Wearing leather jackets and sporting tatoos, sneaky, slithering, sly slugaroos come marauding in my garden. They seem to really like hanging out on the false sunflower leaves swilling Guinness and eating Nachos.
I thought I might use the scorch earth method and buy some napalm at the local garden store but Papa cautioned me against using a method that proved futile during the Vietnam War. "You might get rid of the slugs, Bob, but you'll also get rid of every living thing for miles. Where will all the faeries and nymphs go that make their home in your foxglove?"
In a comment on another article I posted, Roy Hilbinger gave me his take on ridding the garden of slugs:
"But I'm not as merciful as you and have no moral scruples about killing pests. The snails I pluck off and toss in the street for the cars to squish (nope, I'm not getting mashed snail on the soles of my boots, thank you!). The slugs I sprinkle with salt, which shrivels 'em up and does away with them. Nope, no mercy!"
The only trouble with "plucking" is the fact they secrete this really nasty orangy-yellow mucus on your hands that seems to stick no matter how long you wash your hands with hot water and soap. I finally came up with my own solution...pluck them with a paper towel, place them in a bowl, and give them a whirling roller coaster ride down the toilet bowl .
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Comments: 52
Bob, I think I'm going to have to write a slug article of my own. My Mom vs. the slug world, and Mom won! Thanks to boxes of Morton Salt.
Would love to hear this story, Vicky.
My God, for some reason I find this Mercenary Magazine home & garden article as hallucinatory as the Charlie Kaufman film Adaptation. We go from simple snails to descriptions of bikers to declaration of warfare to napalm to the lessons of the Vietnam war to a strange 'plucking' practice to nasty yellow secretions to a " whirling roller coaster ride down the toilet bowl" . I know I should'nt have stopped getting wasted years ago; sobriety when you have friends like Bob is simply too fantastic to comprehend!
Guapa, your method seems effective--and visually, a helluva thrill ride for those poor snails!--but why don't you just cook los pobres caracoles in a salsa de tomate y ajo and EAT them, as civilized people do here in Spain?
And from this womb, Will alighted and learned his lessons well. Otherwise, he too, might have taken a roller coaster ride.
As to los pobres caracoles, do you stir-fry them first and then mix in the salsa de tomate or just combine everything and cook? Maybe we should ask Madame Donna.
ewwwwwwwww!! please don't eat the slugs, it makes my tummy turn!
Love your title! Ugh, slugs are taking over lately.
The sun came out this afternoon and the assault of the Hell's Angels have ceased...though I don't know for how long. They may be regrouping and planning a surprised attack the next rainy day.
That seemed the most merciful solution to offer these pests.
I'm into merciful solutions to all problems. Swish.....
I remember as a child having the job of ridding the rose bushes of Japanese beetles. The method way back then was to have an old mason jar half filled with kerosene. We would then have to pluck the beetles from the rose bush and drop it into the jar. They're squirming legs felt weird on our fingers. We did this daily and still those nasty beetles came every day to eat the lovely rose petals and leaves from the bush.
As yet, the Japanese have not signed a pact with the slugs, but should they enter the war, I know just the Mason jar I can use.
Thanks so much for sharing with my group.
What a show down - Faeries and Hell's Angels... I hope the Faeries win.
Faeries are winning 2 to one. If the sun holds out, maybe another victory tomorrow.
Hey... I've known some very COOL H of A... But, on another note, I would advise AGAINST using salt on them... Salt will get into the garden soil and most plants cannot tolerate very much of it in the soil!
I suggest "Dead Line". It's a sticky, tarlike substance that you squirt out in a thin line around the perimeter of your flowerbed and the slug and snails will not cross it. It doesn't really have any poison, per se, in it -- they just don't like the stickiness of it. It stays on pretty well -- even through waterings and rain -- but every couple or 3 weeks you might have to just touch it up where the line has broken.
"Dead Line" sounds like it might do the trick.
Oh, and make sure you hem the "caracoles" (which are actually "babosos" if they're not in the sea) up and feed them on corn meal for about a month before you try to eat any...
Sounds like a whole lot of trouble just to have "babosos".
Oh! And I would tactfully suggest that you get a whole BUNCH of them before "flushing" them... Anything less would be a real waste of water...
First round I had 12 Hell's Angels; Second round multiply by 2. I have a Kohler toilet... with Dual Flush technology combining exceptional water conservation and outstanding flushing performance. A two-button actuator allows me to choose either a 1.6- or .8-gallon flush option.
this is better, the slugs are having a high class, top of the line porcelain departure, they actually look like they are having fun swirling around, I hope they don't crawl back up the next time someone uses the loo.
I thought about that, Bridget...what a surprise that would be...two little feelers feelers feeling your butt. Yuck.
I loved your description of the "marauders." A great snippet or haiku in itself. When I have plucked slugs from the garden, I have dumped them in the woods nearby. You may not have a woods. They do have their place....just NIMBY!
Thanks, Alison. I do have woods....but in the end, I decided to terminate the buggers.
When I first saw this article, I thought Japanese Beetles. Sent straight from hell as far as I'm concerned. But snails and slugs fit too. LOL. This was a funny article. Is making my day.
Now the one bit of info I can add to this is about putting down snail and slug bait. I did that one time and that's the last of that. One of our dogs ate it and we had to rush her to the emergency clinic. She almost died. Seriously. When they gave her the charcoal to make her vomit, she threw up a black sock, one of my husband's dress work socks. The doctors had us come into the room to show us that sock. It was whole. She didn't even chew it.
A black sock...OMG.
Roy ,is right about the salt treatment ,it does melt these bad boys ! Your toilet bowl treatment is a hoot !!
out out damn pest, quoth lady bob... I am so glad I do not have these...but yeah, anyway that works....i will keep in mind these treatments should i find these bad boys...
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Love the toilet bowl method. Works well for a lot of unwanted critters like ticks too.
I hate slugs with a vengance and go after them with no mercy whatsoever.........
My weapon of choice is a combination of a small trowel dedicated to just this task and a plastic gallon milk jug from which I've cut the top off to make the hole a bit larger.
Put about 1/2 inch of Clorox or any other bleach product in the jug.
Using the trowel (and sparing your hands and saving paper towels) I scoop the little slimy critters off the plant or from the ground - look under rocks, they like to nest in the wetness beneath a rock - and scoop them into the jug where the Clorox will kill them instantly.
Each morning, after I finish scooping up whatever I see that day, I flush them down the toilet.....bye bye...no mess....no fuss....
Rinse the jug and trowel and they are ready to do battle another day....
Ummm...I like this idea. Will it work for Japenese beetles too?
I'm not sure...I haven't seen Japanese beetles here......
Bob, you don't pluck the slugs, just the snails. Slugs you sprinkle in situ so as to avoid those stains. They may look icky when the salt kills them, but it's okay, they're biodegradable.
A friedn told me about using old milk cartons with a "door" cut into them a few inches above the bottom, and a pool of beer inside the carton. The slugs crawl in to wet their whistles and drown.
friedn = friend
I wonder if Papa will join "The Arsenal of Democracy" and provide the beer. I will have to ask....he's kind of funny about sharing his Sam Adams.
I don't use salt to sprinkle on the slugs. I scoop them with the little trowel and drop them in the Clorox... I TOTALLY get rid of them, I don't let them die there, I drown them in the chlorine.
We are good so far. We had grubs a few years back and I wanted to cry as my lawn went the way of a bad toupee.
What an image you've planted in my mind...a lawn with a bad toupee. I once had a principal that had one...it was always to the side...it was pretty hard maintaining respect when we were discussing a serious issue. Lol
The grubs ate the roots and you could lift the lawn up like a bad piece of sod.
Thanks for posting to Snap Happy for the Bug & Insect theme.
Slugs are gross.
Slug the slugs!
It appears I have several good methods for slug extinction offered up by Gather friends, mag, so I won't have to go fist to fist with them.
Just send them back to God!
I too have heard of the beer method, but I am sure they do not deserve Papa's precious sam adams, maybe some cheapo budweiser or something of that sort!!
Bridget, Papa would NEVER have Bud over for a visit. He's a Sam Adams kind of guy.
OMG! I needed a little Gather fix and what did I get? A dissertation on the extermination of slugs! I have been entertained, sickened, and educated all in one article. Thanks bob . . . I think!
Dianne:
Rain again in Massachusetts and the damn Hell's Angels are back. Let see, I have flushed some, drowned some in clorox bleach along with some Japanese maurauders, and put a lid with Sam Adams beer at the base of the plant. I feel like I have my own private Gallipoli going on here.
Poor things - I feel sorry for them - why couldn't you just move them to another area? Salud
I tried "moving them"....it didn't work.
I have this awful image of them failing to go down the toilet bowl and then crawling back up...