Slugs & Earwigs

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runnerboy713 Westborough, MA(Zone 5b) Mar 28, 2010

I picked up some sluggo to go to war against the many slugs that attacked my garden last year. I also had more earwigs than seemed normal. I saw a product that combats slugs and earwigs called Earth-tone Bug and Slug control. I decided not to get it because it wasn't clear if it killed any "beneficial insects." In particular, I'm creating a butterfly garden and don't want any caterpillars that might wander by to get killed in the crossfire. Does anyone have any experience with this product? The active ingredient in it that targets earwigs is spinosad.

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dividedsky Indianapolis, IN(Zone 5b) May 03, 2010

I was looking at Sluggo's manufacturer's website today and noticed that they have two products. It says that Sluggo contains iron phosphate and baits and kills slugs and snails. Sluggo Plus contains iron phosphate and spinosad and kills cutworms and some other stuff, in addition to slugs. Cutworms are caterpillars of various moths.

I found this material fact sheet that answers your question: http://www.livingwithbugs.com/PDFiles/mfs13.pdf

"Spinosad is principally toxic to plant-eating insects in the orders
Lepidoptera (caterpillars), Coleoptera (beetles), Thysanoptera (thrips), and
Diptera (flies)." It also says that it's highly toxic to bees. So you would not want to use anything that contains spinosad in a butterfly garden.

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