Hi ! I have read somewhere that the most effective way of killing slugs was to use nematodes, that we do find here in France, but also that lack of snails and slugs meant that they disappeared altogether through sheer lack of food. I find this hard to believe since they reappear now and then gobbling up a snail they have done in. Do they hibernate slowing down their metabolism to a minimum ? Has anyone actually tried caffeine, iron phosphate and compared the results in terms of efficiency ? I have been looking for an organic, environment friendly way of keeping slugs down. however apart from letting a bunch of bantams hens loose onto the garden whilst I was clearing the ground ready for seeding I have not found anything really successful. I am reluctant to use slug pellets ( methyl aldehyde ). Kindly submit your suggestions, the slug population is particularly strong this year : Wettest spring for 34 years here in the Toulouse area.
We have an over-abundance of grubs in Ontario, Canada this year--I just recently purchased nematodes as well--will let you know my results!!
Method I use is a sawdust ring around plants or wood ash and I think some use coffee grinds {grounds?]' Liz
After the first thaw I put out the peels from half grapefruit with the opening down. Slugs and snails are attracted and congregate underneath making them easy to capture and dispose of. Orange peels also work. I have found up to 20 slugs under one grapefruit peel and often pick up 100 in total on a good day. Fortunately the availability of good grapefruit coincides with the season when slugs are most abundant here in Vancouver. Photo by Flora Gordon
Thanks for your post--I will certainly try your method if the nematodes fail!! Sorry in the delay in replying--my computer has been down!! Thanks again--Obe
Another fruit that works well is melon such as cantalope or any other of the smaller melons that you can halve and scoop out the good parts.
Hello, My little lettuce plants are disappearing over night by the dozens. In the morning I see slug slime and assume that they are working alone to do all this damage. I have not yet tried the melon/citrus fruit peels solution (which I will do). My friend says that sprinkling the slugs with salt (of course, you need to be on night duty for this method) makes them dry up and die. Has anyone tried this and do you know if the salt could be bad for the plants? Thank you and regards, Saleve
Hi, See the thread "Canadian Website for Pest Management-911" started by me a few days ago. I too have an explosion of slugs eating everything - it's very wet here this year. I found a very good website run by CDN gov't - one of the non-chemical methods they use is the grapefruit thing - now tht I've seen the pictures (thanks RBGINVAN!) I will definitely try it! Good luck to us all ! Cate
people with slug/snail problems can check out the thread here about copper for some more info... I tried an idea a few years ago I'd heard somewhere, about planting things slugs hate...and apparently slugs hate herbs and some other strong-tasting plants...and as garlic and chives/onions are the plants that even some other PLANTs don't like!, I tried planting one or 2 individual chives about a foot apart in the areas with slug/snail trouble, and by the following spring they were all gone....no kidding.. ... and 3 years later they're still gone....and the chives are pretty when in flower in the spring...
That's sounds like a great idea, especially since chives are so easy to grow. I'll give it a try. Thank you! Saleve
Hello Barb, I just got back from a two week vacation to find that enormous slugs had taken over my garden. We arrived at home at around 11:00 this morning in full sun and these huge slugs were everywhere. They ate the green parts off of all of my onion plants. One of them was climbing up one of my pole bean plants. After the long plane ride and with jet lag, I decided that I'm going to tackle the problem tomorrow. I will let you know how it goes. Saleve
The results are in... After picking about 20 giant slugs out of my garden yesterday (I found them hiding under the folliage of my carrot plants) I laid orange peel traps. Today I found all the traps with slime around them and nice holes eaten out of them, but no slugs underneath. I think that perhaps these traps are too small for the big slugs. I have some melons that are almost ready to eat and will try them next. Saleve
