Wednesday, June 15, 2016

Nighttime Slug Patrol

We've been checking our Peace Lilies every morning and early evening. Unlike, the Impatiens I planted last year that was TOTALLY gobbled up by greedy slugs, the Peace Lilies seemed to be doing OK. Sort of.

I'd bought a case of beer thinking I'd use it if the slugs got to be a horrible problem. As it is, I'd seen some indication of leaves being eaten, but I wasn't positive it was old eaten leaves or new.

I read on the Internet that we shouldn't water at night because it brings out the slugs so we began only watering in the morning.


It was drizzling all day off and on into the evening so Art and I thought we'd  have a look when it was totally dark. We went out at 8:30 PM with our flashlight and this is what we saw heading straight for the plant. I took this photo with my iPhone.

There was only one slug... for now.

I guess we might be using the beer after all.

POSTSCRIPT:

Uh oh! Art went jogging the following morning at 5:00 AM and found another slug. He took this photo with his $50 Motorola cellphone. This one appeared to be going home for the day.

I'm going to get the beer! 

26 comments:

  1. The bane of my garden existence: slugs. They are numerous and where you see one, there are others. I know you'll figure out the best way to use the beer for slugs, enterprising as you are. Mine like Budweiser. :

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    Replies
    1. I'll be doing another post about my beer attempt.

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  2. Ugh! Those are REALLY big and creepy slugs.

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  3. Those slugs are HUGE. Just ginormous.

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  4. Kay can you imagine we have these greedy slugs in my summer garden so they damage my flowers last year

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  5. Dang slugs! My 80 year old neighbor, Grace (she passed on many years ago) used to go out in the evening with a barbeque stick and skewer them, one on top the other. Then, she would poke the stick into the ground with the pointed side up and they would dry up in the sun. Cruel? Maybe, but she used to grow a beautiful bed of Manoa lettuce that she would share with us.

    My daughter Starlie (now living in Seattle, boohoo) learned about Grace's night ritual and she started checking out our garden at night when she lived with us and planted her veggie garden. SO many slugs - brown ones, black ones, golden ones, white ones. All yucky, and staked. It gave her great pleasure knowing that she was doing battle and kind of winning.

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    1. After Art caught those two, we haven't seen any more. We're convinced they're waiting for us to let our guard down.

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  6. Try sprinkling crushed egg shells around the plants. Slugs don't like to crawl over sharp egg shell pieces.

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    Replies
    1. Yes, I did try this and it didn't work. Sigh...

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  7. I know some people would be happy just drinking that beer themselves, lol. Seriously good luck Kay.

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  8. Have you tried sprinkling those ugly pests with salt?

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    Replies
    1. They're out there at night and it's hard to catch them before they've eaten even more leaves. Sigh...

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  9. Jean mentioned egg shells - someone recommended cheap kitty litter to me (the white clay type not the clumping sort).

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    Replies
    1. Yup. Tried the egg shells already and it didn't really work. Hmmmmm.... kitty litter?

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  10. Slugs, proof God makes mistakes.

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  11. Good idea to use a flashlight at night to find slugs. Make sure the slugs go somewhere else permanently.

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  12. Replies
    1. No kidding! I had to devise a slug trap a couple of days ago.

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  13. Good luck with the beer. We've had slugs and beer worked well for us. I did a search and found a web site for natural slug control. It suggests using seaweed which is salty and repels slugs and using sharp lava rock. Here's a link to the site: http://eartheasy.com/grow_nat_slug_cntrl.htm

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    Replies
    1. Thanks so much, Peg! I'll look into this if the beer thing doesn't work.

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  14. also something wanting to eat our plants...

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  15. Yes, do get the beer. The slugs will die happy.

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  16. Of course we all will await "the rest of the story":-)

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