Return to the Northwestern Gardening Forum
| Post a Follow-Up
How many slugs/snails do I have to kill?
| | |
Posted by gramat 7B (My Page) on Sun, Jun 21, 09 at 14:10
| The rains came back after 3 weeks of beautiful sun. On my morning slug hunt, I dispatched nearly 300 slugs/snails in my little townhouse-sized yard (125' x 57' including footprint for unit and garage). And where did these snails come from--3 years ago, I never saw a snail in my yard. Now they are half of the snail/slug population. Some are huge--the size of a 50 cent piece or bigger. |
Follow-Up Postings:
RE: How many slugs/snails do I have to kill?
| | |
- Posted by bboy z8 WA USA (My Page) on
Sun, Jun 21, 09 at 14:52
| Kill them all And let God sort out the rest. You have to either maintain regular control or grow only plants they do not attack. |
RE: How many slugs/snails do I have to kill?
| | |
| I live in the Cascade foothills in the Columbia River Gorge, and have killed upwards of 500 large slugs in the yard portion of the property this year, and have not had anywhere near that number for several years previous. And that's just the "morning murders" as my husband calls them. I haven't ventured out at night yet, but I'm seeing a lot more slugs out and about this year. Have you brought in topsoil, mulch, plants, anything like that? Also, you might want to check out the life cycle of a slug - they have lots of babies! I had to pick off many dozens of bitty slugs from my echinacea a few weeks back. (I didn't count those in my death toll!) Best of luck. The most effective way to really make a dent is to go out at night with a bucket of soapy water and a pair of nitrile gloves. Pick and drop, pick and drop. YOu'll be amazed. The slug baits are for the most part very eco-unfriendly, so beware. Many kill pets. I have one bait that I resort to in some areas, it's pet-safe and only gets eaten by slugs and snails, but it's not a cure-all. |
RE: How many slugs/snails do I have to kill?
| | |
| If you are buying new plants from nurseries then you are importing the brown snail that is overrunning California and laying eggs in nursery plants. Check your plants over carefully when planting, for tiny baby snails, and look for their eggs in the soil - little pale plastic-looking spheres in clumps in the soil, that you should smash immediately. How many do you have to kill? All of them. |
RE: How many slugs/snails do I have to kill?
| | |
| And next year start early before they start reproducing. I begin putting out Iron based slug bait when the bulbs come up. That's usually February. |
|
|
|
|
