Slugs are a snail without the shell. They rasp small holes in vegetables, fruits, and leaves of cabbage and greens.
There are several options to get rid of these pests. You can go out at night and pick them off with chop sticks or tongs. Then put them in bucket of salt water. If you are not that adventurous then set a trap. Here are some options for bait.
1. Make a cornmeal trap. Put a tablespoon or two of cornmeal in a jar and lay it on its side. The slugs will be attracted to the cornmeal, but the texture of the meal is too harsh and will kill them. Leave the jar out overnight and dispose of the slugs in the morning and rebait the trap.
2. Use a fruit trap. Slugs are naturally attracted to fruits. Place a board or jar on its side out near where the slugs have been eating your plants, and put half of an orange or a few slices of cabbage (slug's favorite) or a sliced potato in the center. Leave the board or jar out overnight, and in the morning the slugs should be feasting on the food you left on the board. Dispose of the slugs.
3. Try a honey and yeast trap. This is the same concept as the beer trap which slugs love. Slugs are highly attracted to the combination of honey and yeast. Boil a cup of water with equal parts of honey and yeast and then allow the mixture to cool. Dig a hole in your garden near where the slugs are and bury a plastic sour cream or yogurt container up to the rim. Fill the container about an inch from the top. In the morning you should have drowned slugs.
They also have natural predators of birds, toads, and ground beetles.
Purchased Deterrents
1. Diatomaceous earth. This is often used to ward off various pests. It is made from crushed up fossilized sea shells. Follow the directions on the product. Pour the sharp dust around your garden beds. Keep in mind that this will only work when dry, and must be replaced if gotten wet. This is not my recommended option because it is harmful if inhaled into your lungs. But if you already have this then use it.
A better option in my opinion is iron phosphate pellets.
2. Use iron phosphate pellets. These small slug-killing pellets can be found in garden centers; the slugs are attracted to them, but once consumed they will cause death within a week.
You can sprinkle these around your garden. These also get rid of sowbugs and pillbugs. I used this in my strawberry beds for roly polys which where helping themselves to my berries. I may have had some slugs in there also. Less than a week and no problems.
Why participate in Green Thumb Thursday? Each of our eight hosts picks her own post to feature - that means you have eight chances to be featured. If that's not enough reason to share your links, hosts pin all submitted links to the Green Thumb Thursday Pinterest board and share across all social media. This is a great way for your quality work to be seen by many.
Visit our hosts and see if you've been featured this week:
The 104 Homestead
Cottage Making Mommy
Feathers in the Woods
Grow a Good Life
Homestead Lady
Imperfectly Happy
Seven Springs Homestead
Homestead Bloggers Network
The 104 Homestead
Cottage Making Mommy
Feathers in the Woods
Grow a Good Life
Homestead Lady
Imperfectly Happy
Seven Springs Homestead
Homestead Bloggers Network
Every good hop needs a few rules. Ours are nice and simple:
- Submit up to 3 of your original posts having anything to do with gardening - dirt, plants, trees, children, chickens, homemade recipes from your harvest. If it comes from your garden, we want to see it.
- Link back here to the hop in your post or put the Green Thumb Thursday button in your sidebar. The button is available on any of the hosts' sites.
- Be sure to visit as many other submitted posts as you can and comment, share and/or pin to spread the garden wisdom.
- Click submit, put the title of the post in the "Name" and link directly to the post URL, not your homepage.
The collection has closed. Let other people know about it through twitter.
No comments:
Post a Comment