Nothing beats a warm spring rain to bring on the slime patrol. When it comes to slugs and snails in the garden, and boy do we have a ton of them on the North Coast, a good approach is to think of management, not complete eradication. If you are going to try and kill them all, it won’t work and you will just drive yourself nuts by failing and losing plants. The slime patrol always returns.
Poison slug baits are effective and work well. Metaldehyde is the key ingredient that invites slugs and snails to eat it. They die quickly. Trouble is, most of us want an organic type of garden and we certainly do not want to poison our children, cats or dogs with poisonous baits.
Organic slug baits contain iron phosphate. Sluggo is a well-known brand that does work well. Slugs and snails eat the bait, get a tummy ache and crawl off to die. The catch is, you should begin baiting several days to a few weeks before setting out transplants for maximum effectiveness. This is because transplants taste better than the bait to the slug. If it is given a choice, the slug will choose the plant first, then the bait.
Trapping slugs/snails is effective. Beer traps, little tuna cans of beer sunk into the ground, attract slugs. They drink the brew and then fall in and die. The beer itself does not kill the slugs. They drown.
My favorite trapping method is to chop up ripe tomatoes and place them on a cheap paper plate. Set it out in the evening. Slugs and snails are attracted to the tomato and paper and begin eating. By morning it is time to collect and dispose.
Barrier methods of keeping slugs and snails away from plants are effective, but need constant monitoring. Diatomaceous earth is a top choice because if a slug or snail crosses the dry material it will cut its underbelly. Dry is the key word. If diatomaceous earth gets wet it won’t work. Some gardeners swear by copper tape and coffee grounds. This is up for debate.
Handpicking slugs in the early morning hours is effective when it comes to the big ones like our local native banana slug, leopard slug, big fat brown/black slug (Arion ater) and garden snails. But what about those little teeny tiny slugs that crawl on the lettuce and bok choy stems and leaves. Those guys are impossible.
Terry Kramer is the retired site manager for the Humboldt Botanical Garden and a trained horticulturist and journalist. She has been writing a garden column for the Times-Standard since 1982. She currently runs a gardening consulting business. Contact her at 707-834-2661 or terrykramer90@gmail.com.