Various ways to control slugs in the garden. Unusual pet: slug How to care for slugs, what do they eat?
Just the word “slug” makes people disgusted. A nasty, rather disgusting, shapeless, slippery creature immediately appears before your eyes, always crawling somewhere.
Doesn’t nature really have any intelligence that it could give birth to such an animal that no one needs and is not suitable for anything? To find the answer, you should study in more detail what characterizes the big roadside slug, whose photo is now before your eyes. After reading the description of a slug, a person will have an idea of what appearance of this creature, what kind of life it leads, where its habitats are located.
Large roadside (or leopard) slug: appearance
Representatives of this species are the largest of all types of large slugs. These mollusks were brought to different parts of the world from Europe, which is their homeland. The large roadside slug is a mollusk of the order Pulmonate snails. Its body consists of one leg that merges with the slug's head and is called the sole. The body length of the mollusk reaches from 10 to 20 cm. Sometimes the body of the animal grows up to 30 cm. It is wrinkled, somewhat rounded, and pointed at the end of the rear part.
The body of slugs is symmetrical on both sides. On top it is covered with the so-called mantle in the form of a plate. Below it are the reproductive organs and the anus. There is a keel on the tail.
The color of the slug ranges from light gray to chestnut, sometimes yellowish-white or ashy. The entire body of a large roadside slug is covered with black spots and stripes. This “cute” creature has very long tentacles. Their mucus is colorless.
Internal structure
On the back, under the skin of the mollusk, a shell is visible, which, like all other slugs, is highly reduced. The shell is white in color, shaped like an oblong oval, its length is 13 mm and its width is 7 mm. It is assumed that they are stored there healing substances. This shell has been known since ancient times and was used for medicinal purposes.
The leopard slug's digestive system consists of the radula, pharynx, esophagus and intestines. In the intestines, four sections are connected to the liver, while the other two simply hang freely inside the body.
At first glance, this slug resembles a very simple creature, but it has nervous system, which consists of ganglia. Each ganglion has its own place: the pedal ganglion lies under the radula, the abdominal ganglion is slightly to the right of the midline, and the visceral ganglia are located in the middle between the esophagus and the uvular membrane.
Habitats
The habitats of the great roadside slug cover large areas. The habitat is located in humid and temperate zones climate zone. Slugs live only in biotopes with sufficient moisture. For them, a very comfortable habitat is the litter of deciduous forests.
Slugs are indigenous to Australia, New Zealand and North America. They are also found in Western and Central Europe, in the Caucasus, where their favorite places are fields, meadows, forests, gardens and caves.
Large roadside slug: what to feed
These mollusks are herbivores and are not too picky when choosing food. While kept in the terrarium, they should be provided with vegetables, fruits and mushrooms. Separately, we need to dwell on what the large roadside slug feeds on in its natural habitats.
Vegetation is considered the main food of mollusks. The leopard slug feeds on fallen leaves, flowers, fruits and soft stems of living plants. Sometimes mushrooms are present in his diet. Although these slugs eat a lot and are voracious, if necessary, they can live without food for about 60 days, while in a humid place.
Large roadside slug: reproduction
This species, like all slugs, has a hermaphroditic reproductive system. Each individual has genitals that correspond to their sex. Reproductive products become mature at different times. First, the sperm matures. She presents packaged bags - spermatophores. Then it begins in males. This substance is endowed with a smell by which the slug is found by its relatives.
The mating ceremony of large roadside slugs is very in an unusual way. The mollusks hang head down on mucous threads, their bodies are woven into a single ball by their genitals. Since the blue penises of slugs reach great lengths, it is not always possible for mating couples to disentangle themselves. In this case, some individuals resort to extreme measures and bite off the genital organ, which grows back after some time.
After fertilization, the mollusk lays eggs in the ground; on average, one adult can lay from 30 to 70 large eggs. Their development occurs within 21-35 days, after which small slugs are born. They reach sexual maturity after 60 days. These animals live no longer than two years.
Economic importance. Damage caused
For nature, slugs bring some benefit, being orderlies. They are able to process leaves that have fallen from trees, turning them into humus. But most of all, these mollusks, including the large roadside slug, cause quite significant damage to agriculture.
These voracious creatures cause especially great harm to potatoes by eating the tubers and foliage of the plant. Cauliflower and white cabbage, various varieties of lettuce, root vegetables, young vegetable plants, as well as strawberries, tomatoes and cucumbers suffer from slug invasion. Vineyards and entire citrus plantations are affected by this pest.
The large roadside slug causes much less damage to the following crops:
- Red cabbage.
- Parsley roots and leaves.
- Onion and garlic.
- Crops of barley and oats.
Spring wheat, flax and buckwheat almost do not feel the invasion of slugs. In addition to the fact that mollusks voraciously destroy agricultural crops, they are also carriers of fungal and viral diseases. Among these pests is the large roadside slug. The description of these diseases, which include cabbage spot, potato late blight and downy mildew, makes it possible to once again verify the harmfulness of the slug. In this regard, the question arises: how can you get rid of such a nasty enemy?
Methods and methods of dealing with slugs
Before you find out what effective methods of controlling slugs exist, you need to study and use all available preventive measures in a timely manner. First of all, it is necessary to ensure that the sites have a large number of natural enemies slugs. These include hedgehogs, frogs and toads.
In addition, you need to make a trench around the area and sprinkle it with sand, pine needles, lime and crushed egg shells. The slugs will be forced to avoid such an obstacle. Plants in the beds should be kept weed-free and thinned out on time.
You can fight slugs by collecting them with your hands. To do this, at night, pieces of wet bark or piles of mown grass are laid out between the plants, under which the pest will hide. In the morning, the collection of a pest called the "big roadside neem" begins calmly by hand. People know many ways, one of them is catching shellfish with a can of beer, which in this case serves as bait for slippery uninvited guests.
If the above methods fail to get rid of slugs and mass reproduction of pests has already occurred, you will have to use chemicals. Currently, new generation products have appeared that are no danger to surrounding nature don't imagine.
Do you know which animal on the planet ranks first among the toothy ones? This is probably very interesting to every person. Although surprisingly, the toothiest creature that is not a predator is the large roadside slug. There are approximately 30 thousand teeth on his tongue! This grater tongue helps the slug grind all the foods it feeds on and make them
It can be concluded that among toothy individuals there are not only large predators, but also mollusks, which are among the smallest representatives of the animal world.
Let's first look at the portrait of a slug, which is familiar to all gardeners. Here he is, a naked freak, damp, disgusting... If chickens could speak, their words would sound like this: “Here he is, handsome, naked, delicious.” Mother Nature would have uttered the following words with emotion: “How beautiful you are, little cub. How needed you are.”
Number 1 - brown arion, number 2 - striped arion. Striped is a pest.
Arion is brown. While he was “sleeping”, he was a lump, and crawled – 80 millimeters of growth appeared from somewhere. The main place for a comfortable life is coniferous, deciduous or mixed forests. They are sometimes spotted in old parks or cemeteries. Does not love sunlight, therefore it crawls out to feed in the twilight-dark time of the day. Mushroom pickers see only traces of feasts - cavities on the caps and boletus mushrooms. Only zoologists have observed how a slug feasts on dead roots, leaves or dead small animals. In our Altai region it is found in Eastern Siberia, in the Amur River basin and the Primorsky Territory, only the color, instead of brown, is rather monochromatic black.
Woe to those gardeners and gardeners who wanted to have not just a plot for growing vegetables and apple trees, but a beautiful place on the edge of the forest under the canopy of lonely pines for a beautiful summer house with a production bias in the form of growing garden products - the slug damages the gardens and fields located in the neighborhood with the forest. And how not to harm, because everything is laid out in beds there, here are the most delicate lettuce leaves, and here is the most delicious cabbage.
Arion striped. A close relative of brown, it is lighter in color, it is rather ashen with a slight admixture of yellowness or creme brulee. This pest prefers to live in cultivated biotopes - in gardens, fields, parks and of course in vegetable gardens. It’s good that he doesn’t live in all regions, but in the north-west of our country and in its central regions.
Black slug. A very long slug, even a chicken will be afraid to peck at it; its body can stretch up to 20 centimeters in length when moving. It’s good that he feeds on lichens and mushrooms. Range: Karelia, the Baltic states, Belarus, west and center of Russia, and areas located east of Novgorod.
Number 1 - large slug, number 2 - field slug, number 3 - black slug, number 4 - smooth slug.
The slug is big. Less black is a joy, because the body length can be 130 millimeters, but this is 13 centimeters. But it’s still unpleasant when such living creatures settle in a greenhouse, garden or vegetable garden. He also loves vegetable stores, of course, because the entire assortment of delicious food is collected in one place, and there is no need to waste energy on searching. Range: northwestern and central regions of Russia.
Malacolymax is gentle. Tender for the gardener because it eats mushrooms and lichens.
Malacolymax is gentle.
Field slug. Not big, only 40 millimeters when stretched. This one does not need forests and darkness; it loves ditches, swamps, meadows, and does not shy away from forest edges. The main thing, the most important thing, is that he does not like cultivated land. You can escape from it by constantly digging up the soil in the beds. The soil will lose fertility. What's better? Just to know...
The slug is smooth. Less field slug. Loves swamps, damp meadows, and the banks of overgrown reservoirs. He is not afraid of water, it costs him nothing to feed on a leaf under water. He is not afraid of the cold.
Reticulated slug.
Don't believe everything that is written. For example, that slugs love beer. Maybe they do, but who tested them for their ability to die from alcohol intoxication? Or ash... What kind of ash, cigarette ash or ash from burning wood? The first is too little, and the second will be needed no less. After all, the entire area will have to be processed, every square centimeter.
Pine and spruce needles will not help. See above, it says that some slugs like coniferous forests, and there are so many of these needles that you wouldn’t find a haystack among them.
Chemical methods of protection against slugs are ineffective. When a toxic substance gets on the mucus, the animal simply shakes off the sticky clothes and immediately puts on new, no less sticky ones.
Gardeners believe that ground red hot pepper is dangerous. But this is a very expensive method.
Can be destroyed chemically. Metaldehyde will help; it is recommended to scatter it at 40 grams per square meter. This is also expensive, considering that the treatment, that is, sprinkling the soil, is not a one-time procedure, but a repeated one, because every rain washes away all traces. At the same time, you have to contaminate the soil with poison, how will the soil inhabitants who create fertility react to this?
You can sprinkle with dolomite flour or slaked lime, which is also not good, but this is the most economically acceptable method, although treatments should be carried out after every rain.
There is a generally accepted opinion that you need to sprinkle the paths and around the beds. Don't believe it! What, harmful Velcro only live under the paths? And they crawl to the surface only above the paths? Therefore, it is recommended to sprinkle a perimeter path around the beds. These animals can hide from the sun and wind in the place where they feel like it!
The beds should be well ventilated, and there should be no grass or other coverings on them during periods that are dangerous for plants. The lower leaves must be removed so that they do not touch the ground and do not serve as walkways. There should not be a lot of plants in the garden; in the jungle thickets it is much more difficult to find a pest, but it is more comfortable for it.
Pollination with soil superphosphate is suggested. This is not an acceptable method for me, I have already switched to natural farming, and I have no use for chemical fertilizers.
Another funny recommendation is to collect slugs in a jar during the day after rain. This can be recommended by someone who has not collected slugs himself. If there can be a million individuals on a hectare of cropland, as in Great Britain, what percentage of this number will be three dozen specimens that accidentally caught your eye. Searching for slugs for subsequent destruction is pointless.
If you are going to sprinkle poison, then you need to do it in such a way as to protect the plant, and not the planting or sowing area - each plant. These scoundrels love to live in the soil layer near plant stems. So you need to loosen the bed, especially deeply, lifting the soil away from the stem. This way all the slugs will be on the surface and can be clearly seen. Take a pruner and cut each one, believe me, slugs do not have the ability to regenerate tissue. Then cover the stem with the same soil with the remains of the pest and sprinkle lime on top. This is the most effective way struggle, caution will not hurt - lime should not get on the plant itself, otherwise burns and...
Reproduction of slugs or why there are no slugs in spring.
They are gentle, soft-bodied creatures, deep into the soil, like earthworms or Colorado potato beetles, they cannot climb. Although the eggs are laid quite far from the soil surface, they are hidden from drying out at a depth of 8 centimeters.
Although they hide under the remains of grass and piles of garbage, they all die in the cold. The eggs remain to overwinter. If the mother-father-slug has found a suitable place for laying, then the little babies will hatch from the eggs, somewhat similar to caviar, in the spring on warm days. They will appear to us as adults in mid-July. This type of reproduction of slugs was invented by nature.
Why wait for the slugs to attack? It can be prevented by destroying baby or teenage slugs in time.
Who eats slugs or nature to help us.
Moreover, laying hens should not be allowed to peck at them, because the hens will sharply reduce the supply of eggs by lunchtime.
Hedgehogs, moles, starlings, jackdaws and rooks eat slugs, but frogs do not refuse them. Here there is material for thought: who is better for the garden, a mole who will eat a slug and destroy all the plants, or a hedgehog who himself is not averse to eating our green vegetables?
Lizards, salamanders and snakes disappear immediately. There are ground beetles, toads and frogs left - they need to be taken as helpers and companions, conditions for reproduction and life must be created.
Tell your gardener friends and gardeners about ways to protect vegetable crops from the pest that eats everything in their summer cottages.
Slugs and snails are close relatives, only the former completely or, less often, partially lack a shell. They move by contracting the entire body, which acts as a sole and a leg at the same time. From here scientific name- gastropods. Distributed everywhere, here are just some types of slugs:
Sea slugs are found in the water. Only here we are not talking about a relative of the snail, but about unusual fish. She has adapted to a deep-sea existence that was previously considered impossible by scientists. In the photo, the sea slug looks more like an overgrown tadpole. This form is most suitable for living at an unimaginable depth (almost 8 thousand meters). Some sea slugs live near the shores, without shelter under the huge thickness of water. This phrase is also popularly used to refer to nudibranchs, the closest relatives of gastropods.
The colors of the animals are varied. In addition to the usual gray or black ones, you may encounter purple slugs, white, yellow, green slugs, blue individuals and even red mollusks. This largely depends on the habitat. Surprisingly, some species make interesting pets. They are kept in special terrariums, the bedding at the bottom of which must be mulched so that the pets can move freely without the risk of damaging their delicate body-sole. These include the Madagascar slug. It is flatter and smoother than the garden species we are accustomed to, and looks like a fat, voracious worm covered in mucus.
What do slugs eat and who feeds on them?
In nature, slugs most often live in damp, dark, sheltered places. Their surface practically does not retain moisture, so under direct rays they dry out and die. This explains the fact that you won’t find slugs in the desert, but there are plenty of them in forests, gardens and vegetable gardens. But they won’t take root in the bath either, despite the suitable conditions, since they simply have nothing to eat there.
Nocturnal creatures feed on the remains of organic food - humus, mulch, rot. But sometimes they are not averse to eating fresh plant leaves and berries; they are very fond of strawberries, which is why they are considered quite dangerous garden pests. There are predatory species that attack worms, and especially large individuals can eat newborn mice or chicks.
Gardeners and gardeners invent many traps to scare away or kill it. But! On the other hand, these creatures actively participate in the formation of humus and process upper layer soil, making it more fertile.
How do they drink? Everything is simple here: the mollusk licks moisture from the surface of the leaves, thereby replenishing the supply of liquid, which is then processed into mucus, necessary for movement and maintaining normal body humidity.
Nature has taken care of regulating their numbers, creating a huge number of those who eat slugs, and moreover, considers them the best delicacy. One of the most terrible natural enemies is the ground beetle. This is a nocturnal predator, insatiable and incredibly voracious. Soft, defenseless gastropods are his favorite food. During the night, the ground beetle destroys up to several dozen small pests and several large ones.
Another fan of eating a large slug is the hedgehog. It also actively hunts at night, preferring the soft, nutrient-rich body of its unshelled relative, the snail. Again, a dozen or two pests will die in one night under the sharp teeth of a hedgehog. Toads, grasshoppers, frogs, salamanders and birds of prey also catch slugs.
Features of reproduction, or where the cubs come from
Of course, if there are adult slugs, then there must be “babies”. And this is so, and newborn individuals, or rather eggs, become a delicacy for many birds, insects and mammals. But let's first figure out how slugs reproduce. 
There is no need to talk about males and males here, because gastropods are hermaphrodites. In other words, they have both male and female genital organs, and during mating they can act in any role. Surprisingly, in the animal environment it is these inconspicuous creatures that are recognized as “sexual giants”! The fact is that the length of their male penis is several times greater than the length of their entire body! For example, a banana slug grows on average to 15 cm, but its erect penis reaches 81 cm! This is a real record that no one else can boast of.
Reproduction of slugs is a mysterious and incomprehensible process. When mating, adults seem to envelop each other with their genitals. Often it is almost impossible to untangle such a “tangle,” so animals simply have to bite off the partner’s organ or their own. However, it does not always grow back, and the victim in the future can only use the remaining female part of the reproductive system. It is in this context that we can talk about the slug girl.
After the described process, fertilized eggs mature in the body of the participants. Then the adult deposits them in wet ground. On average, there are about 50 eggs in one clutch; they mature in about a month, and the young are born. A newborn slug is no different from an adult, except perhaps in size. This is a tiny copy of what we are all used to gastropod. After 2 months, the babies fully grow and become sexually mature, beginning to actively reproduce.
Pests or helpful helpers
The answer to the question is ambiguous, because animals can cause significant damage and at the same time improve the structure of the soil. But most often, slugs in the garden are a real problem, because:
- They develop quickly and become ready to reproduce
- One individual lays several dozen fertilized eggs at once
- Their structural features make them hermaphrodites, so there is simply no shortage of females or males
Important! If you don't want to allow slugs to thrive in your garden or vegetable garden, monitor the situation and, if necessary, take measures to repel the pests or reduce their population.
Now you know what slugs look like, how they differ from snails, how they feed and reproduce. These are truly unique creatures of nature, whose lives are unusual and interesting.
A slug is an outwardly rather cute gastropod, a slowly moving mollusk, which evolution has deprived of a protective shell, that is, even a tiny shell, has not endowed it with poison in its body, but has endowed it with extraordinary gluttony and secrecy. And this gluttony brings us, gardeners and gardeners, a lot of trouble. After all, it seems that a slug can devour all living things in the garden! How to curb his appetites? We will tell you about effective methods of fighting slugs in this publication.
The gluttony of slugs brings a lot of trouble to gardeners. © Gediminas Georgia Melodie Hole
Biology of slugs
Biologically, the slug body itself has a head and a torso, which has a mantle and a so-called leg. There are two pairs of tentacles on the head, one pair is shorter and directed downwards, the other is longer and directed upwards. On the long tentacles there are eyes and receptors responsible for the sense of smell, and on the lower ones there are receptors that allow one to determine the taste of food.
There is a mouth opening in the center of the head. The mantle is located directly behind the head, on the back of the mollusk, in the mantle there is a lung, slightly on the right side, a hole for breathing, and the anus is also located not far away. The leg, in fact, is the lowest part of the slug’s body, with the help of which it moves.
The skin of a slug is very thin, always covered with mucus; if the mucus dries out for some reason, the slug itself dies. The color may vary slightly, for example, sand, gray, etc.
Reproduction of slugs
An interesting fact is that each individual slug is a hermaphrodite, that is, it has both male and female genital organs, but in order to lay eggs from which full-fledged slugs will hatch, they still need mating. This process is sometimes funny; during mating, slugs seem to dance, wriggling around each other, finding a partner by a special smell, which, according to scientists, is unique to each individual, like fingerprints for you and me.
After mating (attention!), each of the individuals participating in the process lays a couple of dozen eggs, using areas with highly moist soil for ovipositor, and after a month or a little less, small slugs emerge from the eggs, first feeding on the remains of organic matter in the soil. After a month and a half, each of the hatched slug larvae is capable of reproducing and laying eggs.
By the way, after the first clutch, slugs do not need to mate again; the resulting “charge” is enough to lay several hundred eggs. Just imagine how fast they can multiply!
Damage from slugs
Slugs cause particular damage in the form of often completely destroyed above-ground parts of a variety of crops in the southern regions, and in the center and north, where reproduction stops with the onset of the first frost and laid eggs rarely survive the winter, as do the individuals themselves, which sharply limits their numbers, according to For this reason, the damage from slugs is not so great.
In order for slugs to eat and digest all the plants in your garden, it is necessary that you do not appear there during the entire warm season, which should be distinguished by an early and warm spring, a cool and rainy summer, and also that there should be no significant frosts in the fall and winter.
Each individual slug is a hermaphrodite, but they still need to mate in order to lay eggs. © Anthony Falla Measures to combat slugs
There are a huge number of measures to combat slugs: from the sole of a shoe to chemicals, but it is better to start with prevention. Perhaps, taking into account certain subtleties and knowing the biology of the pest, you will reach a situation where no more than a couple of slugs miraculously appear on your site, which will not cause any serious damage.
Preventive control measures
The most important thing here is to follow the planting scheme, not to thicken the plants, fight weeds, keep the area clean and tidy and not be overzealous with watering. Especially uncontrolled watering by sprinkling, when sprinklers are installed and water flies in all directions, generously wetting both what is needed and what is not at all necessary.
Do not allow the beds to become overgrown with weeds, including the row spacing; this is a more than convenient place for slugs to reside and for their reproduction.
Around November, just before the frosts, dig up the soil to the fullest extent of a shovel, and leave it like that until spring. Slugs physically cannot hide deep; they will die in the first winter, along with the eggs laid, so in the spring you will have a minimum of problems eliminating this pest.
In the spring, you can dig up the area again and also leave the clods unbroken for at least a couple of days, this is necessary in order to finish off the ovipositor that has overwintered - now it will simply dry out under the hot spring rays of the sun.
If you have the opportunity, then all the rows and garden paths that are constant on the site from year to year can be covered with pine needles or small stones, for example, by breaking a few bricks. The fact is that slugs can easily move on a flat and damp surface, but they cannot move on “sharp”, dry terrain.
And of course, do not forget about the birds, however, they can also cause harm - by pecking the tops of cherries or sea buckthorn, destroying part of the harvest of serviceberry or blueberries, but at the same time they will destroy all the slugs they see on the site, so you can additionally hang up feeders in the winter, and then in the spring the birds will definitely return to your site.
In addition to birds, hedgehogs are happy to eat slugs; in order for them to come to your site, you can organize the most primitive pond somewhere in the corner of the garden - just dig in a plastic basin and fill it with water.
Plants against slugs
According to reviews from a number of gardeners, slugs can be repelled even by the aroma of a number of “correct” plants, for example, garlic, sage, and of course, marigolds. You can plant these plants along the edges of beds with valuable vegetables, hoping that slugs will avoid them.
Hand collecting slugs
In addition to everything described above, you can always put your hands into the fight against slugs by simply collecting those that you find. Remember, however, that they are cunning creatures, they operate at night, and during the day they hide in secluded corners. To find them, there is a simple trick - water the soil and place pieces of slate, cardboard, plastic, iron and similar material on its surface. In the morning, raise them; if there are slugs in your area, then almost their entire population will be concentrated in what they consider to be ideal shelters.
Once found, deal with the slugs as you see fit. On our site, we simply took them to the nearest planting; it was a pity to kill them.
Hand-picking slugs is a reliable method of controlling them. © Bromirski Protective wall
A wall or barrier made of ordinary soil. It can be built around the perimeter of the site using wet soil, which will not lose its shape after drying. At the same time, before the barrier, as well as after it, the soil can be generously sprinkled with spruce needles or, say, perlite, to make it as difficult as possible for slugs to cross.
Instead of a wall, you can make grooves, for example, two or three with a distance of a couple of centimeters, also 2-3 cm deep and the same width, at the bottom of which pour dry sand, finely stuffed shells from any nuts, wood ash and the like.
You can protect young trees with simple river sand; it is enough to make something like a small roller enclosing each tree.
Oddly enough, water can also help in the fight against slugs that love everything wet. To do this, you need to cut an old irrigation hose lengthwise, dig it lightly into the soil and fill it with water, you can add table salt(tablespoon per liter). Usually, once slugs fall into such a groove with water and salt, they can no longer get out of it and quickly die.
Beer is good for you
Gardeners and gardeners claim that regular beer also helps in the fight against slugs. It is better to use what is in a plastic container, there are a minimum of natural substances, and the smell comes out very strong and is attractive to slugs.
First, you need to remove the neck from the bottle so that the width of the trap is large, then pour in 100-150 g of beer and dig the bottle into the soil so that its edges are strictly at soil level. This is a real trap, which in effectiveness is comparable only to hunting belts on trees.
One such trap can collect up to 90% of all slugs from your site. For those who are especially slow, we can advise you not to bury or cut the bottle, but to place it as close as possible with the neck to the soil; slugs will crawl there too, although the effectiveness of such a trap will be noticeably lower.
Other folk remedies against slugs
Hot pepper, or rather its decoction. To prepare a hot pepper decoction, you need to thoroughly dry the hot pepper pods and then grind them, ideally in a coffee grinder. Next, approximately 50 grams of the powder obtained in this way (which you can buy) should be dissolved in a liter of water, let this composition brew for three days, then put on fire, bring to a boil and then let stand for another couple of days.
Keep in mind that this decoction stores well, so it can be made once and for the whole summer. All that remains is to strain the broth, fill the spray bottle and, in calm weather, so that the broth does not get into your eyes, spray the plants thoroughly. In order not to harm the plants, it is advisable to carry out treatments before or after flowering. If the weather outside is damp and there is no break in the clouds, and slugs are annoying, then you can add soap to the solution to create a sticking effect. 20 g of laundry soap is enough per liter.
You can add between rows, its amount should not exceed 20 g per square meter, or sprinkle slaked lime in the same amount.
Sometimes a mixture of lime and tobacco dust is successfully used. The amount of both should be equal and be about 50 g per square meter. If there is no lime and tobacco dust, then in the same quantity and in the same way you can use a mixture of ordinary wood ash and ordinary tobacco, and with this mixture you can dust not only the row spacing, but also the plants themselves.
The real poison for naked slugs is iron sulfate. For greater effect, iron sulfate must be mixed with river or ordinary construction sand and scattered around the perimeter of the site. As soon as a slug crawls onto such a mixture, it will die in a few seconds.
A mixture of soot (from the furnace) and tar gives the same effect. These two “ingredients” can be used either in mixture with each other or separately. For example, tar, which has a well-known “aroma,” repels slugs, so sometimes soaking pieces of fabric with it and placing these strips near or under plants is enough.
Surprisingly, they fight slugs using even simple pharmaceutical greens. The bottle is enough for ten liters of water; just pour it out, stir well, and the plant treatment product will be prepared. The smell of ammonia also repels pests, and you only need five tablespoons of it per ten liters of water - this composition can also be sprayed on plants.
Sprinkling pine needles or perlite over the soil can provide a protective barrier against slugs. © Syd Let's move on to chemistry
We remind you that chemicals have Negative influence not only on slugs, but also on the soil, and on the plants around, on beneficial insects, to one degree or another, on you and me, so you need to resort to their help in special cases, when there are so many slugs on the site that it is impossible to cope with them folk remedies fight is impossible.
The vast majority of naked slug control products are based on the pesticide Metaldehyde. We strongly advise you to use approved drugs, carefully study the hazard class, which must be indicated on the package with the drug, and if it is higher than three (2-1), then you should definitely use protective gloves and a mask, treat the area in calm weather and strictly following the instructions on the package.
Among those drugs that are popular in the fight against slugs are “Thunderstorm” and “Slug Eater”, these are granules or powder, usually lilac. Slugs eat the granules or powder and quickly die.
These drugs, like most other drugs for fighting slugs, have a negative effect on birds and domestic animals; they may not kill them, but they will greatly affect their health, which must be taken into account.
Also, if you use chemicals, then do not subsequently consume vegetables and fruits directly from the garden or from the tree; you must first wash them, preferably in water heated to 35 degrees.
In addition to the described drugs, a drug based on iron phosphate is also known, this is “Ulitsid” (also in granules, but more often blue), its effect is similar, but it is safe for pets and birds.
Not a single search engine in the world has found a single text with the phrase “caring for slugs” until today. I came across mostly links to advice to gardeners on how to deal with them while caring for the garden. It is called the most disgusting garden pest. It's time to fix the mistake. Let's talk about the slug.
A slug is a land mollusk without a shell. Wikipedia says that this gastropod evolved as a snail, but lost its shell. According to one hypothesis, he simply switched to a different type of diet - leaves; according to another, he began to lack calcium. Without a shell, the slug has become helpless; it is eaten by many animals: rodents, moles, hedgehogs, and birds - ducks, for example, and even insects. Ground beetles feed on slugs. In general, who doesn’t eat them?
It is unlikely that we will need Serpukhov capacitor units for this. Something else will be needed. We are engaged in a hobby and not in saving energy and money.
The big question is, what do slugs eat? They eat leaves, both dry and wet, green and fresh. They generally live in the forest floor, in the damp layer of fallen leaves. Slugs are necrophages; they eat leaves, spreading fungi and viruses along the way, thanks to which the fallen leaves rot. They eat potatoes, cabbage, mushrooms - even poisonous ones. Everything they eat spoils very quickly and becomes covered with a thick layer of mucus. They love to eat strawberries, cucumbers, and tomatoes. They do not like garlic and grains. One of the ways to combat them in the garden is associated with garlic. Garlic is passed through a meat grinder and diluted in a bucket of water. The beds are watered with this water and slugs do not crawl on them.
Sometimes the slug behaves violently and attacks earthworms.
