Slugs at Midnight - A Garden Helper We Can Dig.

When this is a minor problem, few think about slugs, but a wet season can really leverage slug populations and hunger.

Readers tell me that they see things for the first time after they read about it on the blog. They are not alone. I do some research for each post, so I keep learning more about gardening.

Once I identified "grassshopper damage" as slug damage, I did more research of slug abatement. Last year they were a minor annoyance but this year they are chewing on newly purchases plants.

I saw egg shells as a possible help - and they are free. I used them several days. Then I put clay shards around one plant. Pot shards are sharper and more permanent.

At Lowe's for another load of mulch - for the new rose garden - I bought a bag of diatomaceous earth. The microscopic creatures have a silica shell around them that remains after death. This was discovered in Germany about 1836.

Enormous piles of diatomaceous earth (DE) have been found in various places, which sounds a lot like deposits from the Genesis Flood. There are many uses for DE, including pest destruction, so DE is mined, used in food products, and even used as a health product when it is food grade.

God so designed many creatures so that any nick to their outside will kill them. Crawling insects and slugs share that vulnerability.

I powdered the welcome area in front of the back door and no slugs came in last night.

Understanding Slugs
Slugs are creatures of rot, so they thrive with moisture. They also need darkness, so they  work at night. Our recent rains have multiplied our slug population. One website suggested visiting the garden in the dark, to see the slugs at work.

Everyone calm down. A massive slug attack in the dark will not reach its target's location until several days later.

I went outside late a night with a flashlight and the bag of diatomaceous earth. I was especially interested in the potatoes growing in the rotting straw bales - watered regularly. As Kenda says on his TV show, "Now they have my attention."

The straw bale and the wood mulch were populated with big, striped slugs, so I powdered them and the area with DE.

Rain or watering will eliminate the efficacy of DE. I am making clay pot shards for the important areas. The ceramic pieces will remain sharp and in place all summer.

DE does not attract slugs, so these creatures must come in contact to meet their doom.

Slugs seem to like beer and drown in it, but I doubt whether beer traps are feasible when slugs are a genuine problem.

Poisoned slug bait is counter-productive, because  those toxins also kill beneficial creatures.

Spinach and other leafy vegetables are tempting to slugs. The spineless cowards, who only work at night, do not attack the stronger plants.

Toads love slugs.

Clay pots are handy as toad shelters and shards to stop slugs.

The re-taking of Toad Hall by Toad and his allies.