MetaChat is an informal place for MeFites to touch base and post, discuss and
chatter about topics that may not belong on MetaFilter. Questions? Check the FAQ. Please note: This is important.
I'm generally a kind person. Mostly to animals. But I've had it. I'm fed up. And tonight the slugs will die.
It started in late October. For the first time ever, I actually managed to plant beets and turnips and greens before the evil migratory sparrows arrived. They eat the tender leaves, you see, leaving the tiny sprouts to wither and starve, unable to photosynthesize and mature into tasty root vegetables that I can kill, cook, and eat.
But winter came early this year, and so did the sparrows. In fact, they came the week after I planted my seeds, just after they'd germinated. It was like Mother Nature sent up a beet beacon and the sparrows came sprinting down from Oregon. As usual, they ate the seedlings to the ground.
I replanted about 10 days ago and, since the sparrows are still here, covered the beds up with some window screening.
Which the chickens promptly removed.
They didn't seem to do too much damage, having churned the soil before the seeds had a chance to germinate. So I covered the bed up again, made it more chicken-proof, and waited.
Several days ago, I finally noticed little sprouts. Little denuded sprouts that looked like they'd been accosted by hungry sparrows. "But that's impossible," I muttered to myself. And it's then that I realized that maybe the sparrows weren't to blame. All this time, the slugs were the culprit.
So a couple days ago I deployed the Sluggo defense. I don't mind using it because it's not poison and it's not toxic to other animals. (Which is a good thing, since it looks like yummy chicken food, and I have to distract the hens with strategically placed snacks before I spread the pellets -- otherwise they eat them all.)
But I looked again today, and the Sluggo hasn't kicked in yet.
So I've come up with a new plan.
I've surrounded the beet/turnip seedlings with a 3" x 24" moat of aluminum foil. On top of it, I've placed a 1" ribbon of table salt. (The foil is there so that the salt doesn't leach into the soil, which would totally obviate any of my slug-remedy attempts.) There is no way for the slugs to cross into TurnipLand without fjording the salt.
Goddammit, I'm going to get some beets and turnips this year if it kills me.
Don't feel sorry for the slugs. They're practically vegetables themselves. In fact, the only real thing that separates slugs and plants, evolutionarily-speaking, is a cell wall.
I can't bear to kill the little bastards. They're just soooo cute! Last time I had a garden to tend, I viewed myself as la migra, rounding up the slugs and tossing them over the hedge into the neighbor's yard, knowing full well that they'd cross the border again under cover of darkness.
Yeah, arsey, it pains me to waste beer too (*hic*). Plus, the beer traps only work if the slugs fall in. And sometimes they'd just rather have beet greens.
I'm also fond of slugs, Pie* -- except when they're eating my future food. I could coexist with them in absolute peace if they'd just eat the rose bushes instead.
* Not to be confused with slug pie, which I don't care for at all.
When you pick up the clothes you just left on the floor and find tiny little--
no, when you lift up the soap and see writhing specks of--
let's just say when slugs are like fleas or lice in their freakish and sudden arrival into your life and things, see if you don't wash everything you own and go running for the salt.
If you like watching the giant ones mate suspended from their mucus ropes, to each their own.
Oh, Essex, that made me laugh out loud and thus choke on coffee!
I also like slugs, have witnesses mad, passionate slug love, and even discovered slug eggs. However, I hate stepping on slugs barefoot whilst tossing out my garbage - ewwwww!
I was neutral on slugs until the first time I had a garden that I slaved away on that they tried to level to the ground. Now they get no mercy from me. I've found Safer's Slug & Snail bait to be very effective, though it looks like it's close to if not the same as the Sluggo you've already tried. Now I have images of you in a tinfoil gardening hat carefully constructing a foil-and-salt moat while muttering to yourself. goddamned slugs you'll get yours see how you like this you nasty little bastards mutter mutter die slugs die! mutter mutter When the moat is complete and perfect you stand and raise your fist to the sky, howling with triumph at the thought of the coming slugicide. The cry of 'beeeeeeeeeets!' rings out over the land.
Sluggo works great, but is expensive. I used to use the "regular" stuff, but I had a cat who was very fond of it so I could not use it anymore. So, Sluggo or beer, or, better yet, going out before sunrise and pitching those little bastards out into the street and letting them take their chances with cars. Not that humane, I know but when cars come, it is at least very quick for them.
Neighbor used to have chickens. . that is another great way of dealing with them.
photo by splunge
photo by TheophileEscargot
photo by Kronos_to_Earth
photo by ethylene
