Hello! from NE coastal Maine, Atlantic sea on my doorstep. I attempt to garden here decade after decade, and every bloom is precious to me.
Slugs. To date, I have tried
Barriers and soil: copper sleeves, copper tape, asphalt tile border, wet&dry sandpaper, cedar shavings, urinated cat litter, coffee grounds, iron phosphate, rough granite sand, crushed egg shells, castor bean extract, cinnamon, coco hulls, cayn pepper, water trench, plastic bottles over seedlings..... Soil: no mulch, no ground covers, leaves off ground, tried nematodes, soil pH..... finally...
Bingo! I make a gel of either agar, gelatin, or flour paste. Then I add a stinking amount of ammonia (not much). I pour it on the boundary layer around my gardens with a watering can. Smear it around 4 to 5". All done in the cool wet evenings here, especially during high tide. Next morning, I leave all their dead bodies there, because slugs eat dead slugs. My garter snakes, one toad, and animals are not bothered, because it doesn't take alot of ammonia to kill slugs. Alittle bit still kills them...just slower.
Baits and traps: Only work here at the very first days of spring. Once that spring grass comes up, no bait (not even cat or dog food, beer, whatever...) attracts slugs. Every very early spring, I rope off the garden areas, and use the MOST poisonous bait for a few days then. KILL THEM
Then the garter snakes come out, the birds, the toad......have to be nice again...
Hand to Hand combat is still the best to surpress slugs.....(one can NEVER eliminate slugs here...) Just when I think the garden looks alittle less tattered from slug damage, I water each flower deeply in the evening, wait a couple of hours, put on my plastic exam gloves , and poke slugs with a long needle, or throw them in a jar of salt water. I can't use even slight ammonia spray, because the salt spray from the ocean dries out the plants, so alcohol and ammonia make the plants suffer here. and HAVEN'T they suffered enough.?! Ye Gods, my poor plants...
I have now decided to try a slug electric fence from an English gardener. It's called SnailAway. Anyone try this yet? my problem is: my garter snakes.
Slugs: How they love to devour your beautiful garden
Sounds like you are fighting the good fight. I must agree about the hand picking and I also just smush them hoping to attract a few others to the corpse. You seem to have done all that can be done. Constant vigilance is the main weapon I guess. Every damp or overcast day I go out early and check for the little buggers. Only found one today. He is gone now. ^_^
This message was edited Aug 17, 2010 1:07 PM
Wow, that is some slug war.... not so bad here for some reason, I'll find a baby one every so often I just squoosh it.