Oh! I'd like to hear what people have to say. I found a snail in my tomato plant yesterday while I was replanting it into a bigger pot. Also I have aphids on my brugs, which I've made a thread about....sheesh...darn these pests!

Hope we can get some help!

Ashley

I use OSH (orchard supply hardware) brand pellets & they work good for me, but I think are are not safe around your pets (if they eat the pellets). I have been told by friends that sluggo works great but is expensive. Beer in a bowl will get them drunk & drown them, I tried this a few years ago & it worked a little but was the most expensive. Copper tape works too, wrap it around the pot of base of the plant & the snails will not go past as long as you cover it good. I kill most by smashing them early in the morning.

I use Sluggo. It works pretty well. If you have a cantaloupe you can take the empty rind and turn it upside down and in the morning you will have a lot of snails and slugs. Also beer bait works. I don't use beer in my fertilizer because it seems to lure the snails to my plants.

Karyn,where do you buy DE from? Is it safe to use on veggi?

You can get it at a nursery or even some of the big box stores carry it. Just make sure it's horticultural grade and not for sand pool filters. It's safe for all plants and is non toxic. It kills by mechanical action (cutting), not chemical.

Figara,
Yes the FOOD GRADE can be used on the garden. You are unaware but you and all of us eat some every day. It is used in the large grain storage bins to keep out/kill the bugs that may get in. The grain does not have to be washed before being processed into flour.
pa

That's interesting PA. Ya' learn something new every day : )

If you have the time, visit your garden early morning & evening with a nice big salt shaker, they melt when the salt hits them! Gross but does the trick!
kasha77

Thank you everybody. I'll try DE and will see.

The problem with the salt, besides being gross, is that you don't want all that salt getting into your soil. If you only have a few slugs it's no big deal but I'm over run with the slimy things.

I use ground-up egg shells around the Brugs the little 'sluggers' seem to like the best! Works pretty well - especially on 'Peanut' - slugs seem to LOVE her! :)

Mike

You can ring your garden with copper pipes and the slugs will not cross them. It takes a while to kill the ones already within that ring though. You can also go out after dusk with a flashlight and a spritz bottle of ammonia (1 part) and water (10 parts) (1" of ammonia and 10" of water) and spray the little darlings, they drop like flies and eviscerate. This ratio of ammonia to water of 1:10 is not at all harmful to your Brugs, even with repeated spraying. I used to also remove the yellowing leaves and build a small leaf pile at the garden edge near the deep grass. The snails and slugs migrated to that moisture/food and I could slay a dozen in one spot easily.
With the DE, use an old salad dressing bottle, clean it well and put the DE in it. Then dust the growing tips of your Brugs, this protects them from slugs, snails AND earwig damage.

I usually sprinkle a small amount of salt on the slug, it's not enough to cover the ground or anything like that, and it really does work, try it and see! And it's pretty inexpensive. I also cut branches of my Rosemary shrub into little pieces and ringed my brug plants- I figure that if I were a slug, I wouldn't want to cross that smelly, prickly barrier.
kasha77

On the inground ones a ring of epsom salt works well and after it gets watered in the brugs benefit from it but you can't use it too often. I do in about once a month. Don't put it right up against the stem though. I also use snail pellets when they are out in full force but its not safe for dogs if they eat it. There is one they sell at Home Depot that says safe for use around pets. I smash them day and night and they are still everywhere in my yard.

I have a new secret weapon this year. Chickens!!! They don't bother the plants or the garden but eat all the bugs they can find. On the downside they will eat my lizards and treefrogs too but they are usually too fast for the chickens. They scratch alot around the plants but don't really bother the plants or veggies in the garden. They also leave a little fertilizer as they go...its all good :P

Those suckers survived the entire island being under salt water!
I throw them in the street, step on them, use de, the snail bait in the blue container cause it won't hurt the dog or the wildlif-the other stuff the dogs will eat as much as they can find and it will kill them, throw them in buckets of water.
We found a snail on the cable box in the bedroom upstairs!!!!
Tally Ho!

I Use Liquid Sevin consecrate 3 ounces to a two
gallon pail. Spray entire plant and
before you finish spraying the plant
you can see all the critters/slugs/snails
worms jumping and falling off the plant instantly.
Chocolate Brug

OOOOh instant gratification. I like it! Will go to wal mart tomorrow, lol.

I am new to Brug's this year, but am quickly discovering the slug
problem. Today I just put some systemic insect control granules
on all the Brug's, since I already had it in the garage. You can't
use it on veggies or fruits, but it's ok for the Brug's since you can't
eat them anyway. I have also noticed on quite a few plant the
leaves are curling, deformed looking. Hoping this systemic insect
control will help it. I am still trying to figure out what it is, so I
can do something about it.

A few weeks ago I tried an experiment with DE and put about 2 dozen snails in the center of a thick ring of the stuff. They raced right out, with no apparent damage. I didn't follow them up to see if they eventually died, but they certainly didn't slow down at all.

I mostly use Sluggo, but I've been using Deadline lately, which contains metaldehyde. If you have kids or pets around you definitely DON'T want to use metaldehyde, which is the conventional poison. Apparently many thousands of pets a year are poisoned by it and many die.

However, recently even Deadline failed me. I had recently put a few things on Ebay (reversing my original inclinations) and a snail attacked a tiny plant in the middle of an auction. Luckily the buyer doesn't think the damage is unacceptable. Strangely, the snail damage made me look at the plant carefully and I noticed that it appears to have Y'd--it's just a couple inches tall.

I've found that once a snail/slug has had a taste it goes back for more. If it's a small plant it's probably best to move it.

Yep, my shredded white is one of my favorites for fast growing and most blooming and they are eating it as fast as it emerges from the ground. About to get desperate, lol.

The other night I tried my everything spray Windex and it killed the slugs (contact only no residual).

I think with the DE it is supposed to scratch the exoskeleton of certain kinds of bugs and they the dehydrate and die. It isn't a quick death like other chemicals.
I remember an old thread on here maybe 4 or 5 yrs ago that some people used something like ammonia in a spray bottle and squirted the slugs...went out at night with thier flashlights.

In the morning I went out in the garden and the pathway between two flower bads was full of snails passing from one side to another. I killed like 70 or so. After 50 I stop counting.
{{gwi:479479}}
Inspired by Randy's experiment with DE I did the same and went a bit further. I made a ring of DE and put a few snails in the middle. After they passed it with no problem I took them and put all of them with some leaves in a cup and I cover the cup with a piece of wood leaving a small opening for air. I wanted to see if they die from DE not from starving and lack of oxygen. They eat some of the leaves and are pilled up at the top of the cup. I checked them every day and give them fresh leaves. After 3 days they are still alive. I guess the DE is not working with my snails.

pat

Good experimant!
Pat, did you ever try the Ammonia water- spray on? You can do the same experiment and see if it works for you. A strong solution- but the brugs don't seem to mind, it's nitrogen- it is:
1 cup plain ammonia- no soap ammonia
10 cups water.
Washes off with any rain or sprinklers, tho.
For the rest of your garden, the solution strength is 1 cup ammonia to 15 or 20 cups of water.
Let us know how that works.
Time for me to get out the bacteria for the worms- they have arrived!~
Brenda

Snails:

They love brush. Clear out any debris you have around the garden. Take a board, prop it on four rocks, leave overnight. If you are in a hot area, wet the board first. This creates a nice damp area under the board. The next morning they should be congregated under the board. Step on them, feed them to chickens, etc.

If you go out with a flashlight at night and shine the light under leaves you will be able to see them and pick them off plants.

The more diligent you are (hunting the little SOB's every night, etc) the more rapidly the population will diminish. They have a LOT of eggs and live a long time, so if you can eradicate the egg laying adults the population will go down quickly.

After a week the snails are still alive. I even dumped more DE on them a few days ago and nothing happened
{{gwi:479480}} {{gwi:479481}} {{gwi:479482}}
Conclusion: DE is not working

Brenda, I did an experiment with ammonia too and I think it's working but the snails had to be sprayed a few times to die.
An hour later after the first spray they left behind a green slime and off they went. Is like they clean themselves. {{gwi:479483}} {{gwi:479484}}
I had to spray them 2 more times for them to die.

I also spray ammonia in a circle and put 2 snails in the middle to see if they cross it and if will have any effect on them. One of them cross the ammonia ring without problem and I did not see any harm.
{{gwi:479486}} {{gwi:479487}}

Pat

I still use stale beer, to control slugs and snails. It has always worked for me. I put a bowl of old stale beer outside before I go to bed, when I wake up, it is full of drowned drunk slugs and snails. I have been doing this for 40 years and it works for me. For pill bugs, you just put out a empty jar in the dirt, only exposing the lip, then inside put a piece of apple, and they will fall inside and cannot get out. I got this tip from Bob Webster, and it works too. Barbra

Wow Pat, you really experimented a bit. I have used the beer to drown them, step on them or throw them out to the street hoping the cars going by will smash them. Of course, I only handle the snails, and not the slugs, lol!

Gonna try the shallow pit with a damp leftover piece of wood on top... seems like you’ll find many of the ones eating from the garden after about 3 days, according to the farmers almanac. The almanac also referenced the Old Farmers Almanac which also suggested using hardwood ash to deter slug and snails, as well as mulched oak leaf.

good luck slug hunting!