Pests: Calling all slug experts! (Not for the faint of heart)

We don't have snails up here, as far as I know.... just slugs... not the big ones, but quite destructive, just the same. I'm going to have to look into the generic type Iron Phosphate treatment. The cheapest deal I've found so far is to have Sluggo shipped up from the west coast. A twenty-five pound bag costs about $60, and postage is slightly more than that, making the total closer to $130 for 25 lbs. Ouch!

If you have a home depot you're in luck! You might also just web surf on Iron Phosphate. Let me know what you find.

Closest Home Depot is 120 miles away... of course the closest town is about that far away! I did a search last year, but should probably try it again, now.

What website do you use? Please call Home Depot before you go. Sluggo has been uniformily priced here no matter what size the bag is but your price looks pretty good. I'll call the nursery.

Shipping to Alaska is the biggest expense. If Home Depot in Anchorage has an Iron phosphate product, it might be cheaper, but they will allow for shipping, as well. Thanks for the suggestions.

I want to thank everyone that has posted for this tread. I have enjoyed it immensely and laughed so hard . I moved into a new home this past Fall and don't have slugs here so far, but I sure did at my last house. I am the only one on the street that has flower gardens other than shrub type landscaping so I know that they are going to find me eventually. My method at my last home was going out at night and hunting them down. My neighbors used to get a kick out of seeing my husband and I in our nice clothes searching through the flower beds with our flashlights after having dinner out. They thought that was so funny. But when we would get home , we would see hundreds of snails crossing the driveway and lawn marching towards the flower beds.I tried beer traps, snail bait, copper and every other remedey that I heard off and I never saw a reduction in my slug population. I think they put out a message that I had the best of delicacy's in my yard, so every slug in the entire neighborhood would make their way in my direction. I have truly enjoyed having a year of slug free gardening. But like I said, I know that eventually they will find their way back to me.

Yes, jerodsmom, that's what I call a 'gardener's honeymoon', the time before a new gardener or garden becomes invaded by bugs, snails, slugs, and invasives!

I had a great thing happen this winter. I had a lot of Fuyu persimmons and the squirrels would leave parts of them on the ground. The slugs would climb on and the squirrels would eat the persimmons AND the slugs. It's an ECOSYSTEM. All you have to do is hire squirrels and grow a persimmon tree.

Got any Alaskan persimmons?

I don't know if they grow there very well, I'll have to ask the persimmons in my freezer waiting to be made into persimmon bread! Maybe you'll just have to throw some salmon out there and wait for the bears to eat the slugs. This is the first time I've thought that the slugs might freeze. Why don't they? Do slugs like salmon? Want me to ship you some frozen persimmons (and you thought shipping snail bait was expensive).?

LOL, Doss! Slugs seem to like mushrooms and dog poop, so I don't know about salmon! I've thought about ducks, but they play as much havoc with the plants as the slugs!

Ah ducks! The Mallards land in our pool every fall and try to make nests in garden around it. They make a mess if we leave them there even though, so we have to send them on their way. It is fun to see them. Now, you could get duck herding dogs.I'm not kidding, they have them. In fact they have dog herding contests with ducks. I guess when sheep are in short supply. I swear my mother's Miniature Australian Shepard could keep them out of your plants and only eat the slugs. - well maybe a slight exaggeration. But the dog's amazing.

And see, I've been picking up my dog poop every day. What a waste! Well sometimes I miss it, my dogs are little. Have to pull every mushroom here so the pups don't munch them - they come mostly in the spring anyway.

These dogs of mine thwart all slug removing activity! Deadline works like a dream, but I worry about the dogs - and the environment. So luckily I have an orange tree. I don't think there are any Alaska hearty cultivars of those either.

Doss, it sounds like you are a prime candidate to try the Iron Phosphate slug bait. It is pelleted and holds up well in average rainfall, and the best part is that it can be eaten by pets and livestock without ill effects.

We've got a couple blue healer mix dogs, and they are born herders. They also go out in the woods to do their business, so I don't need to go on scoop patrol. I've considered getting them a goose to keep them busy, but they are getting pretty old now for that sort of thing.

Now if you've got blue heelers, you've got duck dogs for sure! I think that we are going in circles about the Iron Phosphate though. You and I had a discussion about that a while back. (remember, we were commiserating about the cost of shipping to Alaska - that's where the comment about shipping Persimmons came from.) I use the Phosphate and use and use it. The deadline is really the only thing that works consistently. When I had bigger dogs I used the granular and spread it really well. They didn't have a problem with it - they weren't diggers, but Zora loves to munch plants and she's only 11 pounds so the slugs are munching away on my ornamental cabbage while the rain washes the phosphate away. I am a die hard. Want to have my plants that snails love - like Hosta - and have the slugs respect them. Anybody want to start a slug etiquette school?

I'm going to repeat the coffee ground suggestion- the jolt of caffeine kills the critters. Our Starbucks has offered bags of it for free in the past. I've also had better luck with Deadline than with the pellet bait. Love to go out in the morning and count the dead critters! I'd love to have toads or turtles, but I haven't seen one in several years. Probably too much gunk running into the pond down the street for them (toads anyway).

Susan K

The slugs and snails are at it again already. They put holes in my Ligularia before I noticed. Luckily the Hostas are still in bed. I'll try calling Starbucks. How much do you use?

I love Deadline too. Especially the gray-line type. Can't use it cause of the dogs, but it is the only thing I"ve found that does really work.

The iron phosphate products are safe for animals, and it works in a less dramatic way. When the slugs eat it, their insides turn to goo and they cannot feed. You re-apply every two weeks, and they may linger on a bit, but they won't be on the buffet line.

Thanks Weezingreens, I know about Sluggo and use it regularly. I just wasn't expecting an invasion so early. But still, nothing works as well as deadline.

You're probably right, doss. I have so many birds and critters in my yard that I just can't bring myself to use a regular slug bait. Does Deadline hold up well in rain?

The other is a sticky sort of gray liquid that you squirt it in a line around the beds and plants. I never found that my bigger dogs bothered with it and it worked really well, but because I have a 10 month old puppy and she puts everything in her mouth, I can't use it. It is specifically made to resist rain.. The information for it does say NOT to use it around pets and wildlife but to use Sluggo instead. Too bad, it really works.

Being rain resistant is a big plus around here. The sluggo holds up pretty good. I think the iron phospate is suspended in compressed pellets of grain. It takes awhile for them to break down in the wet, and you don't really need to use much for each application. All I know is that I have a lot less problems with slugs since I started applying it two or three times season. The slugs love my big sweet honeoye strawberries, so an application of sluggo before they ripen really saves the day for me!

Wow, two or three times a season. I'm using it at least once a week in the season. But then I use sprinklers too. It's an expensive proposition, even with the cheaper generic stuff. But my garden's worth it. And you have to feel better using something like sluggo around things you are going to eat.

We had a rather dry summer last year, so that may have added to my success. I know other folks who use it more often. I think the results from Iron phospate is a little more subtle than some other methods.

No kidding! Subtle is a good way to say it. On the other hand, I guess I could give up growing Hostas, Ligularias, Dahlias, Clematis.......Luckily I grow a lot of plants that they don't like too.

I have to say, each year I have less and less slugs to deal with. As I said, the weather could have a good deal to do with it. Normally we have lots of rain all summer. On the other hand, I've come up with other techniques for discouraging them.

Number 1 Rule: Don't Make A Slugs Life Easy.

Clean my beds in the fall, remove dead leaves, etc, turn top of soil to look for eggs... about the size of tapioca and opalescent... in strings. I put them in an old coffee can and let them freeze over the winter. They don't melt with salt, so I'm not sure what to do with them but contain them... sort of like a nasty computer virus!

During the summer, I keep the bottom leaves trimmed, if possible, remove chickweed, etc... anyplace they can go to sleep through the heat of day. Slugs are pretty sluggish, so they don't usually venture far from the buffet to snooze. They also seem to like a communal spot... social slugs, what a concept.

I try not to water in the evenings, since the wetness is to their benefit. Our summers are pretty mild, so I'm not limited to morning or evening, but morning watering is better for me.

I don't plant the tastier veggies in the garden, but rather in containers I can move... oriental greens, lettuce, etc go in big bowl type pots that I can move if they start bothering them. Usually, when I move the pot, they're snoozing under it.

I leave hiding places for them near the beds... old boards, rocks... I can turn these over when I am on slug patrol during the day while they are sleeping. I can generally harvest 'herds' of them that way.

I've been told it is effective to have sacrificial plants to offer them.... marigold, etc, but that just invites them in, and eventually they'll finish off the sacrificial plants and begin on my hostas, etc. Copper wire or tape is supposed to help, but if it keeps slugs out of your garden, it also keeps them in.

Number 2 rule:No slug goes unscathed. No matter what I am doing or how much of a hurry I am in, no slug lives. Each slug is potentially going to be responsible for thousands more. I used to keep a yogurt cup with some salt in the bottom. I'd drop them in there and they'd become slug soup. However, the stench when you open the container is pretty disgusting, and I've almost confused it for my coffee cup, so I don't do that anymore.

Now, I carry a pair of manicure scissors in my pocket and cut the slugs in half. They don't regenerate. They stay dead to be eaten by other slugs or turn to compost. You don't have to touch them so you aren't going to be scrubbing your hands with a brush to get the goo off of them. You can stick the scissors in the dirt to clean them. Of course, they're pretty much history for manicuring, but c'est la vie.

Thanks for the slug manifesto! I'm afraid I don't have the slug fighting energy you do. My mother used to go out in the middle of the night and crush snails. She called it her "snail dance". Someone suggested oranges upside own. A good idea since I have a tree with way too many oranges. Now I just need as much energy as a slug. :->

When you find out how to get that energy, please let me know. I need some desperately! ;-)

Sorry about your energy. I hope that you aren't ill.

OK. Hrer's the answer. Don't get a lot of migraine headaches and don't take a lot of meds (which have side effects) to control it. :-) Seriously, giving up sugar and white flower worked for me when I wasn't in this shape. It made me lose weight and get a better cholesterol number too. But it''s sort of drastic. And the first three days are hell. You feel like you've been run over by a truck. But I'll bet it can make you boogie as fast a those slugs. (LOL)

Doss, I think the use of the word 'flower' instead of 'flour' was a Freudian slip! LOL! I really don't spend that much time on slugs, thanks to Sluggo. When I take time to get down and weed my beds, I also do the other maintenance things. I don't hunt for slugs while they are feeding... I do it during the day when they are sleeping under things and feeling sluggish. It's funny that they seem to sleep together. They seem to like to bunk up.

No one would accuse me of being too energetic... maybe 20 years ago, but not now! I'm probably a hundred pounds overweight and 58 years old. I have no problem kneeling down to garden, but it takes a crane and a good strong cable to get me back up! LOL! I've been known to crawl on my hands and knees from one bed to another just so I don't have to get up and down!

Well, yep, don't be eatin the flowers if you want energy - or if you want strawberries this summer! If you don't have energy then you do have dedication. I noticed a couple of other typos too. Must have been half asleep.

After all of this being careful about snail bait, my little dog climbed up on a chair, got up on the kitchen table, and took some medicine. Luckily I she threw up - but I had to race her to emergency last night and the predictions were dire. However, she seems to have sailed through it. I can pick her up this afternoon. Yikes! was I shaken. She even lapped up the activated charcoal that they gave her instead of needing to be force fed. Everyone at the vets was smitten. She is pretty cute. But darn expensive!

I'm 57, only a little overweight, but I've been there - sorry you've got that to contend with. This medicine makes me tired, but it also takes away my appetite.

I had to buy a new pair of glasses last week and had to run all over finding a pair that I could use because I need a big bifocle. Finally a lady said that they don't carry too many pairs like the one I chose because their clientele tended to be between 35 and 60 and the frames I chose were one's that someone about 58 would wear. I kind of gave her a blank stare, but I was laughing hysterically inside. I guess it was a compliment?

When my mother was in her 80's, she told me that 'getting old was vastly over-rated'. I come from a long line of chubbies. We start out thin as adolescents, then blossom... I think it is the curse of a hardy appetite! This obesity is mostly self-inflicted, so it's not worthy of too much sympathy... just mentioned to let you know that all my gardening is done carrying a 100 lb sack of potatoes with me everywhere I go!

Glad to hear your doglet is OK. My granddoglets are so old they can't get on the counter anymore.

We don't have snails here, just slugs. Since the snails have shells, where do they hide out in the heat of the day... or do they?

Having played around with so many prescription chemicals and seen their effect on my appetite, I'm not willing to say that weight is self inflicted. I gained almost 40 pounds just dealing with drugs that made me eat all the time. I just really couldn't stop. It's come off now - having changed drugs - but I truly believe that appetite is chemically induced. Just saw a show last night that said that not sleeping enough can make you hungry. They charted the amount of sleep American's were getting since the 60's and their weight. It was pretty impressive. They also showed studies of students eating more and more, the less sleep they had. Turns out that there are hormones that cause increases of diet, and ones that cause decreases and that they both are affected by sleep. Weird, huh?

Snails were introduced here from France as a food "crop". In the day they go the same places slugs go - mostly the underside of everything. We used to have races with them when we were kids. Can you tell that life was slower then?

I'm going out today to tie up the Cycloglossa Iris. They are beautiful but they fall over if they aren't staked and although they are only 12" tall they are already leaning. They get about 3 feet tall so I have to start staking early but they are worth it. I'll get some photos this spring.

I actually don't mind staking stuff. It's a fun thing to do. My daffodils are up and it makes me happy. Now you have the weather report for the day at my house.

Sounds like spring has struck in your neck of the woods, Doss. Not having experienced snails, I just couldn't imagine them slipping under rocks and boards to sleep. It would seem difficult with those shells.

The big ones actually get on the bottom of the leaves and crawl down into the insides of the plants where you can't see them. The little ones do get on the bottom of boards, etc. They can be really tiny.

In Japan (monami-tora-shima) known as "South bird Island". We harvested sea snails.

Placed them on a charcoal grill (upsidedown) filled the opening w/soy sauce. When the soy sauce was gone, they were done & ready for consumpsion.

They were a lot like clams, very sweet, but much more tender, almost the taste of a good scallop (the real ones, not the skate you are served in most resturants).

Now - I need Seafood, Gonna open some canned Salmon from my sis.

I've found the common slug has just a hint of musty flavor. Caution, do not salt them until after you've cooked them or they will melt.

Think I'll pass on the slugs. I'd rather eat .....well a lot of things.

Snails are only good with garlic butter - but you don't overcook them or they have the subsistence of rubber. Best served in their own shells. :-) Since you don't have them in the garden there you can get them canned in a package with shells included. Can't wait, huh?

I'll try anything once, maybe twice if my memory clouds about the first time.

Well, pickled slugs are OK, but you've got to catch them fresh to really appreciate them. If you catch one with eggs, you can have a rare delicacy... slug caviar.

Weez - stop it, not good to laugh that hard, I may damage myself.