Slugs and Snails

Both snails and slugs can be a problem around the garden. They feed on plants by crawling out onto the leaf and eating from the middle out. This type of damage is easy to identify as most leaf eating insects eat around the edges first. I know firsthand because I've been fighting them for a week now. My beans, squash, nasturtiums, and broccoli have all literally been destroyed and I didn't know from what until I did a little investigating. The big clue was the slime trails, but I also caught them in the act one morning. Read on to find out how to determine if you have a problem with slugs or snails.

Slugs and snails are usually nocturnal so their damage is noticed before the pests are. At night, they will forage out into the yard for food. By day they will roost in crawl spaces and basements making them a pest inside the home as well. I haven't any crawl spaces, so I'm not worried about them inside the apartment. But I do see them under my potted plants, under the dryer, and in the water heater closet as well as in the shade of the garden where the sun hasn't hit enough to send them running for cover. Also, I've dug up a few actually in the soil when I was planting flowers.

Slugs and snails leave silvery slime trails on the ground and over plants. Whenever the plant damage done by snails and slugs is easily observable, it has been determined the live weight of the slugs infesting the area may be around 70 pounds per acre! If this is the case, then I got me a ton of them in my back yard! Maybe they are hiding in the field behind the patio wall.

Slugs and snails may consume several times their own body weight each night; damage can be serious within a short time. Since slugs seem to be drawn to moisture, watering gardens and yards can attract them. Uh oh! This may be why my garden has such a bad case. I go out in the evenings and mist my plants.

Controls include copper sulfate which is toxic to slugs and they will not crawl across a barrier of copper metal or wooden surfaces treated with copper sulfate. Birds including ducks, moles, toads, shrews, carnivorous ground beetles, rove beetles, and firefly beetles feed on slugs. Sciomyzid flies and nematodes also parasitize slugs. In addition, slugs are preyed upon by omnivorous slugs such as the spotted garden slug. Dry weather may kill up to 90 percent of slug eggs and young per year. Well it isn't killing them here in Fresno and we get really dry here. The dirt is dry as a bone every single day. That's why I mist my plants. In the morning they can be green and healthy but by evening they can be wilted. We don't go by the water 1" a week rule here.

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