That one week my front garden turned into a slug buffet

Last spring I had this crazy week where every single night I'd go out with a flashlight and find like 30 slugs munching on my hostas. It was right after three days of nonstop rain in Portland and my garden bed was basically a swamp. I tried beer traps at first and caught maybe a dozen but the rest just kept coming. Then I put down crushed eggshells from about 4 dozen eggs and it actually stopped them cold for a few days. The weird part is I felt bad for them even though they were destroying my plants. Has anyone else dealt with a slug surge like that after heavy rain?

2 comments

2 Comments

robert27523d ago

Crushed eggshells is a solid move but you gotta dry them out in the oven first or they just get soggy and stop working. Coffee grounds work pretty well too if you spread them thick after a rain. The real trick though is going out at 2am when they're all out and just tossing them into a bucket of soapy water. It feels brutal but it's the only thing that actually stops the cycle. People don't realize those slugs lay hundreds of eggs under the soil so if you don't break the chain you're just feeding them forever.

webb.christopher22d ago

Go check the soil under rocks for those little egg clusters yet?