In article , "Vox Humana"
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ups.com...
Hi everyone: I have a slug infestation--but enough about my
neighbors--lol...
Seriously though--what I hate about my garden is that every year I'm
looking for a new way to kill slugs. I'm looking forward to moving so
that this (hopefully) won't be much of an issue at my new house.
Anything new on the market that is safe? I've used Sluggo and like it
quite a bit. Because I'm moving, I've put some veggies in containers
and what a difference! The container plants are much healthier and the
others looked sickly until I put Bug Getta around my plants and every
morning there's a sickly slug mess out there. My two cats like to roam
around my yard (it's fenced-in so no worries cat lovers), and I'm not
crazy about using commercial slug killer out there.
Are slugs very common? (I'm in PA) Do I have this to look forward to
again when I move?
I've tried the coffee, beer route and neither of those have worked for
me.
Stephanie

I looked at a study recently that compared various types of beer along with
wine, fruit juice, and alcohol in water, yeast in sugar solution, and plain
water. There was a big variation how well the various beers worked. The
other substances didn't work very well at all. As I recall, Budweiser
worked the best.

FRESH beer worked as slug ATTRACTANT (it is even used for native slug &
snail population counts by researchers who don't want native mulloscs to
be harmed). It doesn't attract them when it goes flat, & doesn't kill them
at all UNLESS it induces them to fall into something deep enough they
can't get out of & so drown & if it isn't already full of drowned frogs &
beetles & earthworms & baby garter snakes & beneficial insects to help
make the depth a shallow enough for them to climb out of even a deep trap.
Some people literally put out pie tins of beer, which is like putting out
milk for the cats, it'll just make 'em happier & more numerous.

Budweiser & the non-alcoholic Kingbury Malt were their faves, but it stops
attracting them after an hour or two when it goes flat & stops exuding the
odor of hops. Get up every two hours throughout the night & replace the
beer, it'll be active longer that way. A Yoplay yogurt plastic cup smaller
at the top than at the bottom is just barely too deep for an adult slug to
reach its foot out of, so it drowns in the beer. Keep the lip of the
buried Yoplay cup an inch above ground level to minimalize the losses of
other wee lives, without effecting the number of slugs who notice the
odor.

No killer bait works better & more lastingly than Iron phosphate (such as
in Sluggo); & no other bait is honestly non-toxic. If timed well the adult
slugs are killed before they reproduce & the slug population will lower
each year even without a lot of applications. All other baits work from a
tiny bit to not at all.

Virtually all miscellaneous methods of slug control are mere folklore
except two: Going out at night with a flashlight & catching them in the
act & dropping them in deep soapy water; or "barriering" a garden with
copper flashing (or wrapping containers in copper foil). The copper
stripping sold in garden stores doesn't work because it isn't wide enough;
slugs hump right over it. But it's a fact they don't like to touch copper
(theory is it causes an electrical charge but the reason they dislike
copper isn't really known) & if it is at least six inches wide they can't
cross it. It's an impractical method for an extensive garden, it can be a
garden hazard if copper is sharp-edged, & it has to be kept shiny since
when soiled it ceases to work. But for sensitive seedling beds or small
special areas or finite raised beds, copper flashing might be practical.

For mo
http://www.paghat.com/slugcontrol.html

I have had some luck using a solution of sugar, water, and
baking yeast. The study said that lager yeast was the best. I suppose you
can find that at store that sell beer making supplies. I have such a large
area to cover a with about 300 hostas, that I have all but given up. I got
some iron phosphate bate on deep discount and have had some success with
that, but it was very expensive and I couldn't see buying more at full
price.
--
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