Slugs

[Clawhammer]

Hello! Any advice in getting rid of a slug infestation in an indoor greenhouse environment? I'm skeptical dry baits will work because of the frequent watering. Thanks in advance for the advice!

[Roberta]

Deadline is a liquid bait. Kind of ugly to look at...but it san get wet. I also use the dry baits like Sluggo, it gets kind of gross after a few days of watering, but in the meantime does kill slugs, then you can easily remove the gunky mass that sticks together.

[Ray]

There are also Deadline MPs (Mini Pellets) - bright blue, less than 1/8" diameter by about 1/4" - that worked will in my greenhouse in PA. Kills pretty much any mollusk, including "bush snails".

[estación seca]

Copper strips encircling bench legs, or bench legs set into containers filled with water, keep them from crawling up. Empty and clean a bench, and do one of these things to it. Then treat plants individually and set them on this bench.

Coffee works for them as well as snails.. Submersion in a bucket of very slightly soapy water for a few hours will drown many, and the rest will crawl out into your clutches. I submerge plants in floating media upside down with a weight on top (the pot bottom) to keep media from floating out. Some always does.

Set them on the protected bench. Repeat with your other benches. Don't let leaves touch the glazing nor any part of the structure.

[Clawhammer]

Thank you ES, Ray, and Roberta!

I have some deadline on order now but I will first try coffee.

[Dusty Ol' Man]

Apparently Deadline liquid has been discontinued by the manufacturer. Seems everyone is afraid of metaldehyde. My local garden stores won't even talk about it. It can kill pets, so no one can have it.

[Leafmite]

Sluggo Plus and Bonide Captain Jack's Bug and Slug Killer Granules got rid of the slugs and ants in my plants. It has Spinosad in it.

While I found that coffee works great for the bush snails, I have not had much luck with coffee for slugs and, especially, aquatic snails (I tried soaking aquatic plants in cold coffee during the plant quarantine and it left the snails unfazed (No Planaria is what gets rid of those). I had problems with slugs in the summers of 2021 and 2022 and coffee grounds and coffee was completely ineffective. That is why I went with the other products this year. I was tired of losing all my orchid roots to slugs.

[Johndeaux22]

I’ve recently had a similar experience with bush snails, coffee knocked them down, but did not completely eradicate them. I had good control after one application, and another application two weeks later. No slugs seemed to be killed by the coffee, but it did drive them out of the media where they were easily picked off, and I haven’t seen another. I’m seeing bush snails again in my collection, and am going to apply a metaldehyde bait this weekend with the hope I am able to effect control of the mollusk scourge I am experiencing.

Not specific to slugs, but the University of Hawaii did a study on the eradication of orchid snails/bush snails, and published a report in 2002.

https://www.ctahr.hawaii.edu/oc/freepubs/pdf/MP-1.pdf

[Roberta]

Metaldahyde baits don't do much, if anything, against bush snails. May help with the slugs. Or one of the iron phosphate baits like Sluggo also for slugs. Likewise doesn't touch the bush snails. Like any pest, though, one is NOT done. I suspect that the coffee treatment may need to be repeated.

[qbie]

Speaking of these buggers, did I just find the mother of all mothers?? Yeesh. I guess that’s what I get for trying to keep part of a parent plant that looked pretty “iffy”!