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Fri, May 11, 12 at 19:50
| I live in Va Bch, a very wet area in the spring. My question is that when I mulch I seem to invite slugs, snails and other bugs that will devour my new transplants. If I don't mulch, the garden can dry out in a day or two. esp. in the summer. I use all natural backyard material to mulch with. Leaves, small twigs a bit of grass clippings (don't have much grass). I absolutely dont want to use pebbles.
I mostly have established perennials and shrubs but, I do plan on transplanting some things into the garden when they get bigger. Am I SOL? |
Follow-Up Postings:
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- Posted by idaho_gardener 6a_sw_idaho (My Page) on Fri, May 11, 12 at 19:57
| Nah, you're not out of luck. Try coffee grounds around the plants. |
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| I veer between hand picking, diatomaceous earth and (moderately) eco-friendly slug bait. Bait and DE are very effective if kept dry, a board on bricks will help. I can't imagine gardening without mulch and gastropods are the price I pay. |
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| Mulching does provide a very good environment for slugs/snails to live and grow in so those of us that do mulch learn to cope. Diamotaceous Earth, Iron Phosphate baits, stale Beer in saucers, copper strips, cold caffienated coffee sprays are all tools that can help control them and the damage they do. Encouraging predators to take up residence in your garden will also help. The cool, moist environment created by mulches is an idea habiatat for the slugs/snails. |
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- Posted by tropical_thought San Francisco (My Page) on Sat, May 12, 12 at 23:15
| I don't find mulch as much of a problem as plants that are too close together. If I get in and trim away places that snails like to hide, I find them and kill them. If you let them stay hidden you get more. They need to hide when the sun comes out, but if they can't hide they go away to find a place to hide. They can't bury themselves in mulch, I don't think so anyway. |
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| .. I'll have to try the coffee spray. Coffee grounds go stale so you end up adding coffee grounds over and over and I just can't seem to get the rate to add to match the rate of decay. Thanks for that one. |
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| " They can't bury themselves in mulch, I don't think so anyway." Slugs definitely bury themselves in mulch... |
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| Off topic (kind of) but my 16-year-old just finished a biology project at school about snails. She had to collect a few from my garden to take to school. I offered to let her take one for everyone in the class but she said they had enough (darn). Anyway, to add some trivia to your day these are some things I learned about snails. They are hermaphrodites and when they "meet up" both snails become pregnant. (Which explains why there are so darned many of the little fellas.) They give birth to baby snails through their cheeks. I know, off topic. Just giving you some food for thought. |
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- Posted by toxcrusadr (My Page) on Mon, May 14, 12 at 15:12
| Allegedly, land snails are tasty with butter as "redneck escargot." I do NOT speak from experience. |
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- Posted by berryman135678 (My Page) on Tue, May 15, 12 at 13:38
| Put up a few toad houses to encourage the slug eating friends to take up residence. I even put in a mini pond to encourage toad reproduction, and have toad house around the yard. |
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- Posted by diggity_ma 5 MA (My Page) on Tue, May 15, 12 at 14:28
| I have found that Chinese cabbage is a pretty good trap crop. They seem to prefer it to just about any other vegetable in the garden. Just intersperse Chinese cabbage at strategic points among your other plants, then go out and collect the slugs from the cabbages in the evening. Also, the eco-friendly slug baits do work reasonably well. |
Here is a link that might be useful: Garden Imperative
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- Posted by piedmontnc 7b-8 (My Page) on Wed, May 16, 12 at 8:32
| I always get plenty in beer traps. |
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- Posted by toxcrusadr (My Page) on Thu, May 17, 12 at 10:59
| I got caught in a beer trap myself once. I musta got that ring on my finger after I fell in there, and I've never been able to get it off since. |
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| I have not found any snails or slugs in my coffee compost feed garden beds. It could be the hot sun, which maybe why there are no earth worms in the garden. Lots of life, just no snails,slugs & earth worms. Cleaning up around the garden & keeping the compost pile on the far side of the garden helps. |
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| I put up with slug for years and it finally got to the point I said that is enough,. I used several types of slug killer put down heavily in fall and spring and now they are gone. The main thing is when you use anything use enough to get the job done. |
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| I used Natria snail/slug bait this year for the first time and LOVE the stuff! I was devastated when I lost 95% of my 125 foot garden in the first week. The snails and slugs ate the leaves off of all the baby plants, except the onions and radish plants. It is pellets and so easy to spread. One teaspoon per 10 feet- something like that! It takes me less than 5 minutes to sprinkle it between the rows in my garden. I got it at Lowes and highly recommend it. It is "organic-approved", I believe. |
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