Snails & Slugs

Are you finding holes in your tomatoes, plants and flowers? Are things slimy in your garden? If so, you may have an outbreak of slugs or snails which can devastate and destroy plants faster than greased lightning. We have three different snail & slug bait products to help you slow them down or eradicate the pests.

Espoma's EarthTone Organic Bug & Slug Control
New Organic at Palmer's!

Hi-Yield Slug & Snail Bait
Longer lasting, all weather formula

SLUGGO
Convenient Shaker jug, safe for pets and wildlife

Snails and slugs favor seedlins and plants with succulent foliage. Some of the plants that are more susceptible to them are basil, beans, cabbage, dahlia, lettuce, marigolds, strawberries, and many vegetable plants. Other plants that seem to tolerate them are begonias, fuchias, geraniums, impatiens, and lantana.

A good management program first eliminates all the places that snails and slugs can hide during the day like old boards, stones, weedy areas around trees and dense ground covers. For those that can't be removed, you may want to treat with chemicals, bait or organic substances.

Handpicking is only effective if done regularly usually daily at first. Once the population has noticeably declined, a weekly handpicking should be sufficient. If it rains in the late afternoon (or if you water), a flashlight late in the evening will usually be sufficient to show you how many are present. They can be disposed of in the trash or you can spray a 10% solution of ammonia on them to kill them. Do NOT use salt as it will increase the salinity of your soil and can destroy some plants.

Traps
Inverted melon rinds, upside down flower pots and boards raised off the ground by 1-inch make excellent traps if you are diligent enough to harvest and remove them from the garden. Beer-baited traps have also been used to trap and drown slugs and snails; however, they are not very effective for the labor involved.

Snails and slugs have many natural enemies, including ground beetles, pathogens, snakes, toads, turtles, and birds, but most are rarely effective enough to provide satisfactory control in the garden.

A recently registered snail and slug bait, iron phosphate (Sluggo), has the advantage of being safe for use around domestic animals, children, birds, fish, and other wildlife. Ingestion of the iron phosphate bait, even in small amounts, will cause snails and slugs to cease feeding, although it may take several days for the snails to die. Iron phosphate bait can be scattered on lawns or on the soil around any vegetables, ornamentals, or fruit trees to be protected. Iron phosphate baits may be more effective against snails than slugs.

The timing of any baiting is critical; baiting is less effective during very hot, very dry, or cold times of the year because snails and slugs are less active during these periods. Irrigate before applying a bait to promote snail activity and apply the bait in the late afternoon or evening. Application on a warm, humid evening is ideal. Apply bait in a narrow strip around sprinklers, close to walls and fences or in other moist and protected locations, or scatter it along areas that snails and slugs cross to get from sheltered areas to the garden.

READ MORE ~

Sluggo Slug and Snail Bait ~ How to Apply
http://www.pestproducts.com/sluggo.htm

Slugs of Florida
http://entomology.ifas.ufl.edu/creatures/misc/Florida_slugs.htm