Animal Friendly Slug Repellant?

[mamattorney]

Hello everyone!

I posted a couple of months ago about planting my first hosta bed and you were all so helpful. My Hallson's hostas are growing beautifully, two of them are already producing flower buds which I didn't think would happen this first year. I'm thrilled.

Anyway, I believe I have an infestation of slugs. I have not seen any actual slugs, but I have seen the damage to the leaves and some shiny nastiness on the ground that I presume is their trail. I'd like to do something about the slugs, but I want to see if there is an available non-toxic option because we have a dog that can go right up to the hostas and who has been known to eat many, many things, both edible and completely inedible.

I've read that used coffee grounds can be used as a deterrent. I'm a coffee drinker, so these are easy to come by. Do they work? If not, any other suggestions? thanks!

[ogrefcf]

Some suggest a ammonia mix in a 9:1 ratio with water. Ammonia also gives nitrogen to the plants. Mix it in a spray pumper and spray weekly. I used it early in the year when it was real wet and the slugs were small and all over. I switched to poison when it dried out and my plants were bigger.

[Noreaster]

I use the diluted ammonia spray, but note that you have to make direct contact with the slugs....it's not a preventative thing. So that means going out and hunting them during their most active times- at night or during a rainy day.

There are slug baits containing iron phosphate that are supposed to be safe for use around pets...Sluggo is one brand name. I personally have had zero luck with Sluggo in my gardens, but I know others use it. A woman I know could buy it in big containers from the manufacturer and she would apply it as a thick mulch around her plants- she too had plenty of slug damage, even with all that Sluggo

[ViolaAnn]

I use ammonia, but 1:10 and later in the summer more like 1:15. Dump it at the base of the plant where the slugs hide.

[mamattorney]

Thanks so much. I keep ammonia in the house too, so I'll give that a try. I'm sure that the pesticides work much better than non-toxic alternatives, but I can't risk it. 'The plants aren't too eaten up, but I'd like to keep them that way.

[ViolaAnn]

Should say that I get ammonia in bottles that are something like 1.89 litres. I put three of them in a large old Rubbermaid garbage pail and basically fill it up. Works out very close to 1:10, but you'd want to check the size of YOUR garbage pail. Then I bail buckets full from the large can and cart it around the garden. I had to fill it up twice (6 bottles of ammonia) to do the whole garden.

[Noreaster]

That's what I've been doing, Ann. Only I'm using the rubbermaid tub mostly to fill my spray bottles- make it more convenient to not have to mix small batches every time. I tried doing some drenching recently in heavily infested spots but found I didn't have the heart for that when a lot of worms came out writhing.

[sugar]

I put on a head torch every other night and go out with an old pair of (pruning) scissors and cut every slug in two .

[thy]

Noreaster, you just gave a perfect description on how you are NOT suposed to use Slugo.

Slugo works great. Best results given if you start even before you think you have slugs in the spring and remember to give the last time when it is late fall or early winther.

here is how you can use it with succes and that way it is safe for dogs.

Put a tablespoon in your hand, then with your finger tips take 3 or 4 grain, trow them out, walk 2 or 3 steps, take 3 or4 grains, trow them to the other side... comtinue. Repeat after one or 2 days the first time, then after a week. when they are under controle, then sping, one time summer and fall.

If you give a lot of Slugos at one time it is exactly the same as telling: Free barbecue on the main street - they will come from all ower

I always spread them out in the garden in the evening and have never seen one on the surface in the daytime. may be due to dew, but look at the soil before you let the dog out A dog eating a few are not a problem.

Pia

[Bob Scott]

BEER! I don't drink the stuff but a shallow pan full in your hosta bed will be full of slugs the next morning if you have a lot of them. They are attracted to the yeast/hops/whatever and crawl in and drown. Toss out the old and refill!
When I use the poison I just put it under flat stones, rain gutter deflectors on the ground, etc. Places the dogs can't get to it.

[Noreaster]

I'm always afraid my dogs will find and eat a poisoned slug if I use the metaldehyde bait. I have small dogs and just don't want to risk having it around.

The other reason Sluggo does not work in my particular garden is that the chipmunks eat all of it as fast as I can put it down. This year I have been trying some Sluggo Plus covered with black wire baskets so the chipmunks cant get it.

[Noreaster]

If you give a lot of Slugos at one time it is exactly the same as telling: Free barbecue on the main street - they will come from all ower


Pia

Perhaps, but my garden came complete with millions of slugs before I started....and even if you attract more by using a lot of bait, what does it matter if you have enough Sluggo down to feed everyone at the barbecue? In the case of the woman I know who mounted it around her hosta- why would the slugs or snails crawl right over that mountain of Sluggo to get to her hosta if Sluggo was so appealing to them? I didnt use it anywhere as liberally as that, and I still witnessed them bypassing the pellets in favor of plants. Just my experience with it!

[jerryshenk]

If you want to try the coffee grounds idea, you can get LOTS of it at Starbucks. Most stores have a tub or something near the door or cash register. They put bags of used coffe grounds in it. Last week, I hit three stores - got a half-wheelbarrow at two and none at the third one. It varies a LOT how much you get. When you get home, take them out of the trunk - if you leave them there, your car will start to smell like old coffee;( I dump the bags all out into the wheelbarrow and if it's a wet batch, leave it sit in the sun to dry a little. I use a garden rake to work through it to break up the "Espresso plugs". Then I spread it around with a shovel.

I'm not sure about slugs yet - but, we had problems with something eating impatiens...that seems to be solved. We don't have too much of a slug problem, some evidence but not a lot.

[ogrefcf]

I was corrected on Vinegar by Chris, don't use it! Sorry for the miss information.

[thy]

what does it matter if you have enough Sluggo down to feed everyone at the barbecue?

They have a good time with some sex and lay eggs

Honestly I do not know your slugs and snails.
Here we have basement/ house slugs and wood/ forest slugs and then we got the Iberian slug/ killer slug. Problem withj the last one is it multiply very fast and have no enemies here. It is told to totally eat a garden or a field, but I have never seen it that bad.
People yell, they can not kill them and claim they have tried everything.

As you may have read, I moved to a new house. You chose your house, but not your neighbours and the ones agross the street had an issue with me... I do not know what it is Last summer I got 1/4 bucket full of Iberian slugs held out in my garden 2 times when I was not at home. No they were not just arrived by them self- they were different age and they act canibalistic, so that is not an option. I have a wood patio , great hide for slugs in the day time. I used Slugo every dry evening and at the same time I went out at dusk with some kitchen salt, every slug I saw got salt. but they hide under my plant too. I have found one this year, sure killed it, just by stepping on it, but fact is, it is ower.

Snails onn the other hand, Slugo is not that effective, I have snails, but my snails are around a half inch and they do not harm my hostas even they feed for a week... tested several times. Some have the huge snails you can eat ... do they taste good and claim they can eat a hosta in no time, I do not know. If I found one I would bring it out in the woods

There are several posts here from Bill Meyer about metaldehyde and slugs, may help you.

Pia

[morgansrgr8]

I think if I put beer out the chipmunks would have a party and not invite me. The little beasts are brazen enough.

[boops]

[mamattorney]

I just wanted to follow up. I did not have enough ammonia to try that solution right now, but happened to be early for an appointment and stopped in a Starbucks to get a coffee and wait. I guess I frequent the drive through too often because I didn't realize that when you said that they would have a bin in the front, that you meant a full on display. I was picturing a garbage can, not a nice bucket with the grounds neatly packaged with fancy stickers and everything. How nice!

I had been slowly putting my own grounds around plants as I could obtain them, and then worked from the other end of the garden with the Starbucks grounds. I have to say that the Starbucks grounds seem to be working well, but my own grounds don't seem to be working at all - there are little slimy trails right over them. But the Starbucks trails are dry and free from slime. Interesting, to say the least! I'm going to pick up another bag at Starbucks and see if it really is the case or whether the slugs just like the plants on the north side of the garden better.

[Noreaster]

I tried the star bucks grounds one year, applied in a thick ring. It seemed to work, until the first heavy rain, which soaked enough of it into the soil so that the slugs did not mind crossing it at that point.

Pia, I do believe the type of slugs or snails one has in the garden matters....I am convinced not one thing works for all of them....after all, why would the snails I have stick only to the dalylily foliage and ignore the hosta? Clearly, they have different tastes. I have tried beer traps and had no luck with that, either, yet it is widely recommended, so I know it works for some- just not in my garden with my slugs!

As soon as I get some time, I am going to do a little science experiment in my garden.

[thy]

Yeps, When I got the second half bucket of killer slugs, they did eat a lot on the hosta they were left by, and then here and ther. What they really loved was the flowerbuds on some hostas it looked weird with up to ten fat slugs on the flower ... hey I have to remeber the right word for that, stalk, steem.. okay the flower branch .. one night I dropped salt on at least 30 of them up in the air.
In my former garden, I found the holes on my lingularia, long before they looked after a hosta.
Bill Meyer have talked a lot about metaldehyde, I have said it had to be rather poisoned, due to the ban here in the Eu, but last week I saw it in a German Do it yourself shop, big new shop / big chain - so it might be out of the ban for now then I would make a cover for dogs if I used it.

Please, tell us what you figure out or just think off
Pia