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Controlling Slugs in Your Garden
You might keep that in mind the next time you go out to the garden looking for a light lunch.
Hermaphrodites
You might also be interested in knowing that this pest doesn't come in the basic male and female pattern commonly found in nature. They are hermaphrodites, having both female and male sexual organs so they don't need a mate to lay their egg masses of up to 100 eggs. (Sounds boring to me but then I'm not a slug.)
These large eggs, often 1/4 inch long, are white and stay around until moisture causes them to hatch.
Moisture
Moisture is the key to their survival, they avoid the sun by spending their days happily hiding in cool, damp, dark places such as under the mulch layer, under boards, rocks and even burrowing deeper into the soil. However, once night begins, so does their predatory wanderings.
Interesting Locomotion
They move by secreting a mucous layer and then glide over this trail; this by the way is the number one clue to their existence on your plant. This dried up trail of mucous can be seen if the eaten leaf is closely examined.
Controlling Slugs
The easiest way to control them is to remove all old boards, bricks, garden clippings etc. from the garden to remove their hiding places. If you mulch your garden, use a mulch that they do not like such as shredded bark, or crushed rock. Thin out ground covers such as ivy (if the winter hasn't done that for you) because they simply adore ivy ground covers.
If predators are encouraged, the population will be largely controlled naturally. Snakes, toads, frogs, birds, beetles, and fireflies all munch down these pests quite happily so if you encourage their presence, you'll reduce both your population and problem. A bit of water in the backyard for frogs, providing hiding places for toads, (clay flower pots turned on their side and half buried are perfect homes for toads) and reducing the indiscriminate use of pesticides (ensuring more predatory beetles survive to eat slugs) are all simple garden practices that will reduce populations.
Humans are the number one predator of slugs though and once again, the hand of the gardener is the most effective control agent. Rototill the garden, doing this physically kills them as well as reducing their hiding places to dust. Lay decoy trap boards out in the garden and lift them up every morning; kill them as well as the snails you find under the board. Handpick them off your plants on a warm, humid night. If you are a bit squeamish about hand-picking, you might try taping an old fork to a stick and using this to knock the slugs into a pail of soapy water. Just don't use one of the good company-forks. I'm told a shop vac also works well for sucking slugs up although I havent tried it.
Beer Anyone?
A bowl of beer buried to the lip in the soil is an oft recommended control practice. Apparently they are attracted to the fermenting yeast smell. So this tells me you could use yeast as well as beer. I've heard mixed reports from this, saying that the dog drank the beer, leaving a happy dog but frustrated slugs and at the other extreme - having lots of very happy molluscs. Its a lot of work to keep the beer in and the rain out and still collect the happily-drowned bodies. It just seems like a waste of good beer to me.
Slug Barriers
Barriers work well. Wood ashes, diatomaceous earth, cedar bark, cinders and continuous copper strips can be effective barriers to slug travel. Copper barriers apparently interact with the slug to produce a mild electrical shock. Bury a 6" wide copper screen or strip four inches into the ground leaving two inches protruding above ground for best results. Make sure there are no vegetation bridges over the barrier that the slugs can use to circumvent your copper moat. If they are already inside the barrier, they'll be unable to get out so you'll have to continue your control methods to eliminate these prisoners.
Ashes and diatomaceous earth are only effective when they are dry. I've also heard some gardeners use salt on the slugs. While this may not make them taste better, it does kill them; however, repeated applications of salt will poison your garden soil.
Organic baits are also available and these are extremely effective.
If you are bothered by slugs and snails, the least toxic methods do work. You may have to combine several different methods to achieve good, consistent control but like all things in the garden there are balances. If you want lightning bugs, you have to have the 40 slugs a night they eat; if you want toads and frogs to cheer your summer evening, they too must be fed. If living with a bit of plant damage is necessary to keep our other garden friends happy, well so be it.
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