A few weeks ago I pontificated on the use of Sluggo to rid the garden of the ubiquitous slug. In that post there is a link to the study which suggests that Sluggo “may” degrade the worm population. If this is true, it’s not good news. Yet the hordes of slugs keep coming. Everyone says it’s a perfect storm of slugs this year.
In our garden they are wiping out entire rows of things. I’ve had sprouts an inch and a half high disappear over night; rows of marigolds eaten down to nubs, beans fighting for their lives. I’ve tried the beer, lining the perimeters with seaweed, the plant by plant hand search…and prayer. They keep on coming like little sucky vampires. Therefore, with apologies to the worms I’m resorting to Sluggo again try and keep this plague under control.
It makes one understand why a farmer, depending on his crop for a livelihood would, in a panic, resort to chemistry . The aforementioned study also says that Sluggo could invalidate an organic label. Nothing I have to worry about as my life doesn’t depend on the garden…yet. But, my produce, if not totally organic, is still local and you know what they say: local is the new organic.
Yesterday, on his Yahoo discussion group, Steve Solomon, author of Gardening When it Counts and Growing Vegetables West of the Cascades, a pragmatic gardener, wrote this:
“…my preference (is) for people not making religions of agricultural
systems, including:
Permaculture
Bio-dynamics
French Intensive
Mulch/no-till
Fukuoka (whateverthehellthatwouldbe?)
Organic
Clean Culture (rock dust, no “filth”)
Vegan Organic … no animal products including manures…
I’m sure there are others
I agree completely that stupid devotion to ideology will quickly fade in
the face of actual agricultural necessity. That will happen if for no other
reason that in really hard times those who fail and whose belief filters
prevent them from adapting quickly . . . suffer.” Steve
I’ve been applying sluggo like crazy this year, it keeps getting washed away by more and more rain. the rain and the slugs are just awful.
I just heard from a friend (and long time gardener) here on the Island yesterday that garden snakes eat slugs. Maybe the big wigglers can help save the little wigglers! She also said having a rock pile in the sun in your garden can help attract snakes to move in.
Jon and Dianne, our next door neighbors here in Seattle, told me yesterday that this season was absolutely the worst they’ve ever had for slugs invading their garden.
I used to go out every single night in our garden in Ashland and capture snails. I would get about 12-20 per night. If I’d been French I would have been harvesting a delicacy. But nobody in their right mind would eat a slug. Not even a Frenchman. Anyway, I would send those snails on a one way ticket over our laurel hedge and into the street where I would hear their little shells crack like walnuts.
I recommend buying a big bag of salt, or a slug catapult.