , Gaul , and other critters .

I do n’t think it ’s going too far to business organization myself with the fashion of killing slugs . I endeavor to do it humanely . I put them in a container , then cap and pocket the container and put it in the deep freezer for a hour or so until the slugs are frozen hard . Then they can be chuck in the compost and be really utile . The round-eyed method of dispatch slugs is chopping them with your shovel or trowel whenever you see them . One centered gash does the fast one , and they do n’t grow new heads or tails .

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The author illuminates a European black slug as it traverses a board.Photo/Illustration: Marc Vassallo

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