Readers Respond: Effective Methods of Slug Control

Responses: 44

By Marie Iannotti, About.com Guide

place pieces of flat board down here and there throughout the garden. Slugs go there for cover. go out,flip the board over and remove the slugs. I put the slugs into a container [with a tight fitting lid]containing an inch or two of used car oil. plants i want NO SLUG damage upon, I put a ring of wet beach sand around.The sand is coarse enough to deter the slugs..cuts up their underbellies..since the area has drip irrigation i need not worry about the ring being dissolved when watering. i have decolate snails in my yard..they are THE GOOD GUYS, so i do not want to use anything[ organic or not] to kill slugs or snails.
—Guest Raychael

Diatomaceous earth (sold in pool companies for filtration) will cut the soft bodied slugs)(and other soft bodied animals such as insects) , If they eat it (such as when you put it on the leaves of plants ) they will die from dehydration. It is also organic and will not hurt humans or mammal pets.
—oscarbartoni

I’ve used an organic, non-toxic product called DIATOMACEOUS EARTH. It comes in the form of pellets, the pellets are white chalk-like and is produced by the crushing of fossilized algae. I spread the pellets heavily, almost coating the ground. The slugs crawl over the pellets and it works as an abrasive to their body and eventually dries them out.
—Guest Lyn

I have heard of people using copper wire as a deterrent. I myself have never tried this, but I’ve heard this works. For instance, you could add some copper wire at the base of the stem or around the garden boxes. I’m sure you could get artistic with it.
—Guest Helen Lau

Iron Phosphate is available from several sources including Sluggo, Bonide and Ortho. Sluggo Plus with spinosad which is also a low toxicity insect control offers good control. It’s important though to realize that organic or not, these products are designed to kill a target pest. The low toxicity and natural (iron phosphate is not organic, it’s natural) nomenclature do not relieve the user of reading, understanding and following the label directions for these products. Critical issue here is simple: “Organic is not the same thing as Safe!”
—Guest Bug Doc

Sluggo does work great for those slimey slugs and is organic. I use Sluggo Plus which works not only on slugs and snails it also works great on nasty earwigs and cutworms. I have put it in my containter gardens for both slugs and earwigs. Sluggo Plus has a natural good bacteria in it called Spinosad.
—Guest Patty Bailey

I have a bag of crushed shell material (apparently they use it in pool filtration) that a ring around my plants and bed will kill slugs.
—Guest Efirefly

Slugs actually, along with snails and others in the mollusk family have blue blood. Copper meshing around plants is a wonderful, natural way of controlling them because when slugs come into contact with copper, something in that blood reacts to copper and they actually get a small electrical shock that causes them to avoid anything near copper. Another very useful method if you can get past the "ugh" affect, is hand picking them into a container of mild soapy water, and/or into a container and moving them to a more appropriate area.
—Guest Mynsie

The first year I used Esc-Cargo same as Sluggo the slugs were eating everything in my shade garden. It worked great!! I used it two more years and the fourth year I didn't have to use any! Yes, I would not be without it!! So easy to use, safe and doesn't harm pets, or wildlife. I have used it ever since it came out.
—Shelby24019

hand removal works well. setting out a piece of wood, heavy cardboard, just something for those slimy buggers to lay beneath . give them time to settle in, feel hidden then spring your trap and take 'em away. placing them in a coffee can of used motor oil pretty much says bye-bye for them[as long as you put a top on the can] with the wood, you can just flip the board over and remove them. near the beach we have placed a ring of sand around the outside of the basin[that holds water for shrubs].. the sand is coarse enough that it will cut into the belly or at least be abrasive enough to discourage them coming forward. Decollate snails,being the good guys, seem to help keep slugs at bay.. they are a natural predator of the brown snail....since they only eat decayed matter there is no worry about your plants' new tender growth.
—Guest raychael

Couple of years ago, I discovered a terrible problem with BloodRoot.It was new to my garden, given to me by a friend. I soon discovered, it was a magnet for slugs.I put out beer, which slugs drowned in, happily or not.I thought of eating them a la escargot, but couldn't think of the buttery-garlic sauce. I went to the gardener who had given the plant to me.He gave me eggshells.I didn't use them. The following season, slugs disappeared. I don't think it's b/c of beer. Just think it's a happenstance.
—Guest jeanX

Glad to hear that iron sulfate is finally available here! I have been hoarding my Ferramol (same Neudorff product, from Germany) for years now. When I moved here from Germany 5 years ago I was surprised no one here knew about iron sulfate for slugs. The bitter Spanish slugs are a big problem there, in the old days ducks and chickens could be used as organic control but these slugs are working their was up from southern Europe and they are bitter tasting and don't get eaten. Ferramol was covered by all the eco-gardening magazines there when it came out a couple of years before, and you know how green the Germans are. Apparently the hard part was not poisoning the slugs, but finding a formula that the slugs liked to eat. Iron sulfate is harmless to animals and birds (it is found in our bodies) but makes slugs and snails curl up in a hole (neatly disposed of) and die. I can vouch for it being 100% effective, I could never have grown lettuce without it!
—eece

Small pieces of egg shell scattered around plants slugs like. The sharp edges cut the delicate body of the slugs. The calcium in the shells is good for the soil also helps keep soil loose when worked in.
—Floweredfeathers

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Marie Iannotti
Gardening Guide