From the article: Slug Control in the Garden
Slugs hid under leaves and do a lot of damage in the garden, before you even know they're there. What are your tips for getting rid of and controlling slugs in your garden? Share What's Worked
Vinegar
- I have recently done a trial on my vegetable garden to see what would work and i found that if you spray vinegar on your plants every three days it will penetrate the slugs away and if they come into contact with it there skin will burn. {Note from Marie: Vinegar is used as an herbicide, to kill plants. I wouldn't recommend using it on tender plants or on any plant for a long length of time.
- —Guest Evie
sandals vs. snails
- My wife has a special pair of sandals with hard sole for the squishing part. They pop and crunch with ease!
- —Guest TA
salt
- they won't go near the plants . I konw this from when I was a small child , my father would spread salt where ever the would be and , it's safe for your food plants.
- —Guest bonnie
salt
- did the beer thing. also took the ones i found and dropped them into a can of rock salt. a very horrible death i suspect. they appear to try to crawl out of their skins.
- —Guest jem
slugs in the garden
- I'm new to this. I feel I"d better run out and check to see if they are there. I remember a friend of mine used a cup of beer and everyday it would fill up and she would replace. That would do the trick. I 'm going to do that because it seems so simple.
- —EllenHonig
what works in removing slugs
- 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
Try Diatomaceous Earth
- 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
Diatomaceous Earth
- 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
Copper Wire
- 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
- 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
- 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
Crushed Shells
- 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
Copper Mesh
- 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
Esc-Cargo
- 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
Household Salt
- I find that the most successful remedy is common household salt.
- —Guest Eddy Joyce
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