What is the best way to get rid of snails and slugs ? I getting sick of
all those holes !!!!!!!

Ortho sells slug &snail poison you can get it at home centers.
"jlr" wrote in message
...
What is the best way to get rid of snails and slugs ? I getting sick of
all those holes !!!!!!!

In article , "Vince \(Buffalo N.Y.\)"
wrote:

Ortho sells slug &snail poison you can get it at home centers.

With which you can kill dogs & cats & birds & fish.

Ortho & other Metaldehyde slug baits are not very effective. They are also
sufficiently toxic that it should not be used around edible vegetables.
Iron phosphate is more effective than Metaldehyde because Metaldehyde
ceases to be functional when it gets rained on or you water the garden,
but Iron phosphate remains active even with repeat wettings, easily up to
two weeks. Because Iron phosphate remains active longer it requires less
used to kill more slugs.

Iron phosphate is completely safe for pets or beneficial insects, & safe
to use around vegetables. Sluggo & Escar-Go brands are Iron phosphate.
It's not as cheap as Metaldehyde, but then it's not money wasted either, &
it's a nutrient rather than a toxic chemical, so worth a little more. And
since it needs to be applied far less often to be continuously active
(twice a month rather than after every rainfall or garden watering as for
Metaldehyde) it isn't actually as expensive as first seems.

Because Metaldehyde is such a crappy slug bait, some products like Ortho
Plus include carbaryl to increase its toxicity. Carbaryl kills beneficial
insects & destroys the natural balance of the garden.

Snails frequently recover from Metaldehyde poisoning if there is rainfall
or access to wet locations where they will not fully dehydrate & die. By
contrast they never recover from Iron phosphate.

Metaldehyde is known to be fatally poisonous to dogs & wildlife even in
the weak (4%) mixes sold as slug poison. Plus it is sufficiently toxic to
humans that if it gets on vegetables, it would be illegal to sell them.

By contrast, Iron phosphate is non-toxic to dogs or wild animals, & can be
used legally even around commercial crops. EPA's Office of Pesticide
Program states that iron phosphate "has no unreasonable adverse effects to
human health [nor] toxicity to birds, fish, insects."

Metaldehyde products after being dampened no longer work, but they do mold
& invite disease. Iron phosphate not only remains active after damped, but
any that remains uneaten by slugs just breaks down into iron & phosphate
which the plants take in like any other fertilizer.

The baits work differently. Metaldehyde poisons & dehydrates the snail
rather rapidly if it eats the poison on a warm day (though of course
snails aren't usually about on warm dry days which is one reason it has
limited effect; on a chill or a wet day it will not dehydrate, but will
often recover from the toxin). Iron phosphate on the other hand induces
extreme mucus production, so that the snail or slug is no longer able to
eat while more slowly its cells break down; it works at any temperature &
the slugs will not recover due to rainfall.

In summation, you've a choice of a substance poisonous to cats, dogs, wild
animals, people, that cannot be used around vegetables, & which doesn't
work if the weather is cold or wet, & may need reapplication as often as
daily to have noticeable effect -- i.e., Ortho snail bait or other
Metaldehyde product. Or you can have a non-toxic bait that is a plant
nutrient harmless to animals & people, safe on vegetables, with
longlasting effectivity unaffected by temperature or wetness -- i.e.,
Sluggo or other Iron phosphate product.

-paghat the ratgirl

"jlr" wrote in message
...
What is the best way to get rid of snails and slugs ? I getting sick of
all those holes !!!!!!!


--
"Of what are you afraid, my child?" inquired the kindly teacher.
"Oh, sir! The flowers, they are wild," replied the timid creature.
-from Peter Newell's "Wild Flowers"
See the Garden of Paghat the Ratgirl: http://www.paghat.com/

jlr wrote in :

What is the best way to get rid of snails and slugs ? I getting
sick of
all those holes !!!!!!!


Slugs - get them drunk and they will drown. I think they prefer high malt
content to 'light'

Snails - I think if put out some orange rinds overnight they will
congregate

I've actually done the beer thing for slugs and works pretty well. don't
know about the snail trick