I grew up in Park Hill and we always used pie tins with beer. I doubt you can catch 'em all, but it might reduce their population.

Sluggo, Holly.

They start in the greenhouse - the little guys. However, one little guy can eat a half dozen seedlings in a night.

Huge, brown slugs show up, outdoors ... and, terrify DW! I think that they will eat anything green ...

Sluggo isn't wonderful because it melts fairly quickly and it's expensive spread over very many feet. But, it kills them.

Steve

I've used sluggo in the past and it certainly helps. Only place I usually use it anymore is around the strawberry beds.

After organic gardening for 10 years my yard has achieved a balance of bugs. While I have slugs they are kept in check by beetles and ground spiders. Beetles and spiders need hiding places and in my garden that is mostly in clover and alfalfa.

In the early days some seedlings I started indoors just to avoid the slug damage.

I have an old fir tree (I think that's what it is) but it drops small twigs that are pokey (they even hurt when I step on em bare footed) I put the twigs on the ground when I see the Hostas start to peek thru the soil in the spring. Then as they unfurl I keep adding to the drip line. . . its worked very well for me. However the hail beat up on the Hostas a few nights ago. . .

I do agree with Steve, they eat anything green. Just this spring as I was plucking a few dandilions I killed a dozen of them when I pulled the dandies out by the roots. I wish that was all they ate, gardening would be so much better. . . .

Yes indeed - if we could train slugs to just eat dandelions and bind weed seedlings wouldn't we be happy to have such creatures help us with weed control? In my yard, however, they totally ignore the bindweed seedlings, which seem to pop up in all of my beds, and go right for the "good" stuff! As for dandelions, what seedlings? They seem to spring fully formed from the ground, like Athena from Zeus's forehead, and already have their roots thrust 8 inches deep into the soil to make removal more difficult, lol, nothing for the slugs to get a hold of.

For some reason, as I mentioned, I am only having the problem - knock on wood - with the bed in which I have my cucumbers and sunflowers planted; the squash seedlings in my other veggie beds, for example, were untouched and are now big enough that slugs are no longer a danger, at least as far as destroying the seedling in one chomp! They don't seem to bother any of my perennials - including my hostas - either, at least there is no obvious damage. I wish I could figure out why this particular bed is so popular with them - do they just prefer the taste of cucumber and sunflower seedlings?!?

Starting seedlings indoors would be a great way of avoiding slug problems, gjcore, but I haven't had much luck with that in the past - my house doesn't have those wonderful sunlit windowsills you need for that and can't afford to buy the proper supplemental artificial lighting setup.

Sluggo is expensive, but I think I will be getting some of it today; luckily the bed the slugs are preying on isn't huge and as I only need to place it around the cucumber hills and sunflower spots, theoretically, I won't need to use too much of it. I may also scatter some containers of beer around in the bed, too.

I don't want to resort to killing slugs - they are part of a healthy ecosystem and we need them to help break down organic matter to improve the soil - but I do want to have some cucumbers this year, and the sunflowers would be rather nice, too, so I don't think I have a choice.

Holly

Holly, I wouldn't worry about putting a dent in the overall slug population, there will be plenty to feast on all the rotten leaves, and enough left over to ravage your seedlings like a viking hoard.

Last year was awful for me. I replanted lettuce 3 times until I finally just ran out of seed. I didn't get ANY lettuce last year. Then when they had no more lettuce, they went after my newly sprouted bean plants. It was awful. I bought slug poison, it helped a lot. They also went for the beer, but, well, I have a hard time sharing one of my Banquet's with the slugs, so I didn't do a lot of beer trapping. Although in hindsight, I could have gotten a 6 pack of of of the cheap nasty stuff like Busch Light or PBR, but I doubt even slugs will drink that crap.

For the slug bait, I put it in a small pile and prop up a small, upside-down flower pot over it. First of all, the like cool dark places right? second, I really didn't want slug poison scattered throughout my garden for birds and things to pick up.

Good luck! And hopefully these hot, dry days reduce the amount of slug damage. I haven't noticed even 1/10th of what they did you me last year (flea beetles and aphids are my mortal enemies this year though).

Yep, it is rather doubtful that my efforts will lead to the extinction of the slug but I still would rather garden without killing critters. Sucks about your lettuce last year, Zach; that gets discouraging. For some reason - not that I am complaining - the slugs are only after my cucumbers and sunflowers this year and, though I didn't have the best germination percentage, I have managed to get some lettuce growing - late in the season but I have put up some shade cloth to give it a chance.

Something - no doubt a slug - got my last sunflower seedling Saturday night. I ended up getting Miracle Gro's version of Sluggo (it was cheaper,) Nature's Care Slug and Snail Control. Iron phosphate, like Sluggo, and for use in organic gardening. Scattered it around my 4 remaining cucumbers yesterday evening, and this morning they are still alive. Yay! No idea if the slug bait made a difference but I am hopeful. Two of the cucumbers are getting their first true leaves so they should be past the age when the slugs can give one chomp to destroy them! And one of the Homemade Pickles I replanted has finally germinated; no sign of the other cucumber cultivars, though.

I picked up some cucumber starts this weekend and will be planting them once they have hardened off a bit since my ability to grow from seeds seems to be compromised this year. I also planted more sunflower seeds, this time in some coir pots - I will wait until they are past their most vulnerable stage and then plant them in the garden. For some reason the seeds of my winter squash, Delicata, never germinated so I planted them in a pot too - may be too late for the squash to mature at this point, but it's worth a try. The other winter squash and the summer squash are looking good.

Hope everyone and everyone's gardens survive this heat! I start wilting myself once it is over 90°F.

Holly

Holly, I have read that using crushed up egg shells spread across the soil surrounding the plants can work to keep them away. I guess the sharp edges are unpleasant for them to crawl across and they tend to steer clear. Being as "sticky" as they are, I can imagine it would be an uncomfortable venture having all those shells sticking to them.. might be worth trying..

I had heard about using egg shells to repel slugs, but then I read this article and saw the photos of slugs happily crawling across egg shells to get to a leaf of lettuce: Eggshell Myth; Good idea or all cracked up According to the article, the slugs actually seem to be attracted to the eggshells because of the bits of membrane, etc., still attached to them, but in any case the egg shells didn't seem to bother them at all.

It would appear that using Sluggo or similar slug baits, plus good cultural practices, such as not watering in the evening and cleaning up garden debris, along with hand picking the darn things, are probably the most effective ways to control slugs. I keep hoping all of the garter snakes I see in my yard will come have a feast, too!

Holly

Very interesting! I would've made sure the shells were completely clear of membrane, which is easier said than done, I know, and ground the eggshells even more than they did and broadcast them out away from the plants so they have a sort of "gauntlet" to get through (those are some pretty big pieces and they're just piled up around the lettuce). I'm sure their experiment is sound enough, though. In the end, yeah, I think just hand picking them, along with the horn worms, is probably the most effective means of defense. :)

You know, you could be right that the egg shells for the linked experiment were not properly ground up. There are certainly a lot of sites - and a lot of posts - where crushed eggshells are recommended as a slug deterrent. It must work for someone, right?!?

There is certainly a lot of advice out there as to what is the best way to control/stop/kill slugs and snails. I suppose if I had time and enough plants to sacrifice, I would try out properly crushed eggshells vs copper wire/strips vs pine needles vs diametacteous earth vs ... etc., etc. etc., to find out for myself whether these methods are fact or fiction, based in reality or just another garden myth. Right now I am just hoping that the Miracle Gro slug control pellets work. :-D

Holly

I just learned last year not to direct sow lettuce. This year has been an incredible improvement... except for the gosh dang flea beetles. I use sevin, but there must be some curse because without fail, every time I spray it, it will rain within the next 24 hours. Aphids have been somewhat of a problem, but its easy to destroy an entire community of them between my thumb and forefinger. The beetles on the other hand are too fast, and they don't cluster nicely in a large clump like aphids. This year they have infested everything. Tomatoes, turnips, radishes, squash, beans. I need to find a way to kill them before they emerge from the soil, I'm just so sick of it.

Slugs! That's what we were talking about wasn't it? I think most of the "home remedies" are hokum. Pine needles is a new one I haven't heard, but I'd bet my bottom dollar that won't slow them down in the least. I get the concept with eggshells, but even ground to a finer consistency, it is unlikely to stop them. Their slime acts not only for transportation but also as a protective barrier for their soft underside. The copper MIGHT work, until it gets corroded or covered with dirt and other debris.

For me, reducing the population is about the only thing that makes sense. Having cooperative weather, hot and dry, is extremely helpful, too. Last year's "Seattle" spring and early summer was definitely a slugs paradise. Once it heated up and dried out, the slugs all but vanished.

I have noticed some flea beetle damage but nothing major - yet. You must be hoarding them down south, Zach! :-( Aphids are always around, it seems; they mostly hang out on my roses, though, haven't seen any on my veggies - yet, but then they do camouflage themselves rather well, don't they? I remember a couple of years ago finding them on my butterfly weed, Asclepias tuberosa. I didn't notice them at first because they were ORANGE, a perfect color match for the flower! I hadn't realized until then that aphids where related to chameleons. ;-)

The theory about slugs and pine needles is similar to that about egg shells, that the sharp needles are uncomfortable for the slugs so they will avoid crawling over them just as they would avoid crawling over the sharp edges of the egg shells. I don't see pine needles working at all - should be pretty easy for the slugs to avoid the pokey bits! And I don't see why copper would work, either; somehow it is supposed to deliver an electric charge to the slug. I read an article where someone said they thought maybe an 8 inch strip of pure copper might work, but that pennies and copper wire and the like were no deterrent. As you mentioned, Zach, the change in weather to hot and dry will do more to make the slugs "disappear" than anything we can do in our gardens!

I currently have 11 surviving cucumber seedlings, unfortunately almost all of them are of the Homemade Pickles cultivar. Obviously I will have to do some thinning, but without knowing what might make it, I am reluctant to take that step as yet! And, I may be dealing with something besides slugs. This happened during the day, all was well when checked earlier in the morning, but at my next break (yes, I hover over my garden and do weeding, etc., during my breaks from work) I found one of the larger seedlings - had its first true leaves on it - had been destroyed, the leaves just chopped off of it and lying there, and the another seedling with one of its first true leaves also chopped off and lying there. Huh? Not eaten, just damaged. A bird? Who knows but I think I may have to have a cleansing ceremony chanted over this particular bed at the end of this season as it seems to be cursed! lol

Holly

I think I'm hoarding enough flea beetles for all of the metro area! At least enough for the whole county...

It has been plenty hot and dry around here. We get some rain, but it doesn't amount to more than just dampening the top of the dirt, even when it seems like we get a solid amount. I think there are still some slugs around, some of my beans have just sprouted and they have some damage. Not enough for me to get too upset about it. Certainly won't be putting out the poison, often I wonder if that doesn't simply attract even more of them. If the problem is overwhelming already I use it, but a few chomps here and there doesn't warrant me inviting EVERY slug in the neighborhood to my garden where they "pre game" or get distracted by my veggies as they make their way to the poison.

Aphids I mostly notice when there is a chunk of the plant that looks like a gnarled, arthritic witch's hand, a closer inspection usually reveals the colony of sap sucking beasts. they either get smooshed or I remove the whole chunk of the plant.

I wouldn't say having only home made pickles is a bad thing, I love those cukes. I planted those this year and another variety. The other variety, only one seed germinated. HMP always preforms well for me and seems to be ever so slightly resistant to powder mildew. When I grew it next to "bushy" a couple years ago, the HMP went a couple weeks longer before the PM started to show up. No idea what could have picked the leaf off yours. Birds USUALLY leave the plants alone except when they first start breaking through the soil I think they mistake them for worms.

I have no idea if broken eggshells have any effect on slugs or not, but I do have a quick comment about them! Eggshells, not slugs! My comments about slugs would get me banned!

When I first started my compost pile 10+ years ago, I saw some recommendations about adding crushed eggshells to it--so I decided to do it! After a couple years I discovered that eggshells never decompose--at least mine hadn't in those two years, and whenever I was digging in the compost pile with my hands, or in the soil where I had used some of the compost with eggshells in it, the undecomposed shell pieces were SHARP. My hands were getting all dinged up! It was really nasty, and that's when I stopped putting the shells on the pile! So you might just want to consider that if you're thinking about trying it. Eventually they'd get mixed into your soil, and if you'll be digging in the soil with bare hands at some point in the future, just be aware that you could be cutting up your hands.

Skybird

P.S. This is the first year, ever, when my columbine weren't covered with aphids! Haven't seen them on anything--yet, this year! Knock on wood!!! Have no idea why!

Glad to hear that my "most likely to germinate" Homemade Pickle cucumbers are a winner, Zach; hope I get to try out the cucumbers for myself this year. I only used the word "unfortunately" because I was hoping for more cultivars; looks as if I might be getting my wish....even the Lemon Cucumbers have germinated - this was the second planting, none of the seeds germinated at all last time.

Continuing with an off topic discussion, lol - Do you use the HMP cucumbers for pickling or just for munching, or both? Haven't done any "real" pickling before but wanted to give it a try this year. I love Kosher Dills, though I also really like Bread & Butter Pickles, on the opposite end of the spectrum. Oh, and when I was despairing about my poor eaten seedlings, I bought some cucumber starts, including Boston Pickles. Not sure where I am going to plant the starts I bought now since all of the other cucumber seeds have now decided to germinate, lol. I am sort of out of room and don't really NEED this many cucumber plants, but given their survival rate in my garden I guess having an excess number of attempts is a good thing!

@Skybird - I do put some eggshells in my compost but not too many - do we really need more calcium here with our already alkaline soil? And, after reading more about it, I may cease to add them all together, as you have, not because they cut my hands - somehow I have avoided that - but because it would appear that they really don't decompose and, at least according to this article from the Garden Myths site, they don't even attempt to decompose or do a thing for the soil when the PH is higher than 6.8! Eggshells – Do They Decompose In The Garden? The writer of this article ends it with this:

"Where Do Eggshells Go?

If eggshells do not dissolve and they don’t decompose, where do they go? Gardeners have been adding them to soil for years and you don’t find huge piles of eggshells in their garden.

Is it possible that the microbes in soil decompose eggshells? Possible, but I could not find any reference that discussed this issue.

It is my belief that eggshells simply break up into smaller and smaller pieces while people work the soil, until you don’t see them. You think they are decomposed, but they are still there in small pieces. Pieces that are much larger than finely ground.

This conclusion is my belief, and is not proven in any way. What to do?? I know – it’s time for an experiment, which I will discuss in my next post."

Holly

The calcium/lime issue was something else I thought about when I stopped putting them on the compost pile, OakIris! Even if you were to pulverize them small enough to not wind up with "chucks" of shells in your compost/soil, it didn't make any sense to me to be adding more alkalinity to the soil. And even if they don't "decompose," I suspect the lime does "leach" out of the shells into the soil--to some extent at least. When I quit using them I just couldn't find any good reason at all to keep putting them on the compost pile, eventually to wind up in the soil.

Where did mine go? Luckily I never had that many of them in the compost to start with, so they only made it into the soil in a few places, and when I get into areas now where I have the really heavy Potter's Clay, I tend to dig it out and put it in the dumpster (after rescuing all the earthworms out of it first!), so I suspect the areas where it got mixed into the soil the first few years after I moved in here have since been dug up again and probably wound up in the trash! There may be a few of the "original" plants that have some in the soil around them where I haven't dug since they were put in, but I don't think I'll find many pieces of eggshells out there anymore! And, good riddance, as far as I'm concerned.

Skybird