How to Kill the Slimy Bastards (a.k.a. Slugs)
WANTED: DEAD OR ALIVE
I hate them. You hate them (or if you don’t, you should). Slugs. They are the bane of a gardener’s existence. The sweetest, would-not-hurt-a-fly gardener will gleefully crush the soft, slimy bodies of these ugly, plant devouring monsters.
The best way to kill slugs depends on two factors. The first being how much work you would like to invest in eradicating slugs from your garden. The second is how much suffering you would like the slugs to go through.
The Salt Method – This is an age old and particularly gruesome method of killing slugs. It requires a fair amount of effort though. Basically, you go out in your garden in the dark of night, armed with a flashlight and a salt shaker. Search your plants that have had tell-tale holes eaten into them. Find the slugs, and as you find them, pluck them off the plant and shake just a tad bit of salt on them. The salt will draw the water out of the slug and it will die.
The Beer Method – This is a kind hearted killers way of disposing of slugs, but it is pretty labor free. All you do is leave a shallow dish of beer out in the part of your garden where you are having a slug problem. The next morning, you will awake to either a very drunk raccoon or a dish filled with dead slugs. Your chances of finding a dish of dead slugs is higher, but a drunk raccoon is amusing in its own right.
The Melon Method – This is another low effort method you can try whenever you have a melon to eat. Eat the flesh out of the melon. Then leave the hollowed out rind turned melon side down in the garden with a pebble under the edge to prop it up a bit (think Wile E. Coyote Road Runner trap). Leave overnight. In the morning, the underside of the rind will be covered with slugs that you can kill at your leisure. This method works particularly well if you have a resident raccoon hanging about. The raccoon will most likely find the slug filled melon rind before you do and will help himself to a healthy breakfast of melon flavored slugs. Yum.
The Diatomaceous Earth Method – If you thought that using salt to suck the water out of the slugs body was a delightfully cruel way to kill them, wait to you get a load of diatomaceous earth. Sprinkle this stuff over the slug infested area, and it will shred the body of the slug as it crawls over it, which ultimately kills it. Diatomaceous earth is like a powdered Cuisinart! How fun is that?
The Plain Old Squishing Method – Well, in the end, there is something to be said for just squishing slugs as you find them. It is pretty gross, but is wonderfully satisfying.
I need to try that melon method just out of curiousity (since I hvave melon at hand right now). Fortunately, the slugs haven’t been doing too much damage but I see the slime and don’t want to wait for them to get too comfortable. Maybe tomorrow night…
I am intrigued by the melon method, I’ve got a melon waiting to be eaten too.
You forgot ammonia spray! :o) One part ammonia to 9 parts water. If you add a little dishsoap, it will take care of earwigs too. Not as easy as the traps, but more satisfying and less yucky than squishing.
I used sluggo late last year. This year, no problem with slugs. None. Not a single sign of slug damage.
Maybe it killed them all and there weren’t any left to lay eggs. It’s a nice thought, anyway.
I find that cutting them in half with my garden pruners is easier than than salt, sprays, or sluggo, though possibly more gruesome.
who can resist a comment to a slug killing. they eat a hole in just one leaf of my aloe plant and the plant rots. Not that they will decide to do an orgy on one plant and get it over with, they split up and each choose a seperate plant. I combine all methods including the slug pellets.
by the way my aloe blog is also on blogger.
I remember salting the darned things as a kid and in a gruesome way, loving to watch them wriggle and goo everywhere. However, they are eating my seedlings and the flowers of my acorn squash as of late. Ive tried the beer method and apparently they are much for drinking. So, Ill try the melon method tonight. Thanks for the info.
Good grief.
I can understand the overwhelming need to kill off an offending interloper. You sound just like I do when I talk about House Sparrows. Too bad the sparrows don’t crawl around to be picked up.
I have many, many slugs around here. My 4 1/2 year old daughter likes to pick them up and watch them. I haven’t had a problem with them eating much, though. Just lucky, I guess.
I haven’t tried it myself, but on some other blogs recently people have been talking about copper barriers. I guess it doesn’t kill them, but it reacts with their slime and gives them a small electric shock that sends them on their way.
Here’s a link to using your leftover coffee – <a href=”http://www.bbc.co.uk/radio4/today/reports/archive/science_nature/slug_caffeine_mail.shtml” rel=”nofollow”>Coffee to kill slugs</a>.
It does have to be strong, though, to get the caffeine content high enough.
Two people for Sluggo. I may have to try that.
I had not heard of the coffee method. hehe. A new dasterdly way to get the buggers.
Well, I’ve never had to deal with slugs before, so when I came home late one night to find them hanging from my siding on my front porch it scared the hell out of me. And I feel that the only way to kill them is to watch them suffer in a pool of salt. It made me feel good to watch them die. Thanks for the tip!
john
i too have thoroughly enjoyed watching the slimeballs trying to wriggle out of their skin before the salt”does them”, but you have to catch find them for that. just today i was told of the beer method and its already working famously. i feel soooo much more humane.hahaha
One of the best ways to get rid of slugs is to avoid watering at night time, water plants in the morning instead. Slugs need moist environments.
The beer traps work great, but make sure that they cannot drink the beer without falling in and drowning.
You can also take a flashlight outside around mid-night and find those that did not make it to the party.
Salt also is great for killing slugs, but make sure you don’t put salt in your garden because it will make the soil toxic, and your plants will likely die.
Good luck to all you slug killers!!!
I collect slugs and snails (kids could do that) and dump them on a hot busy street. If the heat doesn’t get them, the vehicles will. Perhaps coffee grounds may impede their travel. I haven’t tried this often enough to know for sure.
I get a pair of tongs and chuck them across the street at night to my neighbors yard, driveway, and ontop of their cars. They are annoying neighbors that party with their music loud all the time and disturb the other neighbors. Its satisfying to chuck them over and land on their cars. Fun too!!!!
And there’s sluggo for those who don’t want to deal with the corpses:
http://www.pestproducts.com/sluggo.htm
I pluck em off n throw em into a bucket of hot water then tip em down the drain!
when u do this some of em make quite a satisfying pop sound.
i get my 5 year old nephew to run them over whith his bike
fun and gory death to them all!
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Slugs and snails – I read with greatinterest at the gruesome methods that are being used π Now, what I do is the midnight torch search I collect them in a bucket with a lid and then dump them in a nearby stream the next day. We all have a purpose on our planet I know the birds love them so hopefully they have a feast the next day. Just off to straighten my Halo π
Try living in Hawaii. We just had a heavy rain and there are hundreds of them all over the place! On the walls, windows lawn and plants! I used chopsticks to pick them up and drop in a bucket with saline solution. So far after 2 days of slug hunting I have killed at least 300-400 of the buggers! Oh yea, don’t forget the snails. They are as big as a child’s fist!
Try filling an empty windex bottle with bleach, then spray the buggers into oblivion. You can be reasonably accurate with the spray, so as not to damage the plants. Most plants are unaffected by a little over-spray, others will burn a bit. Once you have prepared a bottle, it’s handy and quick to use. Each slug only needs one or two good blasts. Use the spray in conjunction with the melon method. That is, put out your bait, then come back later, and soak the villains. You may dilute the bleach, but, if it is too watery the slugs survive the bath.
My father had a particularly satisfying method. He’d duck taped a carving knife to a stick/handle and walked around slicing slugs. No need to bend over. Sort of a Polo swing sort of action. I love it. I get great pleasure slicing slugs. Death is certain and it also attracts other slugs. So you can return and kill again! This knife was strong enough to double as a weeding tool in his lawn. He stick it down beside a dandelion and slice into the root path 6-8 inches deep. And the weed was then flipped out with the withdrawing knife. I do look forward to damp nights out with my headlamp and knife on a stick.
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I had never been bothered by slugs in my gardens…………..until this year. My skin crawls right now writing this, Gods creatures???? I have my doubt, but a mixture of ammonia and water sprayed on the nasty things dissolves them in seconds. Nothing left but a bright orange spot, easily washed off with a hose. Word is out that I am a worthy enemy in the slug world and I haven’t seen any since. Now I can tiptoe thru the tulips barefoot……..hehe
haha LOVE this website!!! ALL things are God’s creatures but I bet HE’d step on one TOO if they were makin swiss cheese outta HIS zinnias! You all ROCK!
i’ve used salt diluted in a spray bottle and that helps target the buggers. I’ve also used isopranol alcohol but that got expensive after awhile since we had so many but the salt spray bottle worked great!
Wow,
Those tiger slugs not only go after beer, they like vodka drinks and marlboro lights!
I’ve had it! Those little you know whats must DIE!!!
Hey, how ’bout them squirrels?
Arrrh!
No prisoners taken.
MM
I tried the beer last night and woke up to a cup full of those disgusting things. Well, at least they died happy.
They must die!!! They are eating my rabbits food. I got a kick out of all the ways to kill the nasty buggers. Thanks for all the tips. Tried salt tonight it was fun to watch them die but still want to make sure I got them all. What should I try next? It is also a good way to get out any penned up anger just take it all out on the grouse slugs.
i hate ’em too. they eat almost all the white meat on my hostas. sorry i missed the usage of coffee grounds. does this work? barrie
i found a slug eating my peppers ealier so i slug pelleted my plants. and then i stuck a pellet in the hole in its head when it took a gasp of air and it started to wiggle from left to right shakeing its ass quite quickley for a slug.
it did it for like 10 mins and i got bored and impailed it with a tent peg. and just as i was leaveing i saw a catapilla so i karate chopped it screeming like bruce lee and it exploaded into 2 halfs.
I actually enjoy watching slugs die even though I’ve felt pangs of guilt at times. I don’t know who came up with the salt method but it is working at keeping the flowers alive and entertaining at the same time. GO SALT!!
Any feed back or knowledge about using saw dust would be appreciated.
I go out e-a-r-l-y at the crack of dawn and find them stretched out on hosta/turnip leaves (they love turnip and I plant only for leaves for juicing and don’t like them eating them! and they love comfrey – but haven’t found mine yet). When I collect them, I drop them in a pail with salt water to kill (I don’t want dead ones left in the garden in any shape or form!). I left boards for them to climb under but not too much luck with that as I expected. I will definately try the melon halves (also grapefruit is suppose to be effective) next year.
Well I am scared of slugs and we saw a slug in the basement so we did not know how to kill it so then she told me and my sister to kill it she told me to spray it wit hspray bleech and told my sister to hit it with the shoe and my sister through the shoe at it ang picked up a big bucket and started hiting the slug with it and over and over agin and my mom went to work and came back home because she told everyone at work that we hade a slug and they tald her that all she needed to do was pour salt on it and she told us and we were like oww………………………
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I Fcking Hate SLUGS!!! You see, since they have the nerve to attack my plants, they ultimately deserve DEATH. What I do is take boiling hot water and damp a napkin, leaving one side dry to hold and than laying it on top of the slugs. I am glad that the slugs are boiling in pain. Another method I use is using a very small spray bottle and filling it up with bleach and spraying the slug to their rightful death! Urgh!
I know slugs “help” out the ecosystem, but they piss me off too many times. Just too many times…
You are so cruel, i have a banana slug named samantha and she is an amazing pet, why does everyone take their anger out on slugs… =(
Good reading. I don’t feel so bad that I just salted one of these nasty things. On the siding last night, this morning it made it to the pole on the porch. Now it’s a shriveled salted corpse. Does anyone know how to find the egg nest to kill them BEFORE they’re grown?
I read the posts about beer vs milk with interest and I will put my cards on the table now – I do want to sell something. About three years ago I was having terrible problems in a large garden with slugs and snails. So, as a product designer by trade, I spent hours in the shed conjuring up inventions that would catch the anoying little pests. I eventually found that the tried and tested beer trap was the best solution.
At first I just cut up tonic water bottles and burried them in flower beds and pots, but I hated having to pull them out, throw away the gooey contents, put them back and then refill. It was really messy and I was going through buckets of Beer!
So after a bit more design and testing I came up with a solution that worked for me. I found that beer would last ages if you re-used it so I created a beer trap that I now call the Slug Inn. It has an inner and outer. The outer stays in the ground and the inner has a hole in the bottom that allows the beer to drain into the outer but keeps the slugs and snails so you can throw them away. I also added a pretty lid on top to keep the rain out.
It worked so well that I got together with a friend who has a manufacturing company and we started producing and selling them about a year ago. Hurray for British Design and manufacturing. It’s been a bit slow but they are selling well this year – I just need to get it better known.
We sell six slug traps for ΓΒ£12.99 including P&P. See my website http://www.kakoi.co.uk.
Regarding milk, yes slugs love it but I had heard that it attracts other animal like hedgehogs who get very ill if they drink it. It’s the yeast in beer that attracts thethe slugs so you can make up mixture of yeast and water or some people swear by yeast and orange juice.
Happy hunting.
Alan
I like gordon ramsey’s Idea … eat em! The quickest way to reduce the population of anything is for humans to eat them… heck they charge a lot for escargots in the fancy restaurants!
I love slugs
I left plastic lids (from yogurt containers and such) filled with beer and IT REALLY WORKS! I think I’ll try the melon method to see if it knocks off even more to get rid of them before they completely destroy my miniature sunflowers and mums…
I found your site cause I was googling for the most sick way to kill slugs and snails (yeah I am on a bit of a rage). Just went to check on my garden this morning and find a really long shiny slime trail!
My bf and his mate does a lot of car racing stuff and they have annoying car parts all over the garden. Something been eating my lemon verbena, my climbing sugar snap peas are naked at the bottom :s
I have some patience, and was thinking of filling a bottle with ammonia or sodium hypochlorite (i am a chemist) and while I search for the slugs & snails then drop them one by one into the solution and watch them die.
But then again, I use the pellet method, earth and pet and animal friendly btw (Australia you know, we have to take care of the animals :P) doesn’t really work that well.
You forgot to mention surrounding your plants with copper wire or silver (like deterring werewolves) will work too.
My sugar snap peas for example are on a pergola made of silver and they just eat the bottom part never touching the top. While the other peas is on a wooden pergola, they have rotten holes here and there.
Anyway, the most annoying part is my bf dumps his car parts IN cardbox boxes on the garden soil and just leave it there! I upturn it just now, and a family of SLUGS!!!! grrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr
Sorry, I am in a slug rage right now.
just forgot to mentioned, I was also just out there stomping out a few generations of snails and slugs. >.<
i just read every single comment and this was about the funniest thing i have ever read good job ppl keep it up i think i might i read it over
kill it with a BLOWTORCH!!!!!
I became obsessed – just like Bill Murry in Caddyshack! My family was ready to have me committed.
Finally, people who hate the f-ing suckers as much as I do!!
Two months of rain, a brook behind my house, and a beautiful granite wall in front……..SLUGS EVERYWHERE!!
The year before they were bad, but nothing like this!
I used slug bait from a gardening center, which helped a bit, but a $20 a throw I was going broke.
As for the beer method, they just laughed at me, there were just too many, why waste it on them. I drank the beer instead!
After a rain storm I’d head out salt in hand and within a sq yard at least 20 of them were just sitting on my lawn. I salted the little suckers and watch them suffer. At dusk with a flash light….I’d be back at it.
Luckly salt is cheap, but my lawn took a beating.
I read somewhere about throwing a bunch of them in a blender, straining whatever is left, and adding the SLUG JUICE with water in a spray bottle.
Does anyone know anything about this?
Who am I kidding, I’ll buy a cheap blender and try it just for the satisfation!!!
Lisa, That was too funny LOL! I was like that 2 years ago. Out there everyday refilling cups of beer constantly. Last year I didnt even bother…This year I still have all that old beer sitting around so might go at it again. Good Luck LOL.
The slugs need moist, and are repelled by heat and dry condition, so place a 2ft by 2 foot piece of wet cardboard or plywood in the infested area, and put a couple of slices of Potato in there also.
You should be able to harvest the slugs from there – just scrape them off into a bucket of soapy water.
I had to move an entire basement to do renovating and i put things in boxes and large items under the deck. Is been 6 months since the winter, and some of the boxes deteriorated leaving tons of those things. I dont even like being in the same room as those things. I tried diatomaceous earth aka kitty litter, and some vinegar spray but i cant get them out. Is there another way to get them other than the beer bowl, or fruit rinds? I appreciatge any tips. I want to get my things but i hate picking up a box and it has a colony on it.
Yeah, one of our neighbors did that. Armed with a flashlight, they cut off the heads in the middle of the night. (that rhymes!)
Tomorrow is May 1st, and I KNOW THERE COMING!!!
I hate to admit it, but at some sick twisted level I’m looking forward to it. All these new ideas on how to ride my world of the slimy little %#@_^.
As much fun as it would be, I hope the weather conditions aren’t as slug friendly as last year.
I’m preparing my arsenal just in case…..I’ll be ready for them!!
Comment removed due to failure to follow rule #2 (and because she is obviously not a gardener)
They are starting up already. I see the silvery shine across my plants!!! I do the beer thing…sometimes thats a pain but it does attract alot of them into the cup. Good luck fellow warriors!!
haha me and my friend have managed to get through the block at school and are wetting ourselves cant wait to get home and have a slug murdering party yay!!!!!
π
I am going medieval on the slugs and the snails. They have taunted me with their nasty little antennii for the last time!
Biological warfare, nematodes to decimate their kind and eat their eggs. It is not cheap but slug genocide just has a ring to it! A sweet sweet ring.
To be able to go outside barefoot without the ewww factor.
To gaze at the veggie garden without bursting into tears.
A whole new world of freedom awaits that blessed box from gardeners supply. Every mailperson for three routes is aware of how eagerly I await that box O slug death.
I hope to report a spreading slug free zone shortly. Until then I am doing hunt and poke with a sharp stick at dawn and beer baits, along with pet safe pellets. I can’t find any ducks or chickens to rent, I have tried.
I’m afraid of the ammonia method. I don’t think that the praying mantis or lady beetles, that I just bought would be very happy with that!
I find it hard to believe that I have been at this for 3 years. I have tried several methods to rid my flower garden of these destructive creatures but every Spring there they are! I’ve gone to slug resistant plants and making sure there are no Hostas on the property. I am feeling very resentful. Slugs can eat somewhere else.
I like the mixture of salt and sawdust to watch them squirm to their deaths. GROSS
Get this,I got one better.I pick them up and put them in a bucket of bleach.The bigger ones even cry a little when put in the bucket.
Try my bucket method.It won’t harm any plants.
A bucket of bleach and some gloves.Have fun!
Put them in a bucket of bleach.The big ones cry a little.
Try putting boiling water in a water gun and blast them…
There are chicken shops… I just bought a bunch of chickens this morning!
The beer method totally worked. I can’t believe it. I just moved into a new house and have never seen slugs this big (and gross), it would have taken a whole cup of salt for these buggers. I have put out a shallow dish of beer the past 2 nights and they slither right in. Not a bad way to go.
Thanks for the great advice.
I am tired of slugs. I HATE THEM. i go swimming in my pool and right around 6:00 i get out because they surround the deck around the inground pool. I HATE IT. At 10:00 i put in chlorine and turn off the filter and i have to watch EVERYSTEP so i dont step on them. Anyone have ideas about this so i can swim longer and they dont go on the deck and liner. PLEASE HELP.
I really, really hate slugs! Since I live in the pacific north west, we have plenty. I do like to throw salt on them and watch them get foamy and slimy. If I plant petunias, they are little stems the next morning. I think we have some cheap beer in the garage that we did not like so I’ll put out beer tonight. Do not want to waste the good stuff.
Here are my results, two applications of the nematodes got rid of most snails, the slugs , however, were STILL there, laughing at me. Hah!, not for long. Something called Bug-Geta will change your life. Place it wherever you see the slimy trails and the very next morning you can watch slugs die in frothing agony. It is wonderful.
Take your coffee with you because you do not want to miss a single moment!
This is not a politically correct/ organic poison, or pastime, but hey, they asked for it!
If you are reading this, you can read the label on the Bug-Geta, I was careful, you should be too- because this is powerful stuff.
Only do this when you have time to watch the foaming death the next morning, I could not find but a few stragglers with a day or two. And I did not post this until I had already bought a plentiful supply of this fabulous stuff for my own use! And no, no company paid me to say this, I am a gardener happy to help other gardeners, after I got my hands on enough of the magic elixir to deslug a city block.
Or two.
Enjoy and do post your results!
UPDATE….from Crazy Slug Lady…
I have an apprentice!!!
The little girl next door was out looking for little toads, when I told her about the SLUGS!!
She’s a natural…my legacy will continue!!
The weather has been HOT HOT HOT, the ground bone dry, and no rain in sight. I may have to water my gardens constantly but at least the slugs are suffering.
I see one of the little f&*^kers here and there on my nightly patrol, (yes I did say nightly patrol)but that’s it!
What is a slug killing psycho to do without prey!!!
I’ve always enjoyed the salt method… but the vertical surfaces are harder to hit.
ENTER THE AMMONIA SPRAY BOTTLE!!
One shot and BAM, they melt and die just like with salt!!
They want to play, they have to pay!!
BACK TO MY NEW PROBLEM…how to train a future slug hunter without visible prey!!
Well, we cheated!! I grabbed the hose and soaked down a big weed patch across the street from my house.
Bingo, out popped enough to get my protege hooked!! I started her out slow with the the SALT, and then handed her the ammonia bottle. She was really getting into it…then her mom called her in for dinner.
Wait until the rain finally comes!! I hope it’s before her bedtime!!!!
My nightly routine, and I mean every single night, is to spend at least an hour armed with a spray bottle filled with ammonia and water. Very little water. I have spent almost 20 years blasting slugs and then standing around watching them writhe. Everybody who knows me thinks I’m just a sweet little lady who wouldn’t hurt a fly. But my husband knows better. I sleep better at night knowing all of you are on the team with me.
Bug-Geta is GREAT! I was not a believer at first but today it rained and was cool and there they were – all over the lawn again. I was waiting for this day. I got the Bug-Geta and started to sprinkle a little in a couple of places where I saw a few. It was like candy to them. They went right for it and started to nibble. I could see them coming across the grass towards the stuff. It was only a few seconds and they started to melt as if I had poured salt on them! This really is great stuff!
BLOW TORCH works well and you get to here them scream !!
Our garden was being destroyed so was out every night on the prowl. I was beginning to think I was a bit obsessive But I’m so glad now to see I am not the only one doing night patrols!
On the Salt issue it has destroyed some small shrubs (I dont mind as the benefits overall have far outweighed the few shrubs damaged by salt)
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Think I am in love a lady who likes to murder slugs havent tried the ammonia yet but will the little FU!!KERS invaded my glasshouse so cleard it out and and coated all the offenders with salt. Iam sure ww would make a good couple could go on slug slaughter raids
I do exactly the same. I have a special pair of shoes, which I use.. That’s the quickest way for snails and big slugs and it is both ugly but veeery satisfying to have them pop out their guts.
I have a question,, I read some place about using an alumiun and some liguid (maybe water) and some copper pennies. Has anyone heard of this method?
Sorry Linda, I have not heard of this method but copper wire surrounding the base of the plant is used by some.
It’s annoying (I know) but if possible use Slug resistant plants to start. Something I did not do because I had no idea the critters were on the property. I am now trying Bug-Geta and salt(very lightly) to try and wipe out what is left of them.
I want to know how to locate the egg nests,what the nests look like and how to kill the eggs.
I enjoyed reading all the comments, am glad to here I’m not alone. My husband thinks I’m nuts. I go out at night and spray them with vinegar and watch them get eaten alive. I may be sick but it gives me great satisfaction. I also layed down an old carpet remnent and duting the day I lift it and kill more with the vinegar, so far it hasn’t hurt any of my plants but be careful anyway. I don’t know if it could hurt the plants but in my view it would be worth losing a few plant just to get rid of the darn things.
Twyla
Of all the methods you posted above, I found that the beer method works the best.
I spent a grand on my flower garden in Ak. It has rained 35 days in a row, and there are thousands of slugs. They took a 7′ delphinium down in one night. I am out at night with a flashlight for 1-2 hrs and getting no sleep. The beer works best, but I spend the hours pulling them off my plants and dropping them into the saucers. They hide under rocks and at the base of the plants, esp. the lilies and iris. I tried shaking the plants and picking them off the ground after they fall off. Saw some clear colored eggs and killed those. They travel from plant to plant, actually letting the ones they almost killed grow back some and attack again. I see them travel across the road to get to my garden. It does not pay to grow certain plants. Get rid of the ones they like. Slugs are crawling on my house. They are practically getting ready to knock on the door dressed as snails for Halloween. There has to be a better way.
Lol I love your macabre description of your slug murder fest Lynn, I feel like going slug hunting now lol
I don’t believe it! IΓ’β¬β’ve been corrupted.
I thought I’d quickly Google how to kill slugs tonight, so I could take action needed before going to bed. I have ended up enjoying yet crindging at some, well most of the post on the enjoyment that a lot of you get from killing slugs. As I say “oops sorry snail” when I by accident step on one.
So I opted for the bowls of beer around the place. Happy with where I placed the beer I was going inside to bed, when I spotted one! Right at my door.
My reaction was fast. I ran to the kitchen and grabbed the SALT.
I closed my eyes and sprinkled a pinch of salt over the slug. Then I found my self peeking out of one eye. Then the next thing I knew I was watching with both eyes wide open and adding more salt.
As if that not bad enough I found myself then walking around the garden with a large jar of salt under my arm hunting more slugs down.
So now it’s 2.15am and my quick Google for killing snails before bed has not only taken me to the dark side of watching something die a horrible death (and maybe enjoying it just a tiny bit) but it has also taken me the better part of 2 hours!
Well I think I will try going to bed again now and let the beer bowls do there bit.
Good night all my fellow slug lovers.
Oops gotta go I just spotted another one.
Hallelujah!! I am not alone! I have been a rabid Slug Hunter for two years now. Tonight, as I lay in wait for the dreaded fiends for the umpteenth night in a row, squatting in the dark with my torch and GIANT bottle of salt (the guy at the supermarket must be starting to worry about my heart health given the quantities of salt I buy each visit), I began to feel slightly uncomfortable about the amount of joy I was getting watching those slimy beasts from some dark corner of Hell burn and froth as I heaped their fate upon them. I decided to have a coffee break and did a quick Google search (“kill slugs salt”). It’s now an hour later and I have gleefully traded in my dwindling bottle of salt for a spray bottle filled with hardcore rock salt dissolved in boiling water. I’ve been torn between reading all your posts and getting to work with my new weapon (I’ve sent a few spurts off from my chair as I’ve been reading, and it looks pretty good so far – or bad, if you happen to be a slug currently slithering around in my general vicinity!). Now I’m headed off into the night, I wanted to thank all of you for justifying my slugocidal urges, if I am indeed as psychotic as my husband thinks I am, then at least I’m not the only monster of my kind! Happy hunting everyone!
I just moved to a greener climate last year so did not know the ways of the slug since I grew up in the desert. Now I KNOW and I hate the little slimy flickers. They eat my dog’s food. The first one I spotted I screamed like the girl I am and used a paper towel and threw it over the fence. I feel little bad about throwing it in the yard next door but not that bad. So I thought I had taken care of the problem. Tonight I flushed 5 of the things. I’ve laughed at all the posts but I’m headed outside with my beer and salt. The war has begun!!!!
Well, almost five years since this blog has started and I’m sure everyone is still going strong trying to kill the buggers. I’m in the metro New Orleans area. We haven’t had rain in nearly 4 weeks, but the slimy fellas are here and making a mess of my garden. We purchased this home last year and it had been empty since Hurricane Katrina. The yard was so overgrown and I spent all of last year just getting the soil healthy and ready for this year. Now, its just filling in and making me proud of all my hard work, and HERE THEY COME!!!
I put the beer out tonight…time to get to work with the salt and flash light too. At least until I knock the numbers down a bit.
Loved reading everyone’s input….fabulous!
Can anyone tell me if the shrub “coppertina nine bark” is slug resistant? Been killing slugs since 2007. It seems to be thinning out. All new plants and slug resistant. Salt is still working best for this property. Used commercial products along with the salt. I am so tired of having to research everything I plant because of SLUGS!! Good luck to all slug destroyers.
Well, I’ve read all your methods and I’ve got to say, I’ve found a much easier way to eradicate the pesky buggers. Simply whack out the old 12 gauge, sit on the porch (preferably in a rocking chair), you may also chew tobacco but this is optional. Everytime you spot a thug, BOOM! Unload a shell into it, although be careful to make sure the neighbours cat (oops) or the postman (oops)are not also in range of the blast. Another method is a controlled explosion, dynamite works just fine. Stick a whole bunch of it next to the slug, light the fuse and run for cover. Do be cautious when using this method as it can destroy part of your house and your entire garden and cause second-degree burns (oops). Pip-pip, cheerio!
Slug not thug**
A personal favorite of mine would be to custom craft bb pellets out of salt rock, load up my Evanix Hunting Master AR 6, .22 Cal. And go Van Pelt on the buggers! The beauty of this method? The salt rounds pierce the skin, and melt them from the inside out. They. Are. At. Your. Mercy!
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you can use wasp killer to spray 1 times and wait for the slug crawl out again. Then spray 1 more times. The slug will be dead.
OMG! I was outside…its 2 in the morning…i was smoking a cigarette minding my own buisness when this huge gross slug was right by my foot! Yuck! I was scared..they r nasty lil things! Anyway i came inside in digust and found this cool website. U all r great and made my night Thank u π To finish my story i grabbed salt and acted tough…got outside and it was gone! Oh its totally war on the creepy slugs tomorrow night!
If you think slugs are gross, wait until you come across two slugs “doing it”.
I was out doing my nightly patrol (like any good slug hunter) and I started to notice 2 slugs curled up together with a kinda white blob in the middle.
Just when I thought the little f – er’s couldn’t gross me out anymore, there they are, I’d like to be polite…..but f-ing!!!
Here in New England this begins around Labor Day.
Well I massacred the procreators right along with every other sliming bastard I could find.
NOTE: If you are certified Psycho slug hunter like myself, this is a particularly rewarding kill.
A really satisfying way of killing Slugs and Snails is just to put a pure bleach mixture on top of them. They literally start sizzling and bubbling and turn to mush so fast.
Even more effective than salt.
This website is the best most entertaining site I’ve ever visited !! Go slug killers!!
I recently noticed damage to my hostas and while inspecting them during the daytime. I found one earwig so I initially though that earwigs might be the problem. I’m new to this gardening stuff so for the first time last night I set out beer traps. I wasn’t really sure what was doing the damage to my hostas, earwigs, slugs, or pillbugs, etc. I initially thought it was earwigs but as of this morning I found a ton of slugs in my beer traps. Yea!! I am so happy. Now, like you all, I’m on a mission. My husband thinks I’m nuts but I just can’t let these slimy buggers win. I’m obbsessed. I cannot wait until this weekend when I can stay up late enough to go slug hunting with salt, ammoinia, and /or bleach just to watch them die a painful death. Kudos to you all !!! My parners in crime !!! Tonight I’m trying Vegetable and Olive oil traps just in case I also have an earwig issue too. If not I’m going back to beer and some of the other fun methods you all have encouraged me to try.
Don’t mix ammonia and bleach; this = chloramine vapor (and could kill you and the slugs at the same time).
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AAAAACCHHHH! Why would GOD create slugs??….he didn’t.
They are ALIENS who will take over the Earth unless we win. I hate those things, but will not watch one dissolve or scream or bubble. I apologize to flies before whacking and throw spiders out the door, too. Now that I’ve stopped laughing, let me say some of you are psycho. SOOOO, I’m taking my six-pack out to the garden, will empty one for me, one for the traps, one for the racoon, one more for me, and two for tomorrow nite. Sweet dreams .
Oh Brian, here I’d always dreamed of moving to Haiwaii, but that would be hell. I just accidently smashed a slug under my bare foot when going out to feed the dog (I YELPED) and had to use a scouring pad and heavy scrubbing to get the slime off my foot. SO gross. So I’m putting out beer, salt, coffee grounds,ammonia, and sending my boys out with a knife on a stick (per Lynn below) to try to find any others. But 300-400? You have nerves of steal. I’d rather hunt snakes, really. Bless you
Are you serious? I just accidently stepped on one bare footed and had to scrub & scrub to get it’s goo off me. Came here via a google search. But a pet? Not telling my boys about this idea. They’d do it, just to get to me. Enjoy your Samantha though – just beware of diseases. π
I live to get every last slug thats living in my garden! I’m sure my local grocer thinks I belong in rehab since I buy more Natty Light than a broke college student. I’ve enjoyed reading all of your comments – nothing like a little slimy humor on a Saturday night!
I live to get every last slug thats living in my garden! IΓ’β¬β’m sure my local grocer thinks I belong in rehab since I buy more Natty Light than a broke college student. IΓ’β¬β’ve enjoyed reading all of your comments Γ’β¬β nothing like a little slimy humor on a Saturday night!
I thoroughly enjoyed reading my fellow slug warriors’ posts! I have used the coffee grind method-works ok and helps nourish the soil, the salt method-especially enjoyed it last night with the 3″ bugger that was enjoying my carnation plant-though have found it will surely kill plants if sprinkled in the garden, the beer method-must be using the wrong beer and now a new successful method-oatmeal! I sprinkle it around, the buggers come for a nibble and then blow up from the inside out!! Not harmful to the garden and the birds and toads can come for dessert without being harmed. I am intrigued by the melon shell and amonia spray. Will have to try them just for the fun of it. Happy slug hunting!
Here we go again!! Another year another fight. My husband also thinks I’m nuts but I have a beautiful border of Hostas along side my house that those slimy s*ckers ruin every year. I’m dedicated to protecting my Hostas as best I can.
I’ve personally found beer works the best for me but I hate sharing my beer with the slugs, I’d rather drink it myself. We only have little one inch slugs here in Wisconsin. I feel for you guys who have to deal with the big b*stards!!
This year I’m trying Sluggo and similar products but if worse comes to worse, I’ll have to put the beer traps and salt into play. I’ve never tried bleach and some of the other suggestions you guys have posted about. If worse comes to worse all bets are off. I’ll do anything to get rid of the slimy s*ckers!! Thanks for all the suggestions. They sure are appreciated.
Keep fighten the the good fight !!
Does anyone have the best non-alcholic suggestion for a church basement?I don’t think that beer would be a good idea given the location and no one wants to set up all night either!Help they’re driving us crazy!!I heard something about eggshells but I don’t know what to do with them.
Salt really does work me n my husband have to killed them almost every night
smash em’ with a slegehammer!!
Thanks for the suggestions but it still sounds like we’d be up all night.I think we’re going to try mixing eggshells with lots of salt and putting it in the center of a big piece of cardboard.We’ll let you all know how it worked.This is all Adam and Eves fault.
Thanks for the suggestions.We’re going to try eggshells and salt on a big piece of cardboard.Will let you know how it worked(or not)!This is all Adam and Eves fault you know!!
The most exciting method by a mile.
Place a hot rod on the slug, they scream before exploding.
Warning: bits of the slug may end up on your face/lips
after exploding.
It’s been 6 years. I’m curious to know if you fixed your slug problem.
i am or was a peace loving little old lady until yesterday when i discovered EVERY
lettuce in my green house was covered in slime and random holes. i had to dump the lot…
now my kid gloves are off..have tried vinegar but diluted it in water and the little b******s simply slimed off…am off to look for ammonia AND oatmeal…..feel a little guilty but you guys reassure me i am not alone in my hatred for slugs
To David: The slugs are still here but not so terrible that I can’t keep them from eating my flowers. Went thru a lot to kill them off. Never see one now. Have found 2 while digging. SMASHED THEM ON THE SPOT!
Well, I will be using the beer method but NOT tonight. I am laughing too hard to do anything after reading your wonderful advice.
Thanks for the tips!
God bless you, Hanna, for your good advice AND for your sense of humor.
i am a committed slug killer,for the last three months both my partner and myself have been taking turns on the midnight shift and the 5am shift.killing approx 100 every 24 hours. i have really enjoyed the salt method and watching them fizz and try to wriggle out of their skin, but we have been causing burn marks on the lawn and damaging the plants, so today i bought a bag of porridge oats for 79 pence and fed it to the slimey buggers they love it. the tale is the slugs eat the dry oats and it swells up inside them bursting their stomaches and killing them. next morning the birds eat all the dead. this also is enviromentaly friendly and encourarages other wildlife into your garden like the well loved slug eating hedgehog.
loved your web site it made me cry……..with laughter thanks for everyones input ,i am trying porridge oats tonight
they slime, they crawl on the garden wall,
they eat my plants and flowers
I sit all night, try as I might, I watch them creep for hours
Im’ not a ghoul, not prone to kill, it’s really not my fault.
They think they made a get away and that they’ll live another day, and I just let them think that way……
,
Then I smother them in salt !!!!
The beer gave them happy hour, the coffee sobered them up. The salt is perfect, Now I know why we shouldn’t eat so much of it . !
Veejay.
I recently bought a puppy and was shocked to hear about lung worms caught from slugs and snails. I have been out this evening with my partner, a pair of latex gloves each and a bucket of salt grit. Works wonders, council provide the salt grit (England), so stock up during the winter. Cheap and does the job.
Best time, late at night. Don’t forget your light to see.
I got such a kick reading about these killings. I recently planted a new hosta and it’s leaves are gone in one night. I planted some seedlings of annuals , they just disappeared next dayΓ°ΕΈΛΒ.So being a new Gardner , I went to dr google and diagnosed the problem as snail / slugs. So I started looking for them. Ewwww, there was 10 of them behind a small shrub. I put them in beer, they kept crawling out???. So I put some acid into it. And they just vaporized!!!. I almost puked looking at those dead ones. Then I got into a routine. Found a colony of them on my aloe. The plant is very compact , might need to thin it out to get the bastards out and fry them. Now a days I stone them!!
Just found this site after spending an hour in the garden salting these bloody gross snails and even grosser Spanish stealth slug!! I didn’t believe they’d come to the UK until I saw them in my garden. They’re really fat and long. I killed about 40 in one hit but feel really grossed out because I scooped them up while they were dissolving instead of waiting till they’d dried up.
They seem to have become immune to slug pellets and I’m fed up with them using my garden for a free lunch… and dinner. I’m going to try the bleach spray instead of salt just for a bit of variety! Can’t believe how many they were on the grass. I’m going to do another quick murder spree before I go to bed. I loathe them, They’re greedy as hell and a dahlia I planted was down to one limp leaf within a few days!
Thanks for all the great tips guys!
I live in England, and after the wettest summer ever, slugs and snails are running riot in my garden – I live in a new build house, been here 3 years, so after a couple of years hard landscaping, this spring/summer i have been planting, well trying – i buy plants, put them in and next morning gone! Seriously completely gone!
I have been trying everything, coffee, beer, gravel, egg shells, out late with torch and salt, yes lots of dead slugs, snails in the beer and salting them is very satisfying, but still plants are being ravaged!
I’m going to try oats tonight, not heard of that one, thanks – I have also put copper pennies down, see if that works, I also read that they don’t like strong smelling plants so lavender has gone in today, nice addition anyhow but if duel purpose, great
loved all the posts nice to know im not the only one obsessing
Arrrggghh! I’m in England too, and the little slimy buggers are seriously getting out of hand. My poor dahlia- so lovely when I brought it home just a week ago is now a sorry bedraggled mess of stems and slime.
We are being overrun with them- and they are HUGE. When I came up through the back garden just a little while ago the slug party was already under-way… there must have been about 30 of them in the grass, another dozen on the paved path- and I don’t want to think about how many are in the flower pots. π
I’ve tried coffee, eggshells, and herbs they supposedly don’t like… I’ve tried garlic spray; can’t use pellets because of all the tiny little frogs just emerging from the pond, (no hope they can eat the slugs- they slugs are 10 times their size!)
Beer traps weren’t a great success- they just crawled out tipsy and spent the night waving their antennae drunkenly at each other.
I think it’s going to have to be the chop-in-half method- I hate to do it, but if that’s what it takes…. >:-{
Hahaha! Why have I never read this before? Now I dont feel so guilty about trapping the slugs that ate my pepper plant in a salt circle.
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I tried the copper tape. It was rubbish. The big ones can arch their bodies over it unless you get the really thick stuff that costs loads. It’s really expensive and I found that even though I was super careful to seal it all down properly with no air bubbles and cleaned the surface properly of what I stuck it to, still it kept falling off and peeling away.
I used Nemaslug the same year and also slug pubs (beer method) and a few other methods like coffee grinds, egg shells, oats and regular slug pellets but still, when I went out with a large jar to collect any visable ones left lurking about, I filled the jar every time! Then salted them all and started again. It was a horrendous year for slugs where I live last year. I will try the melon trick this year too.
Laughing so hard I started crying. My ex girlfriend broke up with me once for smashing 20 to 30 a night consistently. Call me the snail killa
I have a cow pasture and every summer I collect my weight in psilicybe cubensis off the cow patties. Last year however, EVERY SINGLE PATTY with mycelium on it was covered in slug slime. I was unable to harvest a single shroom. This year, these f***ers better be ready, because I WILL NOT STOP UNTIL I TORTURE THE LIFE OUT OF EVERY SINGLE ONE OF THOSE SLIMY BASTARDS. I wasn’t prepared for their nuisance last year, but after reading all these different ways to go about eradicating them, I can’t wait to avenge last year’s harvest, or lack there of.
Slug fest this year! What I do is use 50/50 rubbing alcohol and water and load my spray bottle. Stream for when I want to shoot them personally and mist for peppers and eggplants.
Also works great for getting rid of the Flies.
It did make my tomato plants wilt a bit. So I wouldn’t recommend it for that. Although they seem to shake it off relatively quick. Happy huntin!
I recently moved to Athens, GA and was so looking forward to this opportunity to grow my own organic vegetable garden. My 3 year old and I have so much fun with the garden that we make sure to say good bye each morning to the plants and stop by after daycare to see how they are doing. But sadly, our garden has not responded to our enthusiastic and tender loving care because of SLUGS!
After three failed attempts to successfully transplant peppers, I decided to head to lowes and buy the potted ones. In addition to peppers, I planted squash, basil, mustard, spinach, tomatoes, okras and a few other things I forgot because they did not grow.
I was so delighted to finally see some peppers and mustard greens from the transplants but my joy soon gave way to the horror of watching an ever increasing amount of irregular patch of leaves disappear from my peppers and mustard plants!! At first I couldn’t figure it out and searched high and low for this meanie. Then one day I ventured out to look at my beloved garden at 1 am and to my horror saw tons and tons of slimmy things wrapped around my precious peppers and mustard greens.
That was 3 weeks ago and ever since, I have been battling these devouring locusts with limited success using the organic stuff. It only seems to work if I spray them directly on the slugs. This will mean I am spending hours on end going out to hunt slugs in the dark! I have decided the war is on and loaded my war chest with all the options described here as I have no intention of not enjoying my peppers, mustard greens, spinach and tomatoes.
Thanks All!
this year the slugs are awful. I tried beer, but the cats and possums kept getting in the saucers. I tried d e powder, but the rain kept washing it away. Sevin powder worked, but I don’t want to kill everything, just the slugs. One night I accidentally left the lid loose on the container of corn I feed my geese. The next day there were hundreds of dead slugs in the corn. So I put little piles of corn under my hostas, and the next morning there were dead slugs everywhere. So I went to the grocery and bought some cheap plastic containers…5 for $1.99. I drilled a few holes on the side about an inch up, then put some corn meal in the container and put the lid on. I put these around my flowers and in the garden. Every day or two I just empty them in with the chickens feed, rinse out and refill. They work great, the raccoons can’t get in them, and the rain doesn’t wash the corn meal away.
LOVE this idea! My neighbors do not party, but they do have the MOST annoying little yapping dog that barks constantly, and by doing so then gets my dogs all riled up. The slugs in my yard will be tossed into their yard (across the street) and onto their cars starting tonight! TY for the tip π
“Diatomaceous earth is like a powdered Cuisinart! How fun is that?” Can’t wait to try the powdered Cuisinart one! just to see those slinky, slimy, sleazy, slithering, slugs shredded could be the ultimate revenge in my garden! Wonderful tips, thanks so much! π