The best you can do is when the evening is damp and the slugs and snails are
out, go out and sprinkle salt on them, watch them shrivel up and die. I
found on a good night I can kill hundreds. Or if you are not squeamish pick
them up and drop them in a bucket of salt water when they are dead put them
in your wormary without salt..
Paddy
"The Guy" wrote in message
...
In article ,
Gayle Surrette wrote:

When I first had a snail problem I tried beer and it
worked but I don't drink so I wasn't always sure where
to pick it up. Someone told me that what they really go
for is the yeast so I just put a tablespoon (1 packet)
of yeast in 1/4 cup of warm water with a pinch of sugar.
Let it sit for a while (it will foam a bit) and then
pour in jar lids and sit it out.

Good luck,
Gayle


Do beer traps also work on slugs?

Steve O
--
Steve O The best defense is an effective offense. Sun Tzu ca. 525
BC

"paddys1" wrote in message ...
The best you can do is when the evening is damp and the slugs and snails are
out, go out and sprinkle salt on them, watch them shrivel up and die. I
found on a good night I can kill hundreds. Or if you are not squeamish pick
them up and drop them in a bucket of salt water when they are dead put them
in your wormary without salt..
Paddy
"The Guy" wrote in message
...
In article ,
Gayle Surrette wrote:

When I first had a snail problem I tried beer and it
worked but I don't drink so I wasn't always sure where
to pick it up. Someone told me that what they really go
for is the yeast so I just put a tablespoon (1 packet)
of yeast in 1/4 cup of warm water with a pinch of sugar.
Let it sit for a while (it will foam a bit) and then
pour in jar lids and sit it out.

Good luck,
Gayle


Do beer traps also work on slugs?

Steve O
--
Steve O The best defense is an effective offense. Sun Tzu ca. 525
BC

Sprinkling porridge oats around your plants works,
the slugs and snails love the taste it works by drying them out
the added bonus is birds like it too which will encourage them
in your garden and help eat the snails too.
Fea

"paddys1" writes:
The best you can do is when the evening is damp and the slugs and snails are
out, go out and sprinkle salt on them, watch them shrivel up and die. I

If you use laundry powder instead of the salt, the snails squeal as well.
But it is not going to be good for your garden to be adding salt to the
soil. It has been said that you can spray the snails with coffee and it
will kill them. I haven't tried it. Perhaps a pinch of instant coffee
sprinkled onto slugs will finish them off? An instant caffine hit might
turn them into frentic hyperslugs, burning themselves out in minutes?

The iron-based snail pellets are supposed to be safe, and don't fall
apart so quickly in wet weather like the old types seem to.
--
John Savage (news reply email invalid; keep news replies in newsgroup)

in article , John Savage at
wrote on 5/3/03 6:30 PM:

"paddys1" writes:
The best you can do is when the evening is damp and the slugs and snails are
out, go out and sprinkle salt on them, watch them shrivel up and die. I

If you use laundry powder instead of the salt, the snails squeal as well.
But it is not going to be good for your garden to be adding salt to the
soil. It has been said that you can spray the snails with coffee and it
will kill them. I haven't tried it. Perhaps a pinch of instant coffee
sprinkled onto slugs will finish them off? An instant caffine hit might
turn them into frentic hyperslugs, burning themselves out in minutes?

The iron-based snail pellets are supposed to be safe, and don't fall
apart so quickly in wet weather like the old types seem to.

Instead of common salt, sodium chloride, you might try potassium chloride,
or even better, potassium nitrate if you can get it and handle it safely.
Although I have not tried it, I expect it to be bad for snails and good for
the garden (within limits). Don't smoke or swallow it.

Bill


Bill

Hi John,
All you need is a pinch of salt, so far it has made no difference to my
vegetables, I also just pick them up and drop then into saline solution, but
for the cost of coffee in the UK salt is cheaper. But the beer traps have
not been very effective all I seem to catch is beetles which are useful for
the garden. I all so hand pick caterpillars of my cabbages, and drown them
in paraffin. If I become rich I will try coffee, I have started to collect
coffee grouts when we have coffee and I will try that.
Paddy
"John Savage" wrote in message
om...
"paddys1" writes:
The best you can do is when the evening is damp and the slugs and snails
are
out, go out and sprinkle salt on them, watch them shrivel up and die. I

If you use laundry powder instead of the salt, the snails squeal as well.
But it is not going to be good for your garden to be adding salt to the
soil. It has been said that you can spray the snails with coffee and it
will kill them. I haven't tried it. Perhaps a pinch of instant coffee
sprinkled onto slugs will finish them off? An instant caffine hit might
turn them into frentic hyperslugs, burning themselves out in minutes?

The iron-based snail pellets are supposed to be safe, and don't fall
apart so quickly in wet weather like the old types seem to.
--
John Savage (news reply email invalid; keep news replies in
newsgroup)

Hi Bill,
What I have discovered is that America is very cheap to live in, a great
country with everything, and very nice people, and I was going to emigrate
there, but stopped in the last minute because of the cost of medical care. I
became ill a few months before going there, and basically I would not be
able to afford the cost of being ill. If the US had National Health like in
the UK I would be there. My father lived and died in Michigan, so my wife
wanted to emigrate. I had a quote with my medical history about $7000 for me
and the wife per year, and that would be drain on my recourses.
This end to save money I do not us fertilizer but I rot down most of the
gardening rubbish, grass cuttings, pruning from the fruit trees, and I grind
the whole lot down and make compost. I was forced to do this because my soil
is clay, and it just needed some real goodness the break down the clay.
All the best M8
Paddy

"Repeating Decimal" wrote in message
...
in article , paddys1 at

wrote on 5/4/03 10:16 AM:

Hi Bill the cost of salt peter or potassium nitrate is pricey and a bit
of a
fire risk, and sodium chloride is common salt.
Therefore salt is a lot cheaper. Laundry powder must by detergent in the
UK
as I have not heard the term, us poor Brits stick to what is cheap. All
the
best M8.

True enough. But if you use chemical fertilizer anyway, potassium nitrate
is
an effective way for adding potassium and nitrogen.

I don't know how it is in the UK, but in the US farmers do not buy
boutique
potassium nitrate at garden supply stores the way most casual gardeners
do.
They go to agricultural supply houses where they can buy it 20% or less of
that price. The primary cost of nitrogen fertilizer is in the energy, read
petroleum, used for fixing nitrogen. Potassium is relatively scarce in
nature compared to sodium. So, it will not be very cheap either.

Bill

paddys1 wrote:

: What I have discovered is that America is very cheap to live in, a great
: country with everything, and very nice people, and I was going to emigrate
: there, but stopped in the last minute because of the cost of medical care. I
: became ill a few months before going there, and basically I would not be
: able to afford the cost of being ill. If the US had National Health like in
: the UK I would be there. My father lived and died in Michigan, so my wife
: wanted to emigrate. I had a quote with my medical history about $7000 for me
: and the wife per year, and that would be drain on my recourses.

If the US had healthcare like the UK their taxes would be higher - and
ill people would migrate towards it - to take advantage of the medical
facilities sponsored by healthy workers. Probably not an effect the
government wants to encourage.

More about iron slug pellets would be welcome though. I would be a
lot more liberal with my slug medicine if I could be more certain it
would not poison me as well.
--
__________
|im |yler http://timtyler.org/

Here's the link:

http://www.pestproducts.com/sluggo.htm

No affiliation, just a very happy customer.

Sue

Zone 6, Southcentral PA


"Tim Tyler" wrote in message
More about iron slug pellets would be welcome though. I would be a
lot more liberal with my slug medicine if I could be more certain it
would not poison me as well.
--
__________
|im |yler http://timtyler.org/

Hi SugarCharlie,
I try to be organic, and common salt as eaten with food is permitted, web
site was interesting.
Paddy
"SugarChile" wrote in message
rthlink.net...
Here's the link:

http://www.pestproducts.com/sluggo.htm

No affiliation, just a very happy customer.

Sue

Zone 6, Southcentral PA


"Tim Tyler" wrote in message
More about iron slug pellets would be welcome though. I would be a
lot more liberal with my slug medicine if I could be more certain it
would not poison me as well.
--
__________
|im |yler http://timtyler.org/

"Tim Tyler" wrote in message ...
paddys1 wrote:

: What I have discovered is that America is very cheap to live in, a great
: country with everything, and very nice people, and I was going to
emigrate
: there, but stopped in the last minute because of the cost of medical
care. I
: became ill a few months before going there, and basically I would not be
: able to afford the cost of being ill. If the US had National Health
like in
: the UK I would be there. My father lived and died in Michigan, so my
wife
: wanted to emigrate. I had a quote with my medical history about $7000
for me
: and the wife per year, and that would be drain on my recourses.

If the US had healthcare like the UK their taxes would be higher - and
ill people would migrate towards it - to take advantage of the medical
facilities sponsored by healthy workers. Probably not an effect the
government wants to encourage.

More about iron slug pellets would be welcome though. I would be a
lot more liberal with my slug medicine if I could be more certain it
would not poison me as well.

This is why I use salt and I pick them up as I am organic, I also pick of
catterpillars and drown them in parrafin which I later use to light the
rubish fire.#
All the best M8
Paddy

__________
|im |yler http://timtyler.org/

On Mon, 14 Apr 2003 13:21:17 -0400, Setzler wrote:

You can use beer traps, diatomaceous earth, salt, or Sluggo, or Escar
go. the last 2 are "natural" and harmless to soil or any other critters.
Beer in little saucers, or jar lids will drown quite a few

susan



I didn't have much success with the beer. Yeah, it drowns 'em. However,
the scent of it also attracts more. (Hint ... place the bait at the
perimeter of the garden to draw them out of it and to intercept tourists.
Also, apply the DE as a perimeter barrier. Double whammy, apply the DE in
a band several inches away from the beer saucers. Draw them through the
DE.)

I have used raw coffee grounds with total success for two years now.
Sluggo worked for me, too, but I was concerened about using it
continuously and building up the phosphate levels in my soil. Diatomaceous
earth is also 'organic' but loses effectiveness when wet.

I'm going to stick with the fresh coffee grounds until it stops working
for me. I spend a few dollars for a 5 pound can of whatever brand is
cheapest at the moment every other year ... it's cheaper than just about
any other method. (Beer, diatomaceous earth and Sluggo aren't free,
either. And even though salt might be a permitted product in the organic
garden, I don't think it brings the side-benefits that coffee grounds do
and I simply don't think it does the other soil life any more favors than
it does the slugs. Sodium chloride is a poison at elevated ppm numbers and
it is very easy to get to those numbers with the micro-biota of the soil.)

I haven't any way of checking, but I am convinced that the caffeine also
leaches downward at a high enough concentration that slugs and eggs hidden
in the mulch at the soil line are also affected. They just take forever to
return. I have made three applications in two years and, in that time,
have seen only two more slugs and no more damage.

I am also helped by having my garden in well-raised boxes. This makes for
a longer journey for the tourist slugs and no cover for them in my paths
made of bare soil.

Bill

On Mon, 14 Apr 2003 13:21:17 -0400, Setzler wrote:

You can use beer traps, diatomaceous earth, salt, or Sluggo, or Escar
go. the last 2 are "natural" and harmless to soil or any other critters.
Beer in little saucers, or jar lids will drown quite a few

susan



I didn't have much success with the beer. Yeah, it drowns 'em. However,
the scent of it also attracts more. (Hint ... place the bait at the
perimeter of the garden to draw them out of it and to intercept tourists.
Also, apply the DE as a perimeter barrier. Double whammy, apply the DE in
a band several inches away from the beer saucers. Draw them through the
DE.)

I have used raw coffee grounds with total success for two years now.
Sluggo worked for me, too, but I was concerened about using it
continuously and building up the phosphate levels in my soil. Diatomaceous
earth is also 'organic' but loses effectiveness when wet.

I'm going to stick with the fresh coffee grounds until it stops working
for me. I spend a few dollars for a 5 pound can of whatever brand is
cheapest at the moment every other year ... it's cheaper than just about
any other method. (Beer, diatomaceous earth and Sluggo aren't free,
either. And even though salt might be a permitted product in the organic
garden, I don't think it brings the side-benefits that coffee grounds do
and I simply don't think it does the other soil life any more favors than
it does the slugs. Sodium chloride is a poison at elevated ppm numbers and
it is very easy to get to those numbers with the micro-biota of the soil.)

I haven't any way of checking, but I am convinced that the caffeine also
leaches downward at a high enough concentration that slugs and eggs hidden
in the mulch at the soil line are also affected. They just take forever to
return. I have made three applications in two years and, in that time,
have seen only two more slugs and no more damage.

I am also helped by having my garden in well-raised boxes. This makes for
a longer journey for the tourist slugs and no cover for them in my paths
made of bare soil.

Bill