{"id":10146,"date":"2018-02-04T12:00:46","date_gmt":"2018-02-04T17:00:46","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.whatgrowsthere.com\/grow\/?p=10146"},"modified":"2017-11-29T19:12:05","modified_gmt":"2017-11-30T00:12:05","slug":"controlling-slugs-and-snails","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/whatgrowsthere.com\/grow\/2018\/02\/04\/controlling-slugs-and-snails\/","title":{"rendered":"Controlling Slugs and Snails"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Slug feeding on hosta<\/p><\/div>\n

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Slugs on pavement<\/p><\/div>\n

Slugs and snails are common pests of many common garden plants. They are particularly troublesome in shady woodland areas. They crawl across leaves and leave a slimy residue over the leaf surface.\u00a0They\u00a0feed primarily at night. Ecologically, their niche is to decompose organic matter. During the daytime hours they hide under leaves, mulch, rocks, stepping stones, and other dark areas.<\/p>\n

Slugs and snails can be removed by handpicking. Favorite perennial plants are hostas, <\/em>lungworts (<\/em>Pulmonaria<\/em>)<\/em>, and Siberian bugloss (Brunnera<\/em>) are susceptible\u00a0perennials as well as many vegetable and herb plants.<\/p>\n

Popular control measures<\/strong>\u00a0include slug and snail control baits that contain iron phosphate, such as Sluggo\u2122, Schultz\u2122 Slug & Snail Bait, and Bayer Advanced\u2122 Snail & Slug Killer Bait. Baits containing metaldehyde are also effective, but\u00a0are harmful to pets and birds. Read label directions before using.<\/p>\n

Popular homemade remedy is the “Beer Bath”.<\/strong>\u00a0Fill a shallow container with beer and submerged it in the ground with the rim\u00a0even with the soil. Snails and slugs are attracted\u00a0to the beer odor, fall in, and drown.<\/p>\n

Sprinkling diatomaceous earth around the plants also work. The sharp crystals pierce their thin jelly-like \u00a0skin resulting in dehydration and death. Diatomaceous earth must be reapplied after a rain or watering.<\/p>\n

Other short term remedies that deter snails and slugs include:<\/p>\n

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  1. limestone, cinders, coarse dry sawdust, gravel or sand.<\/li>\n
  2. Epson Salts sprinkled on the soil will deter slugs and adds Magnesium nutrient to feed garden plants.<\/li>\n
  3. Spread table salt around your plants. Salt dries them out so they won\u2019t go near it.<\/li>\n
  4. Collect human, dog, or cat hair and place around your susceptible plants;\u00a0 slugs\u00a0and other critters will stay\u00a0away.<\/li>\n
  5. Plant specific plants around the edge of the garden which slugs hate the smell. List of anti-slug plants are: mint, chives, garlic, geraniums, foxgloves, and fennel.<\/li>\n
  6. Mix 1 part ammonia to 3 parts of water into an aerosol bottle and give\u00a0slugs a squirt.<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n

     <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

    Slugs and snails are common pests of many common garden plants. They are particularly troublesome in shady woodland areas. They crawl across leaves and leave a slimy residue over the leaf surface.\u00a0They\u00a0feed primarily at night. Ecologically, their niche is to decompose organic matter. During the daytime hours they hide under leaves, mulch, rocks, stepping stones, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[1004,652,1005,605,1308,1384,1295,891,730,1279,853,551,625,1030,843,755,729,1140,962,1141,777,1210,630,838],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/whatgrowsthere.com\/grow\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10146"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/whatgrowsthere.com\/grow\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/whatgrowsthere.com\/grow\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/whatgrowsthere.com\/grow\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/whatgrowsthere.com\/grow\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=10146"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/whatgrowsthere.com\/grow\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10146\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":10241,"href":"https:\/\/whatgrowsthere.com\/grow\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10146\/revisions\/10241"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/whatgrowsthere.com\/grow\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=10146"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/whatgrowsthere.com\/grow\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=10146"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/whatgrowsthere.com\/grow\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=10146"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}