6 days Ago By Alice Slusher For The Daily News
Slugs can be a persistent nuisance for gardeners in the Pacific Northwest, but a combination of strategies can help keep their populations in check. Alice Slusher For lasting slug control, treat your entire garden following irrigation or rainfall in September-November to kill egg-laying adults, followed by another treatment in March-June to keep the population down. One of the best ways to deter slugs is to choose plants they tend to avoid.
Consider incorporating slug-resistant species such as hydrangeas, fuchsias, Heuchera, agapanthus, astilbe, bleeding hearts, foxglove, sedums, impatiens, and ferns. Eliminating their preferred hiding spots also helps. In early spring, rake up dead leaves, old mulch, and plant debris to remove eggs and potential shelter.
Check where slugs might lurk under pots, boards, and garden ornaments. Watering in the morning allows foliage to dry before nightfall, making it less appealing for these nocturnal feeders. Keeping plant foliage off the ground promotes air circulation and reduces damp conditions that attract slugs.
Encouraging natural predators like frogs, toads, snakes, beetles, and birds can effectively control slugs. Ducks and chickens are known for their voracious appetite for these pests. Hand-picking slugs a couple of hours after sunset can be highly effective for those willing to put in the effort.
Dropping them into a bucket of soapy water ensures they don’t return. Avoid using salt, as it can harm plants and soil health. Likewise, squashing slugs may not be ideal since their eggs can still hatch even after the adult is dead.
Slugs can be a hazard to your garden, but there are ways to keep them away from your plants. Physical barriers can deter slugs from reaching plants. Copper strips placed around raised beds or containers deliver a small electric shock when slugs attempt to cross.
Our Pacific Northwest slugs laugh at other deterrents, such as lime, ashes, crushed eggshells, and diatomaceous earth. Slug baits can be very effective. Iron phosphate products, like Sluggo, will kill slugs within a few days, and these baits are safe for pets, wildlife, and humans.
Metaldehyde-based products, like Deadline, work quickly but are unsafe around pets, edible plants, or water sources. Homemade baits can also be useful. Beer traps or a sugar and yeast mixture attract slugs, which then drown in the liquid.
Oregon State University research has shown that bread dough (flour, water, and yeast) is a highly effective bait for slugs and snails and lasts about a week. Around the Yard is a weekly column written by Washington State University Master Gardeners of Cowlitz County and provides answers to local gardening questions. To ask a question, contact Cowlitz County's WSU Extension Director Gary Fredricks at garyf@wsu.
edu or 360-577-3014 or the free Cowlitz County Master Gardner Plant and Insect Clinic at [email protected] . Alice Slusher has been a WSU Master Gardener for 12 years, serving as director of the Cowlitz County Extension Office's Plant and Insect Clinic and becoming familiar with the majority of problems that occur in the area's wet, cold, rainy winters and springs, as well as in its hot, dry summers.
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