The evil little monster you see above has returned with a vengeance to my garden yet again. It has been a very wet first week of spring here in Northwest Oregon and my number one garden menace is in its element with the perennials that are cautiously emerging. Note my poor daylily and it’s chewed on leaves.
Normally I patrol the garden with a bottle of iron phosphate in hand, liberally shaking it in and around our gardens. Iron phosphate is an organic way of controlling slugs and snails and is safe to use around pets and children. It works by the slug (or snail) ingesting it which causes the slug to stop feeding and in return die. Not very humane but neither is the ole salt trick that my 10 year old always encourages me to do. Nor was the way I handled all the millions of snails I dealt with in our California garden. They were taken care of by me simply tossing them into the street!
The slugs I must deal with up here seem to number in the billions! I am quickly finding out that my normal sprinkling of iron phosphate is adding up fast when it comes to hurting the wallet. However, I know of two other organic methods of slug and snail control that I have been wondering if I should try out.
The first method involves saving egg shells that have been washed and dried and are then crushed into a powder. You then sprinkle the powder around your plants that are being nibbled on. The slugs and snails will supposedly not cross the powdered egg shells.
The second method has to do with the leftover coffee sitting in your pot that has grown too strong to drink. Instead of dumping that coffee down the drain you can spray it onto the slug which is supposed to repel the slimy little pest. Some people claim that sprinkling coffee grounds around the plants also help in repelling them but some studies I have read state that it is the actual brewed coffee that is suppose to do the trick.
Both methods are worth trying and seem a lot cheaper than repeatedly having to go out and buy the container of iron phosphate. I also like how both the egg shells and coffee grounds have an added bonus of boosting the soil’s fertility and organic matter. If they also help rid my garden of those slimy buggers than they are all the better in my book!
Does anyone else know of anymore organic tips for ridding the garden of slugs and snails?
{ 21 comments… read them below or add one }
an empty tuna can with beer in it will do the trick
EG
Yes, they are back! I tried egg shells, beer, pennies, etc. I think each of these methods helps a bit, but they still come back. Once in a while, at night or early in the morning, I go to the garden and pick them up and put them in a bucket with some bleach or sault. My neighbor doesn’t even carry a bucket, she uses her scissors. Ít sounds cruel, but what to do?! Good luck!
Copper is supposed to repel them too – maybe around any raised beds or pots you have, or a circle around emerging slug-magnets like hostas and ligularia. The Maritime Garden Guide says the main keys are to “reduce slug habitat” (evergreen ground cover is something they like to hang out in, so put it far from your veggie garden), “put up barriers to slug migration” (they don’t like crossing dry soil or the aforementioned copper, has to be at least 3 inches wide; cultivating the soil in spring disturbs egg caches and slug trails, which they use to return to favorite feeding sites), and “trap slugs” (always fun, ew – the previous commenter mentioned beer traps; or they like to hide under boards, burlap or pretty much anything dark). Then you have to dispose of them! Not fun. I have done the street toss method but always wondered if they managed to return. If there are just too many for words, I dump them in the yard waste and let the city deal with them. Good luck, that’s no fun at all and I’m going to be in the same boat very soon when the rains really get going!
LOL! Slug Road Kill! As Karen mentioned copper is supposed to repel slugs. I have seen copper bands to place around plants, probably would work well for brassicas and other veggies, of course you could probably make your own too.
Heh, I was going to also suggest the beer in the tuna can trick.
The beer traps work, but the results are pretty nasty looking.
Thanks for the reminder! With all the rain we’ve been getting the past couple of weeks I better keep a look out for these varmints. They love the emerging Hosta Foliage!
I’ve been successful with broken bits of shells.
PS I just read about another method in a neat book, “Hortus Miscellaneous: A Gardener’s Hodgepodge of Information and Instruction” by fellow Seattle blogger Lorene Edwards Forkner. Never tried it but maybe you could be the guinea pig.
“Combine 1 1/2 cups non-sudsing ammonia and 1 1/2 cups water in a 1-quart spray bottle. Spray in areas where slug damage is evident early in the season. The solution will dissolve baby slugs on contact, while the ammonia will break down into a form of nitrogen and feed the plants – a win-win situation for all but the slug.”
Hope it was okay for me to quote that here. Lorene is great, her blog is called ‘Planted at Home’ and she’s a really knowledgeable garden pro.
Good luck!
We use the beer in a cup method. It seems to work, but unfortunately our dog likes to drink the beer before the slugs find it.
Thanks to everyone for their suggestions! I always forget about the beer in a tuna can trick- maybe it has something to do with the fact that IF we happen to have beer in the house it is some fancy schmancy microbrewery type beer that my husband would never let become slug bait! lol
Karen- I have never heard of the ammonia trick but I like the sounds of it. I like the fact that I can premake it and have it ready when it is needed. Thanks for passing it on- I think I might just have to give this one a try seeing that I have ammonia on hand (I use it in my yarn dyeing!).
Oh, and I found the link to Lorene’s blog for anyone that might want to check it out since I had to after Karen mentioned it.
I use regular slug bait but I’ve heard that diatomaceous earth–ground seashells–sprinkled around susceptible plants. I’ve found that after the rainy weather subsides in late June slugs aren’t much of a problem for the rest of the season. I think this time of year constant vigilance is required. Good luck.
I’ve heard that ducks (or is it geese) are fond of snails and slugs. I’ve used both beer and salt. But the hordes keep coming … (not where we live now, knock on wood).
Yes, I use the fresh brewed technique. Early in the morning or anytime this time of year, brew a pot of coffee, pour a big mug, grab the “slug” scissors and head outside. Some mornings I count. One time I cut over one hundred with in a six by twenty foot area without even looking for them.
Ducks work well, beer in pop or beer bottles sunk a little so they are diagonally on their sides with the opening at ground level works pretty well. Use the little dome slug bait holders even with the iron stuff, it makes it last longer.
Buy extra plants.
Oh the coffee? It is for me!
I’ve tried just about everything natural, coffee, crushed eggshells, beer (of all kinds and yeasty water with sugar), diatomaceous earth. None of them have worked all that well. The only thing that works for me is every couple of weeks to go out with scissors or a pointy stick and catch them after the sun goes down. I do it three days in a row and it lowers the population for a while. I leave them on the paths for the birds to eat in the morning. Last year I had toads in the garden. That wasn’t good enough to bring he population down either. I need to hunt them or my brassicas are stubble.
I have tried the beer and it works but is really gross if you don’t empty every day. Just needs to be in something low so they crawl in. Come join us on Bloomin’ Tuesday now that spring is ariving. Jean
We really don’t have too many slugs, just a few in the shade garden. I use the beer trap method, which works just OK.
I really feel for you. The rain is nice, but the slugs look like a nightmare.
That, plus the fact that we don’t really need that many eggshells in the compost pile. Sounds like a good use for the extras. I haven’t noticed many slugs here, but I’ve got plenty of other critters to worry about anyway.
I was just going to leave my “big guns” ammonia spray remedy but in reading through your comments I see that lovely Karen has already brought it to your attention – along with a plug for my book “Hortus”!!! I should mention that this solution, while quite very effective, does have it’s limitations. I too have been overwhelmed some years with the slimy critters and in a spate of overzealous blood thirst (slime thirst?) I have spent perhaps a little too much time pursuing the buggers only to nearly be overcome by the ammonia fumes around me. I do know that the more I am vigilant in the spring when the slug population is burgeoning exponentially the better I’m set for the rest of the season. It’s all in the balance of natural and nurture (I hear) Cheers, Lorene
I hope you get rid of those slippery slugs! your poor plants
I have also heard all of the above suggestions. I am hoping my geese will eat the slugs– instead of the earthworms they have been eating!!!! However, I need to be on snail patrol and might resort to some drastic tactics because I am fearful they will swallow these whole and the snails will lodge in their throats!