Technique wins out in battle with slugs

Eeeew! Those creepy, slimy slugs are everywhere this year, eating holes in your prized hostas, ravishing your radishes and defoliating the marigolds.

Our wet, cool spring has created the perfect slug habitat.

What’s a gardener to do about these ravenous thugs?

First relax a little. In fact, break out a beer; just don’t drink all of it (we’ll need some later).

You can beat them.

It sounds gross, but hand-picking is very effective (a pair of chopsticks is your tool of choice if you can’t bring yourself to touch them).

Early mornings and late evenings are slug feeding times, so that’s when to go slug hunting. Take a small pail of soapy water with you to drown your prey in. Don’t forget to look under the leaves for baby slugs.

Slugs need moist, protected places to hide during the day; they’re like vampires and don’t like the sun. It dries them out.

So remove their hiding places, such as boards and rocks. Pull mulches a couple inches away from plant stems and cultivate the soil occasionally to destroy slug eggs.

And let’s not forget about inviting in the slug predators.

Ground beetles, those big black, shiny beetles that you see crawling around, eat slugs for breakfast.

They are highly beneficial and prey on other destructive pests as well. So try not to step on them.

Invite some bird friends in to a slug feast. Robins, blackbirds, crows and owls all feed on slugs. Attracting them helps control slug populations.

Another good control is trapping.

You didn’t drink all that beer, did you? Good.

Slugs love beer, too. In fact they love it so much, if you sink a tuna can half-full of beer into the soil wherever you’ve seen slug damage, they will crawl into it and drown.

Make sure 1inch of the can remains above soil level. Put several beer traps out in the evening, and empty them the next morning.

Keep doing this until you aren’t noticing any more slugs.

Copper tape is an effective barrier in keeping slugs away. Abrasive products like diatomaceous earth and sharp sand work well to keep slugs at bay, but they must remain dry.

Products like Sluggo, Es-car-go and Safer’s Slug and Snail bait also do a good job and are safe around children, pets and birds.

Slugging it out with the slugs wasn’t so hard now, was it?

Now that they’re on the run, you’ve got time to have a beer. And this time you can drink it all.