Slug soup and other creative pest measures

I HATE slugs. I know it's somewhat irrational, the fierce feelings these slimy creeping plant eaters conjure up in me, but they really bring out the worst in me. I know there are many very sane ways to attack a slug problem--from ground-up eggshells spread around plants, to flour spread on top of the soil and from commercial slug bait to beer-filled saucers.

This last option reminds me of a swim-up bar and seems a bit too festive for a mortal enemy. I've actually tried this in the past and it does work, but I really got some strange looks when I went to the party store and asked them to point me in the direction of their cheapest beer. Of course, I wasn't going to spend top dollar on an import or specialty brew!

Today I was in the garden doing some clean-up and harvesting some goodies for dinner when I found several families of slugs living in the holes where I pulled carrots from yesterday. Then, when I went to cut some corn mache for salads I found at least three zillion living under the leaves. That's when I became slug-ocidal.


While I know that it probably wasn't good for the soil, I dropped some canning salt down into the carrot holes and found a perverse joy in watching the slugs sizzle. But, beyond that, if they were laying eggs down there, hopefully the salt took care of the next generation as well.


My disdain for slugs is long-lived and I've used multiple methods to control them over the years like the saucers of beer for them to slime-up to, become drunk and drown; stabbing them with random sticks and crushing them with rocks. In addition to the salt in the holes, today's method also included slug soup.

This creative approach started with me scooping them up with a hand shovel and dropping them by the dozens into an empty ice cream pail. I then filled the pail with water, sealed it and placed in an area that gets a lot of sun and that's very hot. As I write this, I realize that I may be taking this loathing to an extreme, but there's something strangely satisfying in finding new ways to get rid of my garden nemesis.

Now that I've calmed down a bit, I decided to do some research about slugs to see if they have any redeeming value whatsoever. Guess what I found out? They don't! Here's a brief primer on the slug:

An information sheet from Cornell says that gray garden slugs were brought to America from Europe in the 1800s. My question is WHY? Why would they do that? The only logical explanation is that the slugs were actually stowaways that made there way to this country on the plant matter the Europeans brought with them when they came to America to make a new life.

Slugs have an average lifespan of nine to thirteen months and if they have enough cover can survive mild winters. Slugs are hermaphroditic, which means they have has both male and female reproductive organs. A slug could start out as a male, then become both male and female,
and finally become solely female. There are also some slug species that can self-fertilize, or, produce offspring without needing to mate with the opposite sex. After mating, the slug will lay 8 - 60 clear, jelly-like eggs in sheltered areas on the ground. An adult slug can lay 300 - 500 eggs during its lifetime. With numbers like these, it's no wonder they get so numerous if left to their own devices.

Garden slugs increase in size during summer and reach sexual maturity in late autumn. According to some information I found on Texas' extension service website, slugs only reproduce in early spring and they tend to reproduce faster on alkaline to neutral soils than on acid soils.

Now that I know that rabbits have nothing on slugs when it comes to procreating, it's time to take a more rational approach to control. Slugs like it cool and damp, which is why mulch in a garden can be a challenge. On one hand, it's great for the plants, but on the other hand it's also great for the slugs.

Slugs do have some natural enemies; and if you're OK with having them in your garden, they're a good way to naturally control the slug population. Toads, garter snakes and ground beetles all enjoy making a meal of these slimy pests. I like this method of control because it's natural and it doesn't require adding chemicals to the garden. Then again, finding them and smashing them doesn't hurt the environment either!



How about you? Do you have unusual ways to ridding your garden and landscape beds of slugs? I'd love to hear about your approach.

Free garden stakes, just look around your flower beds

Although I prefer to grow edibles in our landscape, I am a sucker for beautiful flowers and as a result have a variety of lilies - day, tiger, oriental, etc.
Today I was spending some of my garden time cleaning up the spent day lilies and trying to figure out what I could use to stake the pole beans and cucumbers when I had an AHA moment. Daylily stems are sturdy, tall, and free!

Viola, plant stakes. I used them for a cucumber that I have in a container and to help accommodate some of the vines on the pole beans, since the teepee I "built" earlier this season is now much too small.
I gently inserted the stems into the soil and quickly learned to hold them at the bottom or they will bend and break. I also found that I could prop them into an existing planting - the bean teepee to easily increase the height.

Near the top of the picture that's above, you can see the joints at the top of the stem where the lily flowers once bloomed. Now they make a great structure to help train vining plants.
As a frugal (OK, downright cheap) person, I couldn't be more thrilled with the results.

What AHA moments have you had in your garden this season?

Turning the Soil or Feeding the Robins?

Even though I do a lot of edibles in our landscape, I'm lucky to have space for an actual garden as well. I spent this morning turning the soil for our vegetable garden since our last frost date is next week (finally).

This is actually the second time I've turned the garden this year. We piled leaves and grass clippings on last fall and they hadn't decomposed enough, so about a month ago, I turned the bed and ran the garden weasel through it. Then I left it alone. Today when i turned it for the second time, just about all of last year's waste had completely composted and I have beautiful rich soil, just waiting to become home to a wonderful garden. It's amazing what happened in just 1 month's time. I credit the quick work to the abundance of worms that a saw in just about every spade full of dirt.

Seems I wasn't the only one who noticed the lowly creatures squirming in the light, working to dive back into the soil. There was also a pair of Robins very much aware of the smorgasbord being turned up. Every time I took a break and walked away for a minute the pair descended on the garden "cherry picking" the tasty morsels. When I came back, they flew to a nearby tree or the roof of the garage and perched, watching me and waiting for me to unearth more food and walk away again.

I wish I could have taken a photo to share. It reminded me how intertwined living things are and how much I truly enjoy every aspect of working in the garden. It's a great opportunity to observe nature at work.

What interactions have you had with nature while in the garden?