yes, ammonia is one form of nitrogen, mixed w/ water - when you spray it around it returns to it's gaseous state, so it would have to actually be sprayed on the slugs to work [and it does], as it won't persist on the plants - the spring treatment might help

the oil and soap will be more persistent, and not harmful to the plants as long as you don't keep them continuously soaked with it but I doubt it would be real effictive for slug control

if you have access to seaweed, mulching w/ it will keep slugs at bay - copper barriers also work, and strong garlic solutions - an unbroken border of coarse sand will help as well, and a good top dressing of sand on the wet lawn might reduce the population there as well as helping the lawn

Bill

Someone else posted this site shown below, and I thought it had a lot of good info, so you might want to take a look at it.

I don't know if all these ideas work or not, but the one I tried did work. Get a grapefruit, cut in half, eat out all the fruit down to the white part, put it upside down in the garden. Slugs seem to love it and you can trap lots that way.

Most everyone seems to like Sluggo or Escargo. I use Sluggo but it does not seem to work that well to me. I still have to hunt for them, under rocks, stepping stones, and grapefruits.

Here is a link that might be useful: slugs

Thanks for the input. I've placed some of the oil/amonia/water solution in a spray bottle and carry with me while working in the gardens.

As to some of the other suggestions, well I've tried most of them. The grapefruits work well, but the racoon enjoys them too, and turns them over. I just hope he eats the slugs...
The seaweed - and I do have plenty of that - is just a minuscule obstacle course which they seem to enjoy sliming over to the plants.
I really don't wish to add more sand to the property as the soil needs organic matter in a really bad way.
Copper collars get disturbed by the dogs which are allowed to peruse the property as they are expensive deer deterents. But nice ones!

Amazing how one pest can drive you up the wall. Today I'm removing the lilies because I'm not doing the Lily Beetle things every year!

Thnaks!

I save the ammonia water I use to clean or wash floors to water plants--it's great fertilizer. I use eggshells to keep slugs away from plants. I used to use bait and brought every slug within a mile to my garden. No more.

If you drink coffee, real coffee not the decaf stuff, and you have some left over you can use that as a spray on the plant leaves slugs munch on to protect those plants. A few years a go researchers from the USDA, in Hawaii, found that spraying cold, caffienated coffee worked as well as anything to control slugs.

Thanks Kimmsr - That's one I haven't tried yet. Saw a few of them sliming their way towards new seedlings just placed in the gardens yesterday...

Kimmsr, do you think that coffee should be sprayed at dusk or at dawn?

Wow, I had forgotten about using coffee grounds! I did that last summer with some success, and when I began spraying ammonia, I forgot about the coffee grounds. I usually pile them up in the crown of the plant. I figure that's a slug's point of entry to the foliage if there are no leaves dragging on the ground.

I also have bits of window screening material that I use around my zinnias, which always are targets for slugs. I cut a square, and then make one cut to the center. Then I can wrap the metal screening around the base of the young plant. I brush all the mulch away from the screeing so the slugs don't have a bridge to the plant. I want them to have to cross over that rough cut edge. The screening has worked beautifully this year. Before I put it down, the zinnias were chewed. Now they're fine.

I've spayed both times and have not noticed much difference in how the slugs react, they stay away both ways. I have not sprayed after 9:00 am, however, since the last couple of years it has really warmed up by then, here.

this was posted by some one in the veggie forum, I am trying it,,,,,,,SLUG DOUGH: According to our friends at Organic Gardening, a great bait is a home brew that can be kept in your refrigerator: 1 Tbs. Molasses, 3 Tbs. Cornmeal, ½ c. flour, ½ c. water, and ½ Tbs. Yeast. If you go to the-- [Safer site] they have a trap/cup container
that you can put the bait into.Try the bait by itself or put it in a can out in the garden,works well for me.

Thanks Bassketcher! I'll have to give that one a try! So does it kill the slugs or just keep them occupied until you find them feasting?

I've got everything but the yeast so that will go on the grocery list for this weekend.

The amonia-coffee spray has been working well. I'm killing a lot of them, but as of last night refuse to go out after dark... The June bugs are out and I do not wish to socialize with them!

it is supposed to kill them after they eat it. We will see.
I am thinking that if you get one batch started you could keep half and just add the flour, sugar and corn meal, to it like a sour dough starter. So you don't have to keep buying the yeast. Don't know if that will work or not. I am going to start a thread on this on the veggie forum to talk this up. So many of us are having mega trouble with slugs this year.

2-litre pop bottle cloches over transplants and new seedlings are working really well for us this year. I got 50 of them from the recycling depot. The garden is littered with them - just until the plants toughen up a bit.
The line of lime or wood ashes works well too, though needs reapplying after rain. And a circle of sawdust around plants works fairly well.
Since slugs hide in mulch during the day why not spray the mulch with ammonia? That's something I'm thinking of trying.

Paul,
I've actually started to just spray the area around the plants and the mulch on an evening basis. I'm seeing a lot less of them. Decided not to just spray the ones I saw as you inevitably miss a lot of the slimy things. The hosta garden is much better for it, and a visit by the deers the other night proved they don't like the lingering coffee taste on the plants either, so double bonus! (Instead of diluting with water, I use leftover coffee from the morning pot.) For the last two nights, they've bypassed our gardens and gone to the nieghbours' gardens for fresh greens.

One side effect of the amonia - do not spray on flowers. It will change the colour. Purple rockcress will turn skyblue!

The cloche is a great idea, and since I have a lot of 2 liter bottles leftover from wintersowing, I'll be using them on newly planted seedlings!

I am using alot of course sand around my plants too.

Just because you don't drink beer, doesn't mean you can't use beer in a slug trap. Get cheap beer. It really works for the slugs. But, it's the yeasty smell of the beer that draws the slugs. If you don't want to buy beer you can use a mixture of yeast, molasses, and water in trap.

I see that others have recommended coffee grounds, which is great to keep the slugs away from the plants. Unfortunately, I have 2 problems going on at once here...slugs AND earwigs. I put coffee grounds around all the plants I was trying to protect from slugs, and found that the earwigs loved the coffee grounds.

Seems like a strange year here in the high desert of Arizona. I've always seen earwigs and slugs, but I am being over-run by both of them this year...maybe more earwigs than anything. Some website that I read said that earwigs don't damage vegetable or flower plants. I say BS!!! I've watched them do just that and it's making me nuts. I had planned to plant more edible plants this year, but I think I am going to wait. The invasion of slugs (which I can trap) and earwigs (which seem to be multiplying more rapidly than rabbits) is more than I can take. For example...one rose blossom...13 earwigs!!!!! Guess I should post this on the earwig forum because that is actually my biggest problem. Just wanted you to know that sometimes one problem solver (coffee grounds), attacts more problem (herds of earwigs!)

this might help for earwigs. I get them in my corn.
Earwigs can be trapped outdoors in cardboard boxes baited with oatmeal or bran with pencil hole size entry sites punched in the sides near the bottom. Place burlap bags, canvass, boards, newspapers or other cover material in mulch, shrubbery and similar habitats to collect individuals the following day. Shake specimens into hot, boiling water or burn trapped earwigs in newspaper rolls. Indoors, remove with broom and dustpan or by vacuum cleaner

..there's an earwig forum????

Just to clarify - you can spray with a combo ammonia/coffee mixture? Or are these two separate sprays used together?

I'm using Sluggo, traps with beer, spray with ammonia/water to spot kill, and it's having some effect but not total. Clearing out weeds and ivy has actually done quite a bit to reduce the population. But this year is just BAD period. If I can spray with coffee/ammonia together, I might just do that. Then again, I worry about the taste of my lettuce?

I've been mixing both in the spray bottle - but only if there's coffee in the pot leftover. On plants which have/attract slugs, I've been spraying the mulch around the plant. It appears I may finally see a three year old Ligularia Othello finally come to life in the gardens and not struggle all season to simply be munched by the slimy things!
Not into growing veggies yet, so don't know about the lettuce.

Don't spray stuff on your lettuce. I have been going out and picking all I can find at dusk, by hand. Look for the places with the most damage. Put a damp peice of news paper down to catch the slugs from your lettuce.
If you are mulching with newspaper check under it. If there is slugs roll it up and stick in a bucket to drown. ( compost it)
Then replace mulch with new paper and grass clippings. Check again in a week. I got over 200 slugs this way yesterday.

Don't know about Ammonia although Texas farmers use it as a fertilizer. Iron Phosphate is the only safe and effective solution. Sluggo and Bayer slug killer are two brands that work.Rain won't ruin it and it won't kill your children and pets but it kills slugs!

We just found out that we have holes in our hostas because of slugs. Since we were transplanting anyway, we were wondering if dunking the hosta into a mixture of coffee grounds and water would kill the little buggers? Does anyone know if it's safe to dunk hostas in a mixture of 10% ammonia/90% water?

Also: Do coffee grounds provide slow-release nitrogen?

Thanks!

Don't know about 'dunking' them, but I do spray my hostas liberally now with the ammonia solution. No harm to the leaves. The coffee grounds and water won't work - at least not here.

Used coffee grounds are great for the gardens, wether slow release or not, I don't know. I do know that the worms love the stuff and one application of mulch of compost made with the top N ingredient being UCGs is enough for the season for my gardens.

Whatever you do, don't pile the UCGs too thick around any plant as once dry, it will repel water.

Hi:
I've found that crushed up egg shells is a great slug deterrant. I've used it for years and my hostas are never bothered by slugs.

Try it I'm sure it'll work!
suzie-g

Having certain materials that are difficult for slugs to negotiate is probably the most successful methods that I have tried. Someone I knew suggested using a ring of salt, but sand, egg shells, and coffee grounds are all great ideas! I am going to have to try that out.

the very best for me was the roofing tiles left over from when they did our roof. so i used them to put around my hosta's, one day i went out there to water my hosta's and my seedlings, and i saw a slug that had only made it half way across the tile, now how cool is that??? i know for sure that works!! i suppose if ya wanted to you could paint it the color ya wanted. i was so happy to see they didn't get my hosta's, i had heard they love them. and i know we have slugs bad here. and i do know the egg shells work, we tried them to keep them from the roses, works great!! ~Medo

Wood Ash from your woodstove or fireplace is very effective. If you sprinkle it around your plants the slugs will crawl over it and dehydrate, killing them almost instantly.

Would the coffee/ammonia solution kill snails as well?

Kathy

Even though Ammonia may kill the slugs it is not a real good substance to spray on plants, and there is no need to mix Ammonia with coffee since the cold caffeinated coffee is a good deterent of slugs, and probably snails by itself. If one were to spray Ammonia around it should only be directly on the slugs, or snails, since it will have bery little residual effect, once dry it is almost useless. But the cold caffeinated coffee lasts until it is washed off the plants leaves.

Please don't drench your yard with the soap mixture. It can mess up the soil.

Also, the much more likely pests of your artichokes are caterpillars. Earwigs were simply hanging out in the many snug little places.

See this:

http://ipm.ucanr.edu/PMG/GARDEN/VEGES/artichokes.html