Slugs and ways to get rid of them.

[Joakim B]

Dear all
It was a horrible slug Year in Sweden this Year and it was even in the parlament on how to treat the problem.
From what I can see the problem is much less in Portugal than in Sweden even though the slugs come from there and I have never seen 10 crawling around to cross a sidewalk in Portugal but very often seen 100s in Sweden. I think that the problem in Sweden is that it is wet and the slugs like it. I have also noticed that the lawns is not mowed by the city and is supposed to be a medow or something but is just a breeding and resting ground for slugs. The high grass will almost never dry completely in Sweden so the slugs have a easy life. In Portugal it is much drier and the slugs have a tougher life.

Here is the question have people seen any worse effect by having tall grass around? 
If they spend there days outside our garden and comes in to eat at night it is a bit harder to get rid of them by picking them, compared to if they just were in the garden and were not mobile to the very high degree they are.

Have any one tried to use needles from pines or even shorter needles etc to have drier surface area around the plants and thus protect the plants? It might even be a slight mechanical protection that the slugs might not like the texture?
I have not systematically tested it but as an alternative to wood clippings it should give less shelter for the slugs I believe. Does anyone know?!

Hope to hear alternative to get rid of them or protect the plants.

Kind regards
Joakim

[Len Rhind]

I am not of the opinion that anything will deter slugs and my solution is to cut them in half. My tip, however, is that since slugs are omnivorous, if the cut up slugs are collected together then the bodies will attract others who come in for a feast. This makes it easier for you to then dispose of the feasters too. I really believe that they can "smell" the dead ones as I always find many coming for them all at once. Gruesome but effective.
Len

[Paul T]

Len,

I find that snails are the same way.  Actually, the biggest attractant I've found it to pull a few weeds and leave them in a pile somewhere.  If you come out after dark the snails and slugs are there munching away on the decaying weeds.  I've just ended up using the snail baits here now, as they're so bad on the rare times it rains (although thankfully that has been more often of late).  They are doing so much damage here at the moment as I think that everyone else's have moved to my place because I keep my garden going. <sigh>

[Gene Mirro]

Freshly chipped Douglas Fir bark dust seems to deter them.  It is full of little splinters, and is uncomfortable to handle.  Maybe it feels the same way to the slugs.

I have often toyed with the notion of getting some crushed glass, like sand with sharp edges, and sprinkling it around the garden.  I don't think they would like that.

In the meantime, I annihilate them with Metaldehyde bait.

[Joakim B]

Thanks for the replies and input.

Len when I see them I make two out of one just like You and I sometimes use them as bait since they are great at that but if it was a big one it gets a bit messy so I do not always use them as bait.

Paul we used to have only snails and now we have slugs that is a factor 1000 worse 
Hope You never get them!

Gene in Sweden there is/was a fine crushed stone that was supposed to be non slug friendly due to it being sharp on the slug level. For us it was just fine "sand". I believe that that worked even though I did not try it myself. Interesting to see that the small (dust) Douglas Fir barked worked and I presume it is the same principle.

"Normal" needles are much bigger and are not sharp on the slug level unless the needle is a rugged one. I have not seen a big picture of a needle so I do not know if they are sharp on the slug level.
I hoped it would make a dry area that the slugs choose to avoid to go elsewhere where the damage might be less horrible.

 

Now an other question does anyone have pine needles as top dressing around there plants?
If so have they seen these plants being attacked?    If not the type of plant that normally gets attacked maybe there is no attack here either. I was thinking on Rhododendrons that might get needles as top dressing but are normally not attacked by slugs so it is maybe not the needles that does the trick.
For example Cypripedium acuale often gets/has needles as top dressing.

Have anyone seen slugs amongst pine needles? 

Sorry for the many questions but I want to no if this have a chance to work before doing field attempts.

Kind regards
Joakim

[Paul T]

Joakim,

We get slugs too, but the snails are much worse here.  Our slugs are mostly small ones, but they're quick little blighters.  They can be up a plant and halfway through eating the tip while you've got your back turned!! 

[Maggi Young]

We have found that slugs and snails will cross all sorts of supposedly dangerous/uncomfortable/poisonous barriers to get to our most precious plants.....some of the slimy little horrors seem to be impervious to anything we put in their way... slicing in half ( we use titanium bladed scissors...just cannot remember where we sourced these scissors in the first place  ..... the slime does not gum them up) is the best way, unpleasant though it may be  

[Joakim B]

Paul
The slugs do not climb a plant the just cut it off  and then eat the top so they actually kill a lot of plants.

Maggi I t believe that if they really want to go somewhere they do but maybe a bit of less attractive walks may make them go to other plants. Titanium clippers I use anything I can in the garden, like stick, rock, stone or even a spade. The small ones can be crushed using a piece of old foliage as only protection.

Hope to hear that no one actually have seen them on top of needles. Maybe only wishfull thinking but It any one has seen them please let me know so that I do not put any plants in danger. I will use alternative measures.

Kind regards
Joakim

[Paul T]

Joakim,

Well our slugs behave just the way that snails do.  I've found them at the top of plants, just like snails.  One thing I've never worked out with our snails is why they seem to like climbing our brick walls when it is raining.  When we get soem reasonable rain they start heading up teh walls..... and this is under the eaves, so it isn't like the walls are wet or anything.  We find them right up at the eaves at times, and it isn't like they can find anything to eat up there!!    I guess we just have strange snails, that's all.  Probably just means that they match me!! 

[Joakim B]

Paul I have also seen snails clime the walls. So does that make me strange as well
Joakim

[Katherine J]

You have to keep some hedgehogs in the garden (and in the glasshouse too  ). They eat snails and slugs too.
A friend of mine says that sharp grit or sawdust is good for keepeng them away.

[Paul T]

Joakim,

I can only speak for myself and my snails, not yours!! 

Kathrine,

No hedgehogs here in Australia.  Somehow I am doubting that quarantine would let me bring any in, just to eat snails and slugs.  The other thing I know that eats them is ducks, but they make such a mess that I am thinking they're probably worse than the snails..... at least stepping in what they leave behind is pretty awful!!

[Katherine J]

but they make such a mess that I am thinking they're probably worse than the snails..... at least stepping in what they leave behind is pretty awful!!

Ok, I agree...

[SueG]

10 days ago I went to a talk on slugs - great fun - given by one of my University's academics, Gordon Port - whose specialisation is slugs.
So here is the bad news, none of the barrier methods, pine needles, gravel, eggshells etc will work, slugs can trundle their way over beds of nails if they really want to get to something to eat. Slugs have a very poor sense of smell, so they cannot smell slug pellets or the beer in beer traps, in experiments slugs were equally attracted to traps containing water and those containing beer - HOWEVER the beer traps did kill them while the water ones were much less effective.
Slugs can remember where there was good feeding and will return to the same place to chomp down on the rest of your lettuces, they usually feed between 1 and 3 times a night depending on temperature and moisture.
Completely unfairly slugs will grow when food is plentiful and can shrink and reabsorb their body tissue when it is not.
Slugs do not all grow at the same rate irrespective of their food supply.
Throwing them over the wall into the neighbours garden does not work they just come back
Slug pellets do not work on all slugs, some just appear to get the slug equivalent of tummy ache and go away for a couple of days then come bouncing back.
If a slug crosses another slime trail it knows what sex that slug is and in a majority of cases knows which way the slug was travelling and if it wants to mate will follow the trail at a faster pace to catch up with the other slug. At the moment the only way we have to sex a slug is to chop it up. Slugs change sex, I think they start male and end female but there are no external signals. In the UK slug species are no more related to each other than a slug is to a snail.
I was reading somewhere (a Jane Grigson cookery book I think) that in Bristol in south west England snails were known as wall fish and were eaten by the Bristol glass blowers as the mucus was though to ease their throats. Quite a few climb walls and the like, fence posts, telegraph poles.
The best ways to deter them are the copper impregnated mats you can buy or the copper tape - anything else is just not as effective and some ideas are positively dangerous to many other sorts of garden wildlife. Research has suggested that to have enough hedgehogs to keep the slugs down would mean you were overrun with hedgehogs
Finally the best way to get the mucus off your hands is apparently to wipe your hands on a student - failing that paper towels will do.
I've certainly seen slugs amongst pine needles - from this talk I suspect that when dry they do deter slugs but not when they are wet or there is moisture underneath then - and face it, who'd want to chew on leathery rhodo leaves Chopping them in half or stamping on them does seem to be the best way of getting rid of them, even if it is not very pleasant.
Sorry for such a lengthy (and rather depressing!) post. Perhaps we should form slug hit squads and travel round each others garden to get the slimy little rotters??
Sue

[Peter Korn, Sweden]

And slugs can definitely read labels. They always choose the most expencive or rare plant.
I had a visitor this summer and she had killed 32000 slugs in her small garden!!! and that was in July. In some areas in Sweden they are a very big problem.