Natural Home and Garden

Slugs on the Run

New Solutions

A couple of new products have made slug control easy, effective and safer. The brand names are Sluggo, Escar-Go! and Worry Free; these are baits containing iron phosphate. This compound is very toxic to mollusks, including slugs and snails, and relatively safe for humans, pets, birds and insects. It causes the slugs to stop eating as soon as they consume it. They begin to die in 3-6 days. Dead slugs may not be visible because they often crawl into secluded places before dying.

The baits can tolerate rain, and very little is needed. Scatter it close to the plants you want to protect, and near places known to harbor slugs, such as ivy plantings. It takes very little, probably less than a teaspoonful in each location. Bait not consumed by slugs will biodegrade, and is actually a soil nutrient. It can be used around vegetable crops, fruits and berries, and around domestic animals and wildlife.

Time-tested Solutions

Copper barrier strips and screening create a very effective barrier between the slugs and your garden. The copper causes an electric shock to the slugs, thus preventing them from entering your garden. It also prevents the slugs that are already in your garden from getting out, so make sure you hand pick these until you have eliminated the population. The copper fits very nicely around your raised wood boxes, or can simply be pressed into the ground around the area you want to protect.
Bait the slugs with beer in a container that is sunk into the soil. The slugs are extremely attracted to the smell of the yeast in beer, and once they start drinking they can't stop. In the morning you will find your containers full of slugs that have drunk themselves to death. A University of Colorado study discovered that the brew of choice for slugs is Kingsbury Malt Beverage, a non alcoholic beer.
Create a barrier. Consider using diatomaceous earth, wood chips, or cinders as a barrier. Wood chips and diatomaceous earth are effective only when dry. The cinders are effective whether wet or dry.
Make them uncomfortable. Slugs like to hide under bricks, boards, debris, mulches, Ivy and other groundcovers. If you remove desirable slug habitats in the area surrounding your garden, fewer slugs will move in and make themselves comfortable, and thus fewer slugs will find their way into your garden.
Handpick on moist nights with a flashlight. Handpicking is an effective method for reducing slug populations, but not as effective as the options mentioned above.

Be careful not to use any of the older slug baits that contain metaldehyde. They can be deadly to pets, and risky to humans (especially children). Some common brand names are Deadline and Cory's.

Natural Home and Garden is located in Lincoln County, Oregon

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