Check the FAX page for information. I know amonia and water 1 to 10 ratio sprayed on and around your hosta helps. I hope I have the amount correct!

Connie

Search "Papou" the resident expert, along the way you will see some of his beautiful gardens.

Ammonia is a contact killer so you must touch the slug or snail with the liquid. Some spray the plant leaves at nite when they can see the slug which is fun but it doesn't kill the ones in the ground around the plant.

Take a hose-end sprayer and fill with full strength ammonia, let the sprayer mix the ammonia, and saturate the ground around the plants during the day when they are hiding. Don't worry about the ammonia the soil will buffer it in a hurry. No real need to spray the plant since there is no lasting value to the ammonia. Do this every 2 weeks until you don't see slugs or slug damage.

Start now!

I read recently that coffee--what we drink, not just grounds---actually kill slugs. caffeine.http://faculty.washington.edu/chudler/slug.html
http://growjoe.com/slugs.html

Researchers in Hawaii looking for a way to kill coqui frogs found a 2% solution of caffeine kills slugs within 96 hours. I think they actually were using No Doz, so as to make sure it was the caffeine & not other stuff found in brewed coffee.
Coffee grounds are a great mulch & organic additive to any soil--- very rich---but nearly all of the caffeine has been extracted from brewed grounds, to go into us coffee drinkers---

Sluggo is not an enviro issue as it is only a type of iron but it is expensive & dissloves when wet.

ester opal

Again,use the ammonia full strength? You say let the sprayer mix the ammonia,mix with what?

And this will not harm our hosta?

Wow! I like this idea,thanks,

Carol

if you use the search .. there are 260 posts for HOSTA SLUG CONTROL ....

and i am pretty sure there are FAQ's regarding such ...

mind you .. not to quell you enthusiasm ...

9 cups of water to one cup of vinegar or ammonia ... will irritate the skin of a slug... so as to cause it to slime itself to death ... contact is requisite .. so you have to hit them ...

go out at dusk .. insert sprayer under the canopy .. and soak the undersides and petioles.. letting it run into the crown ...

i personally would never spray the top sides.. for fear that droplets would burn in the sun the next day ....

vinegar is in the pickling aisle of the grocers... by the gallon ...

good luck hunting.. ken

The hose-end sprayer will mix the ammonia so the 9-1 is not necessary. Spraying the undersides of the leaves is in the evening when the slugs have crawled up. I say spray the ground around the hosta in a fairly large circle and kill the little buggers where they hide and kill all of slugs the ammonia reaches.

I had recommended vinegar because I had used it without a problem then I found the conditions that caused the plants to have severe spot damage. Vinegar works but is much much more dangerous, ammonia is pretty fool proof, BIG BUTT remember fools are ingenious.

Thank you very much for your recommendations. I will start in the morning. One question, will I cause harm if
spray in the morming and at night?

Cheryl

One question, will I cause harm if spray in the morning and at night?
Cheryl

Doesn't matter, I say more midday or afternoon when the slugs are off the plants on the ground, saturate the ground and you get them whether you see them or not.