What's eating my plants?/Slugs
 

As far as I know, there is no practical method of repelling slugs. Beyond
that, if you have no moral objections to harming them, you have a variety
of options. Simple, quick, and low tech--go out with a salt shaker and
sprinkle them as you find them, it dissolves their slime coat and they die.
Snip them in half with a scissors ( a bit gruesome for my tastes). Fill a
(labeled) spray bottle with one part water and 2-4 parts household ammonia,
go out and spritz the slugs, again, it dissolves the slime coat. Fill small
saucers/tuna cans/jar lids with beer or water, sugar, and yeast, and set
them out as traps, empty and refill regularly (some people swear by it, I
find it only partly effective).

Controls you pay money for--commercial slug bait, the kind commonly found in
garden centers; this is highly toxic to people and pets, and I personally
would not use it. Diatomaceous earth, spread around individual plants, I
have no experience with it, but it seems kind of fussy. Copper strips,
installed around the perimeter of the garden, to keep slugs from crossing,
can be expensive, and doesn't address the slugs already in residence.

My personal favorite is a product called Sluggo:
http://www.pestproducts.com/sluggo.htm
Garden's Alive also sells a similar product they call Escargo. No
affiliation, etc. It's made with iron phosphate, which is not toxic to
people and pets, and breaks down harmlessly into the soil. It's not cheap,
but a little goes a long way. Best of all, IT WORKS. I have my vegetable
garden under a permanent straw mulch, which makes for an ideal slug habitat,
and by using Sluggo I have basically eliminated my slug problem.

There you have it, the short course on slug control. If you want more, this
is always a popular thread, and the archives are full of slug discussions.
My advice to you would be to go out at night with a spray bottle of ammonia
water to keep things under control until your supply of Sluggo arrives.

Cheers,
Sue

Zone 6, Southcentral PA


"Paid2fish" wrote in message
Thanks for the tip, I went out just now and found dozens of slugs. Is
there
an easy way to repel them? Kill them? I would prefer not use a pesticide
unless there is no other reasonable option.

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