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Hi, my garden is in central NY, we have had tons of rain these past 2 weeks. I have more slugs than I have ever seen. Any non chemical ways to rid myself of these leaf eating monsters?? Please help!
There is a product called SLUGGO that is supposed to be organic. It contains iron phosphate. Iron phosphate is a common chemical with a variety of uses, including as a human nutritional supplement and as an ingredient in fertilizer. The substance is not harmful to humans, to other non-target organisms or to the environment. It is an alternative to a more toxic chemical that has been used for controlling snails and slugs.
You can also physically destroy slugs. If you put a board down on the garden soil and turn it over in the morning, you'll find slugs aplenty under there and you can then stomp them. There is the saucer full of beer trick to let the slugs drown. Put the saucer at ground level and fill it with beer.
Install some Toads in your garden for slug control and other critters. They make wonderful pets, don't wander off if given a simple home, and they work hard controlling slugs and snails at night. This is a satisfying and natural solution. Les
I also seem to have large quanitities of toads living in my yard, many in the garden, I have tried the beer trick, using coffee grounds, and yes I hate to say I have used chemical components( This I will not do again). I have gone out at night and picked over 200 beasts from my garden, porch, and veranda...WHAT ELSE CAN I DO???
I put cat food on my porch for the cats. If they don't eat all of it by the end of the night it will attract lots of slugs. There are a lot of them together in one place so I get out the salt and can kill many of them at one time. Then I sweep everything up and dump it in the trash. Great satisfaction throwing all those dead slugs away! (I don't know if the cat food is attracting even more slugs to my yard, but the cats catch mice so it's worth it. Haven't had a mouse in my house for a long time, they are a lot worse then the slugs.)
Sluggo Plus was the key for us this year. I try to do the beer trick, but it just wasn't working and my plants were getting decimated. Found the Sluggo Plus and it worked like a charm.
I had a HUGE snail problem for a while. I would go out every night and pluck 100+ per night. It was horrible. I will say that every night there would be less and less. I used some snail kill stuff that I bought at Lowes which worked okay...not great...until I found a gel...called Deadline Liquid snail bait. I went around the perimeter of my garden, on the outside, with the liquid stuff and they never crossed it again...it was FANTASTIC. I was able to then make sure all of the snails were out of the garden, and then focused on the yard. I used a powder on my palm trees (where I believe they were breeding), and after only a day or two my problem was controlled.
Try not to step on them...dead snails attract other snails.
I have some peppers in my greenhouse and have been picking dozens of slugs off them every day. Next the spider mite started and to control that I have sprayed with good old Murphys Oil soap (about a capful to quart of water). Lo and behold the slugs are gone! Don't know if this is just a fluke but I haven't seen a slug in the greenhouse in a week. If I spray directly on a slug it seems to take the slime off them and they leave the area quickly (well as quickly as a slug can flee). I sprayed the soil around my cukes and squash as well and seems to be protecting them too. Also tried on the broccoli and brussel sprouts tonight and hoping for the best there too. Just thought I'd pass this along as even just spraying the soil seems to work...Laurie
