Slugs and snails

[swamprad]

I've had quite a few plants, predominately my catts and oncidium intergenerics, growing on the floor on my back porch all summer. All of these plants are in semi-hydro. Well, it seems I've attracted some slugs and or snails. Over the past few weeks, they've done a good job of eating several flowers and buds. I will be moving them all into my new greenhouse in a couple of weeks.

I've read about using metaldehyde, beer, copper, and iron pellets. I would love to eradicate the slugs/snails prior to moving into the greenhouse, but I do have a nosy kitty outdoors, and I am concerned about using metaldehyde. What has worked for you? If I do use metaldehyde (picked up some Slug-Getta at Lowes), can I pour it directly in the pots or will it be harmful to the roots? Can I put the iron pellets (which are apparently not pet toxic) directly in the pots? Any insight would be appreciated!

 

[nikv]

I would not put the Bug Geta pellets direction onto the potting medium. You'll end up with a moldy mess otherwise. I haven't had a problem with critters trying to eat it, but better safe than sorry, I guess. A saucer of beer is supposed to attract them like flies to doo-doo. You could simply crush them the next morning if they haven't already drown in it. Should take care of the problem.

 

[goldenrose]

Why not use/make some type of wire cage, the slugs can crawl thru to the pellets, the cat can't!

 

[biothanasis]

If Nik is right about the beer, then it sounds as the safest way to get rid of them.... or perhaps find your kitty drunk...oke:

 

[Leo Schordje]

I prefer to drink the beer while I look for slugs to squash.

I too would like advice on how to kill slugs, the beer trick doesn't kill enough, it leaves a resident population of tea-totalling slugs to continue on munching the plants.

How does one apply Slug Getta to get the best kill of the slugs? I seem to be able to knock them back, but never completely eliminate them.

Any other chemicals that work? I have no pets to worry about.

 

[Eric Muehlbauer]

Go for the iron phosphate..totally safe and, in my experience, more effective than metaldehyde bait. You can put some in the plants. It only works on slugs, not snails...

 

[cnycharles]

best might be to repot before bringing inside, if all s/h pellets then put them on a pan and in oven (the pellets not the plants) for a few hours, rinse the pots with something likely to kill bugs cleanly, and dip the plant roots I think in hot water. can't remember where but I think orchids can handle 120˚ water for a little while but bugs can't. best to wash them all off and trim bad roots. I would look around though for better confirmation to see what level the heat was good at, and for which bug before going ahead.

there also has been the discussion on using caffeine, which will kill them, but you would really need to buy an amount of pharmacy grade stuff so that you would have enough to kill them, not just a few no doze pills in a jug. I tried to find some in pharmacy that were strong enough, but didn't succeed; there have been discussions here about caffeine and slugs/snails, search would show amounts talked about to control bugs

that said, I think the best would be to clean and repot, and treat what has been cleaned (much lower pest count to possibly survive)(treating either before or after repotting but cleaning out the potting material). I don't think you would have a very good chance at completely getting rid of them unless you do the cleaning and changing potting material along with using control measures to kill them, whether it's a bug on the plant or in the pot

 

[fbrem]

apple slices, headlamp, tweezers, and diligence. oh yeah, and keep em off the ground

 

[Ernie]

Screw the slugs, I want to see pictures of your NEW GREENHOUSE!!!

-Ernie

 

[NYEric]

Did someone say escargot!? :evil:

 

[noel]

if you want to kill slugs,just sprinkle salt over it,they shrink and died straight away...not when it's in your orchid pot tough....

 

[Eric Muehlbauer]

I've seen slugs slime off the salt then crawl away....

 

[Bob in Albany N.Y.]

Eric, It might be a good idea to inform the members where one might by iron phosphate. I'm sorry, that should have come out more like a question. Please teach us.

 

[likespaphs]

iron phosphate is available in a product called sluggo and another one but i forget the name of that one.
there is also a formulation of sluggo that has a product to help control sow bugs, i think.

 

[Eric Muehlbauer]

There are many brands now..I can even buy it at my local garden center. Every mail order supply carries it...main brands are Sluggo and Escar-Go.

 

[lindafrog]

how many orchids do you have? Have you tried dunking each pot. Put the plant in a pail fill it with You might add a squirt of mild soap. I use Dr. Bronners peppermint or you can use dish soap. With in minutes slugs, snails, pill bugs etc will surrender. I do this with all new plants. Once 15 snails crawled out from a plant I just purchased from a vendor! Hope this helps, those nasty bugs need to be elimated before they take over inside.

 

[cnycharles]

good idea! I just did that with some mushrooms I picked to get rid of bugs, should do just the same for pots

 

[Lanmark]

I don't know how strong of a caffeine solution you were referring to, cnycharles, but I used 500mg of caffeine dissolved in 6 ounces of RO water to kill a plethora of tiny orchid snails which arrived entrenched in and feeding on a specimen-size mounted Trichoglottis triflora I purchased on eBay earlier this year. It is a tiny plant in spite of the fact it is specimen-sized, but it was teeming with snails nonetheless. They were hiding all through the roots and in the moss growing on the wood mount and in the fissures in the wood. I didn't recognize this infestation until a couple of days into my standard quarantine procedure.

Here in Michigan we can buy over-the-counter 200mg caffeine pills in Walmart and at most grocery markets and pharmacies. I used two and a half of these tablets dissolved in six ounces of RO water. I placed a paper coffee filter inside of a sieve and used this contraption to filter the solids out of the solution once the pills were dissolved. I waited until evening and then sprayed the plant until it was soaking wet with this solution. When morning came I thoroughly rinsed the caffeine off the plant using plain RO water. I repeated this process four or five days in a row. All the beautiful moss growing on the wood mount died off completely but so did the snails. The snail damage stopped and my plant began to thrive. After the initial treatment I continued to spray this solution on the plant for two consecutive nights (and rinsing it away in the morning) every three or four weeks just to be sure I'd killed any new hatchlings. After a couple of cycles of doing that, I stopped. Now the plant resides with the rest of my collection. No snails. I wouldn't be afraid to try this solution on stiff-leaved orchids such as Catts or Vandaceous types, but I don't know how safe it would be for those with softer leaves.

edit: I should also note here that I kept a low-speed fan running and directed at the plant during the treatment periods to ensure that the entire plant and the mount were bone dry prior to being sprayed with the caffeine solution in the evenings. I speculated that the snails would be thirsty by the time the caffeinated water hit their home turf. By morning, the plant would be bone dry again and the leaves, roots and mount would be covered with a thin sparkly yellow film of crystallized caffeine which rinsed away very easily. Maybe I was playing dangerously with the risk of killing my plant, but for whatever reason, it survived and the orchid snails didn't.

 

[SlipperFan]

Interesting process, Mark. I didn't know caffeine was available like that.

I've heard that nicotine is also lethal to bugs, but is very dangerous to use.

 

[Lanmark]

Honestly I'm no expert in this matter. All I know is that the snails had to go before I could have peace of mind. I don't know if the snails either left or died from caffeine exposure or from the periods of utter dryness I imposed upon them. They literally fell from the plant each night and I gathered them up each morning for disposal. My solution strength would have been less than .5% but then again the plant was thinly coated with crystalline caffeine each morning before I rinsed it off. A plant not nearly so tough as Trichoglottis triflora would surely have succumbed to such inhospitable treatment.

Fear of nicotine is a good thing, Dot :wink: I remember years ago when liquid nicotine sulfate was on the shelves available for purchase as a pesticide. Scary stuff! It's really frustrating, though, when pests attack our plants and we have to scramble and figure out how to beat them back. It's not always an easy thing to do.