If you live in the Northeast(eastcoast Canada/U.S)then You have the Northern Red Belly Snake.I recently caught one with my son and we went online to find out about it,apparantly its main food source are slugs and they like to live under flat rocks.While I have had no problem with slugs I've friends who have and am wondering what evreyone thinks of catching some red belly snakes and setting them up in their garden. I have found one slug so far this year so think I may try it if more show.
Catching a bunch of snakes seems like a lot of work. The Grandparents always set a few half cups of beer in their garden to catch slugs. The slugs are attracted to the smell of beer apparently and either drown or die from the alcohol
salt If you made a wide enough circle around your plants so it would not get the plants you could put a line of salt. Slugs wont cross over salt it will kill them almost instantly. teamster6
Being that I live in the Noreast US I've been dealing with slugs quite a bit...among other things. For slugs you can do a few things. Dermataceous earth is good for protecting against slugs as well as sandblaster sand, just spread a circle of it around the base of your plants like mulch and repeat whenever it rains. If they're in pots you'll want to check all over the pot and observe them for a day or two because slugs get literally everywhere (trust me sometimes they're very small). Also Apparently you can use a copper barrier, though I've never had luck with that. What works best for me against slugs and caterpillars that we have here a lot is just bringing them inside for the night, and then putting them back out in the morning. Now if you're in this region I'd also like to mention aphids, because you'll likely see them too and nobody really talks much about them here. For diagnosis, you can say it's likely you have them if you see a lot of ants (because they raise aphids like cattle, they eat their waste), and if you see an insect that's small like a fly but shaped like a wasp. I can't for the life of me remember what it's called but there's videos of it on youtube, it uses the aphids to inject it's eggs in them and the eggs eat the aphids from the inside out.:roulette:
BEER, or if they are really god awful and eating my plants, not the girls oh hell no, the rest of my garden, I use flour and all sorts of stuff to keep them away, and if that doesn't work, I become less than organic and nail them with a slug vaporizer and kill 'em. gee we are getting a regular group of northeastern grower:welcome: now if there was just a cure for to damned much rain and fog fog fog:roulette: :icon_scratch:
I just think the snake idea was different,I hate the thought of wasting beer on slugs when I could be drinking the beer and catching snakes.Not very pratical but fun.
LOL Mccrob ....well I personally would not mind wasting a few beers to save my crop. The snake idea is different BUT...lol what if the snakes wants to relocate? :icon_scratch: May not want to stay and yanno snakes, they go as they please....just something for you to ponder. Beer and salt works but as Berry stated, like her I will try anything organic and if no success.....yep bring out the BIG guns to kill them with slug spray but FLUSH them... Good luck!
The beer solution (in my experience) is only half effective. Half effective in the sense that it will draw the slugs out. Draws 'em out good. Then they head straight for the cabbage. Diatamaceous earth is the way to go
i been on the eastcoast for 2 yrs and slugs r a bitch, ne ways this thing about the snake is working 4 me right now.i have 14 seedlings i put out in 1 gall grow bags, the last 3 to 4 times ive went out i saw this red snake an jus thought it was a diff kind of gardner snake, ne ways it lived there b4 but it lives between the growbags which r all together only 1 seedlings leaf is damaged,im geussing the black bags is wat it likes cus of the heat from them,ne ways ill try to get a pic of him n the plants he's like two feet long, oo and jus put bout 2 inches in width around the stem,use gritty beach sand no need to add ne more afterwards like salt.ive also heard of cutting both sides of a pop can off and letting the plant grow through it,its suppose to cut the slug if he attempts to climb over,..
This works good, Get around 5 lbs of rock salt and put it around your grow far enough away so it dont leach in , you will have to do it evey so often but the boogers hate salt
