The invasion of Spanish brown slugs in the Moscow region has become a scourge for gardeners. The accidentally introduced poisonous Lusitanian slug, or Arion vulgaris, has no natural predators here as it does in its European homeland. Hedgehogs and birds do not eat them; the organisms of these pests contain toxic substances. Once in a favorable environment, pests actively reproduce and lay eggs. It is necessary to remove them from summer cottages, gardens and vegetable gardens as soon as possible, because the weather for Spanish slugs in September will contribute to an even greater increase in the population.
The most effective method is considered to be manual collection, but the abundance of giant snails does not allow getting rid of them in this way. Let's consider other effective means that will help you forget about Spanish slugs in the Moscow region (or otherwise red roadside ones) and are applicable to other types of gastropod predators that sweep away berries, vegetables, flowers and all the greenery that gets in their way.
Description of the pest
The body of a slug consists of three parts - the head, the body with a mantle and the leg. The body is elongated, slightly flattened from top to bottom. The head is raised and clearly visible, it carries two pairs of tentacles - long, on which the eyes and olfactory receptors sit, and short labial, used for touch and taste. There is a mouth on the front of the head. In their mouth they have a jaw with a sharp chitinous edge and a tongue lined with chitinous teeth - a grater or radula. By grinding plants, they leave noticeable marks in the form of cuts with smooth edges or depressions in the tubers of potatoes and other vegetables.
Behind the head on the back there is a convex “collar” - this is a mantle, inside of which there is a lung, and on the side on the right side there is a breathing hole. The anus is located nearby. The leg is the lower surface of the body on which the mollusk crawls. The slug's skin is thin, bare and always covered with mucus. The integument usually has a protective color - sand, brown, gray, brown, and sometimes small white and black spots are distributed over the brown background.
The Spanish slug (also called the Lusitanian and Portuguese) is officially called the red slug (Arion vulgaris or Arion lusitanicus). Its size is frightening; an adult grows up to 15 cm in length, in contrast to the usual garden slugs, which do not exceed a body length of 3 cm. The pest is colored red, brown or red, the head is darker in color with two “horns”. May also be a paler gray-brown or cream color. In South-Western Europe, it lives mainly on the Iberian Peninsula, close to human habitation, and attacks the countryside, gardens, orchards and fields.
The gastropod can also settle in parks, cemeteries, and along roadsides. In 2021, residents of the Moscow region noted that the red slug was also creeping into the urban environment, into playgrounds, and green spaces in courtyard areas. For summer residents, this became a real disaster; favorable conditions allowed the Lusitanian pest to multiply in such numbers that they are collected from the beds and bushes in whole buckets.
Another problem, in addition to the fecundity of the Spanish slug, is its gluttony. It eats plants in volumes corresponding to its gigantic size. In addition, it multiplies quickly. Being hermaphrodites, slugs do not require a partner to reproduce. During one warm and humid summer, a single adult leaves a clutch of 400 eggs for the next season, which overwinter in the depths of the soil and develop safely for the next season. Therefore, pest control in early spring and early autumn is relevant, otherwise there is a risk of losing the harvest not only of 2021, but also of the next season.
Life cycle
They are hermaphrodites by nature, each individual carrying both male and female reproductive systems. But to lay eggs, cross-fertilization is necessary, so the slugs find each other by smell, and after a short mating dance, which can be an interesting sight, they exchange sperm. After this, each lays 20-30 eggs in moist soil. After 2-3 weeks, small slugs emerge, which first feed on soil organic residues, and after 1.5 months they grow and begin to reproduce. After a single mating, egg laying continues for a month or longer. Over the summer, each slug can lay up to 500 eggs.
The Spanish slug has a one-year life cycle. This means that from the time a small slug, just a few millimeters long, hatches from an egg until it reaches maturity and can reproduce, it takes a little less than one year. Most Spanish slugs reach sexual maturity in the second half of summer. At the end of summer and beginning of autumn, the animals actively mate, and after some time they lay heaps of eggs in the ground.
No deeper than 3 cm in fertile, moist soil in autumn you can see piles of white, translucent eggs with a diameter of 1-2 mm. In one such pile there can be up to a hundred or even more small whitish eggs, from which small slugs will hatch in about a month. Soon after laying eggs, almost all adults will die, and the young will overwinter and harm you next year. Therefore, it is very important to collect Spanish slugs in areas throughout the summer - otherwise, instead of one individual, you may end up with a hundred next year.
General information about the mollusk
Slugs are anatomically similar in many ways to snails. They have an elongated body consisting of a head, sole and visceral mass. Mollusks move due to wave-like contractions of their bodies. On the back behind the head they have a kind of plate - a mantle that hides the anus and genitals.
The skin epithelium of mollusks produces large amounts of mucus. It improves the body's glide on the surface while moving, and also serves as protection to repel enemies. The mucus may be clear or whitish. Slugs leave a long visible trail on the surface. Mucus is hygroscopic, meaning it retains moisture and protects the body from drying out.
Despite the low speed of movement, mollusks are capable of covering distances of several hundred meters in search of food.
Gastropods have one or two pairs of tentacles on their heads. The short ones perform the functions of smell and touch, and the long ones have tiny eyes. Slugs absorb food using the radula. It is a disc-shaped tongue on which thousands of small teeth are located.
The body length of the mollusks is 2-15 cm, but in some species it reaches 30 cm. The color varies depending on the type of slug. Mostly these are nondescript colors: gray, black, brown, but there are mollusks of bright yellow, orange and chestnut color. The lifespan of slugs is 1-2 years. They overwinter in the soil at a depth of 30-50 cm.
Shellfish are desirable prey for many animals. They are hunted by raccoons, hedgehogs, rodents, chickens, ducks, storks, toads, salamanders, starlings, jackdaws, magpies, and pigeons.
Types of slugs
Slugs begin their invasion of gardens in the spring: young seedlings and germinating seeds are attacked by young mollusks hatched from eggs. Young animals, despite their small size, are surprisingly voracious and can absorb more food than their own weight. If you do not take protective measures, then after 2 months the pests are ready to reproduce and lay eggs. And by autumn, especially if the summer is wet, the next peak in the number of slugs is observed. In the table below you can see the main types of slugs that can be found in gardens.
Varieties of slugs
Slugs prefer damp places. If the soil is dry, they die or become buried in the ground. Very often they can be found in the forest or in the garden. An excellent place for them is thickets of bushes. They can also live in the far corners of parks, where there is a body of water nearby. They feed on leaves, mushrooms, berries and flowers. Some species feed on worms. They cannot live in hot places. These mollusks are not found in deserts.
There are many types of slugs. Many of them are pests. The most common are:
large roadside;- black;
- banana;
- nautical;
- malakolimax gentle;
- giant blue;
- reticulate;
- field;
- smooth.
In nature, there are several hundred species of this mollusk.
What do slugs eat?
Slugs can be called “night robbers”, since they prefer to act unnoticed in the dark. They come out of their hiding places to “robbery” at 21:00 and hide after 2:00 am. Therefore, when gardeners notice holes in the leaves and pits in the fruits, they often think that caterpillars have “worked” on them. Because slugs scrape up their food using several thousand teeth located on their tongue-grater, the damage they leave behind is easy to recognize.
For example, in tomato and cucumber fruits, cabbage forks, and root vegetables, slugs make holes that expand deeper, and the leaves “make holes,” as a rule, in the middle, without affecting the large veins. The “tricks” of slugs are also easy to recognize by the silvery stripes of mucus and piles of stringy excrement left on the leaves and fruits.
What do Spanish slugs eat?
The main diet is plant foods - greens, leaves, fruits, vegetables, mushrooms. However, terrestrial mollusks of the genus Arion, which include Spanish slugs, worry zoologists not only with their gluttony, but also with attacks on the chicks of some passerine birds that make nests on the ground or in low bushes. Slugs are capable of causing damage to chicks, including death. There are plants that slugs eat first (some can be used as bait):
- cabbage;
- lettuce (until it sprouts and becomes bitter);
- strawberries;
- rape;
- dandelion;
- shepherd's purse;
- woodlice;
- cruciferous vegetables (except mustard).
The brown slugs that flooded the Moscow region in 2021 are extremely indiscriminate in their food, eating everything they come across: plant debris, dead animals, feces, rotting paper, and even earthworms and smaller snails.
Plants that repel slugs
Plants with aromatic essential oils repel slugs. Pests do not like strong and spicy aromas. Therefore, plants with such a smell can be used as a deterrent barrier for greenhouses, cellars, and compost heaps. They are used to compact vegetable crops or sow along the perimeter of the beds. These include:
- lavender,
- sage,
- santolina,
- thyme,
- rosemary,
- parsley,
- marigold,
- laurel,
- mustard,
- hot pepper,
- garlic.
Slugs never touch these plants. Garlic is used by manufacturers of special herbal infusions that repel slugs and snails. Infusions of garlic, hot pepper and mustard are well-known folk remedies for fighting slugs and snails.
How to get into the garden
In the wild, slugs maintain ecological balance. They get into the garden plot in various ways. Most often this happens when purchasing an infected plant.
Slugs love dampness
Under favorable conditions, active reproduction begins. A slug invasion is likely when:
- warm but wet spring;
- cool and rainy summers;
- warm and humid autumn;
- warm winter.
They also enter the garden along with contaminated soil. Therefore, you need to take a responsible approach to purchasing gardening materials. Otherwise, slug control may be required.
Damage from slugs
The scientific literature indicates that these slugs can carry the bacteria Escherichia coli (Escherichia coli), and are an intermediate host of several types of parasites that infect canines; intermediate host of parasitic nematodes (Aelurostrongylus abstrusus), the definitive host of which is cats; Green feed contaminated by slugs can increase the risk of animals contracting botulism, which is caused by bacteria (Clostridium botulinum) that live in the soil and can come into contact with slugs.
Manual collection
If there are only a few shellfish, you can try to collect them by hand and then destroy them - for example, in a concentrated saline solution or vinegar. The most effective method is to collect by hand late in the evening at dusk or early in the morning (when slugs are active) and destroy the slugs using a shovel or some other sharp object or by placing them in a 10% solution of table salt for one day.
The Spanish slug uses dead or wounded fellow species as food. Therefore, dead slugs can be left to attract other individuals in a certain place, but in this case this place must be re-examined. If slugs are destroyed before July, they should be buried in the ground. If slugs are destroyed in August or September, in order to prevent their eggs from entering the environment and the further spread of this species, dead slugs must be burned or placed in a solution of table salt.
Protective barriers
A protective strip is established around the vegetable garden or garden. To make it, they take rough or sharp materials that are uncomfortable for mollusks to crawl on. There are many options: crushed shells, coarse sand, crushed nut shells, slaked lime or wood ash. Dried coffee grounds, mustard powder and superphosphate help.
It is best to scatter the product not in one strip, but in several. The distance between them should be 150-200 mm. Garden trees or bushes are protected in the same way if they grow at a great distance from each other. A protective barrier is built around them.
Copper barriers
Gardeners note that copper and any materials containing it often help. A simple but effective way to save the crop without resorting to the use of chemicals is to limit slugs’ access to the plants by creating a copper barrier.
When a slug's abdomen comes into contact with a copper-containing coating, a chemical reaction occurs that destroys the mucus. The copper tape generates a small electrical charge that can stop slugs and snails. Of course, it is difficult to create a protective screen around the entire garden. But you can fence the bases of trees, beds, bushes, and pots with plants with a copper ring. Copper wire or wire, self-adhesive copper tapes and meshes are suitable for this.
Use the tape as a barricade around plants (beds, pots, trees).
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Chemical methods
If the gastropod population is too large and other methods do not work, chemicals are used. Shellfish are sensitive to metaldehyde. Several drugs have been developed based on it. The most commonly used is “Slug Eater”, which comes in the form of powder and small granules. The smell of the product attracts shellfish. After eating it for a short time, the pests die.
The product can be used on vegetables, fruits, citrus fruits, berries, flower and ornamental crops and grapes. The period of protective action of the drug is 14 days.
Buy "Slug Eater" with delivery
Medicine for slugs and snails AVGUST Slime Eater Neo, 56g. It is highly effective and has a long-lasting protective effect. Helps to avoid a decrease in yield.
Buy a remedy for slugs and snails
Lime traps
To kill snails (slugs), sprinkle the surface of the soil with freshly slaked lime powder. Sprinkling the soil with lime is carried out in 2 steps within an interval of 10-15 minutes. During the first sprinkling, the snail protects itself from lime by secreting mucus, but with the second sprinkling, the snail is no longer able to secrete mucus, turns black and dies. By sprinkling the soil with lime in this way for two days in a row, in the morning, you can completely destroy all the snails.
Protects against garden pests. Suitable for neutralizing soil acidity, protecting tree trunks from burns.
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Folk remedies
Folk remedies for fighting slugs have long been tested and are highly effective and do not harm plants or soil at all. Many of them do not even harm the mollusks themselves, but simply scare them away from planting and reliably protect plants from damage.
They must be used in conjunction with preventive measures - timely loosening, weeding, thinning of plantings, removal of weeds and plant debris from the site. Fighting slugs in the garden with folk remedies will help you safely expel the pests.
Plastic bottle traps
The principle of the trap is to pour some kvass, beer or fruit juice into a container. They are placed, covered to protect from rain, throughout the garden. Slugs and snails are attracted to the yeasty aroma and become trapped and either drown or die from alcohol poisoning.
You should take a plastic bottle and cut 2 square pockets in it with the letter P opposite each other. Then we bend these pieces of plastic down to create slides along which it will be convenient for slugs to climb inside to the bait.
To combat slugs and snails. No need to use chemicals, just add fruit juice or beer inside.
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Used together with bait. Once inside, the slugs cannot get out. The volume is sufficient to catch several dozen pests at the same time. You can use juice as bait.
Order a slug trap
This way, every morning the trap will be filled with slugs; after cleaning it, you can repeat the process again. It is very convenient to make an effective trap for slugs and snails by taking the most ordinary plastic two-liter bottle.
Wormwood infusion
Prepare an infusion for spraying plants:
- Take a kilogram of wormwood.
- Boil for 10-15 minutes in a small amount of water.
- The decoction is infused overnight.
- When the solution has cooled, add ten liters of water to it.
Helps well against slugs, which disappear after spraying in 2-3 days
Eggshell
Gardeners use eggshells to ward off slugs with relative success. You need to take hand-crushed shells, that is, medium-large fraction (about 0.5 by 0.5 cm), and pour them in a continuous dense layer around the beds.
The shell can become a barrier protection for plants against snails and slugs. Unfortunately, the effect only lasts for a couple of days. When the shell cakes and stops pricking the abdomen, slugs and snails perfectly overcome this obstacle.
Coffee against slugs
The easiest method is to use coffee powder. You can take the cheapest coffee powder and sprinkle it on the ground around the planted plants. Slugs and snails will stop climbing on them, since they will not want to overcome the barrier of spilled coffee - they will be scared off by the coffee aroma, and besides, the granules perfectly absorb the moisture produced by the slugs for movement, which is a mechanical barrier to their movements around the garden.
Ash from slugs and snails
Scattering lime or wood ash over the soil surface (and ash also over leaves) creates an unfavorable alkaline environment for slugs and snails and becomes an obstacle to their movement. Ash protection only has an effect in dry weather, or as long as the ash under the bush on the soil surface can remain dry. If the soil under the bush is damp, the ash quickly becomes soaked. Slugs are practically not afraid of wet ash, since it does not stick to their body. In rainy weather, the ash quickly gets wet and is washed into the soil, ceasing to act.
The width of the ash ring should be large enough. Ash has a greater effect in early and mid-summer, while the slugs are still small enough and it is easier to create a barrier. At the end of summer and autumn, when slugs become large and the weather is more humid, protection with ash becomes difficult.
You also need to take into account that in a hosta bush protected by an ash barrier there may already be slugs, which hide at the base of the bush during the day and may not leave the bush for many days. Therefore, in the evening in the dark, after ring barriers of ash have been created under the hostas, you need to walk with a flashlight and collect crawling slugs from the leaves. Otherwise, the slugs living in the bush, despite the fact that ash is scattered around, will continue to eat the bush.
Bentonite
Finely ground bentonite clay has long proven itself in organic farming as an alternative to fungicides and insecticides. Experience has shown that treating plants with bentonite minimizes damage from slugs and snails, as well as other pests.
Bentonite contains a large number of fine particles that have a high adsorption capacity; in particular, it adsorbs volatile substances that determine the smell of the plant. Pests that find the plants they need by a specific smell, after treatment with bentonite preparations, are deprived of their landmarks.
For the same reason, bentonite cannot be used during the flowering of fruit trees, as this will make it difficult for pollinating insects.
Bentonite makes plant integumentary tissue denser. This makes them less attractive to slugs. Also, spraying with a bentonite solution reduces the pH on the surface of foliage and trunks, and in a humid environment shifts the reaction to the alkaline side.
Finely ground bentonite is successfully used in the fight against garden pests.
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Straw, sawdust and pine needles
Try mulching the bed with chopped straw or sawdust. Slugs do not like rough surfaces. The products irritate and dehydrate the delicate bodies of slugs, making it difficult for them to move. Natural mulch made from hay, straw or sawdust should be sprinkled thickly on and around the beds.
An excellent product for garden mulch, filler for trays and rodent cages. An environmentally friendly product made from natural wood.
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Beer from slugs
Place containers of beer to the brim throughout the garden. The foamy drink is poured into half-liter jars, which are buried in the ground so that the edge of the container rises a couple of centimeters. Slugs crawl towards the intoxicating smell. Stupefied, they fall into beer and die.
Experienced gardeners and gardeners advise using dark beer. But there is no need to pour poison into beer traps, because it will also kill ground beetles, which also like beer. These beetles feed on slug eggs, so they are very helpful to people in the fight against them.
Vinegar and ammonia as a means of combating
Vinegar and ammonia are very effective remedies against slugs. Slugs die from table vinegar. To prepare the solution you will need a bucket of water and 65 ml of 9% vinegar. The solution is sprayed on the leaves of plants and watered over clusters of pests. A weak solution of ammonia should be sprayed on plants favored by slugs. When ammonia gets on the shellfish, it burns the skin.
Use with caution, only weak solutions, since these substances can burn the plants themselves. It is also recommended to water slug nesting areas with a weak solution of table vinegar. Never use vinegar essence! Remember that this is a very dangerous, toxic substance. Keep all pest control products away from children.
Use of polyethylene
This method of fighting slugs has received a lot of good reviews. Cellophane is spread directly on the surface of the ground between the beds. In the morning, with the first rays of the sun, slugs will hide under it. All that remains is to lift the polyethylene and collect all the pests. Pests crawl under it at night, and during the day, when the sun begins to warm up, they die due to the high temperature under the film.
Mustard powder
Mustard seed powder in the country will successfully replace dozens of chemicals. It is effective, cheap, accessible, environmentally friendly, safe for people and animals. The voracious slugs will not go away completely, but we can prevent them from getting to the greenery in the beds if we periodically dust the row spacing or the top layer of mulching material with mustard powder. Mustard will burn the delicate skin of the slugs, and they will prefer to eat elsewhere. A spicy additive will enhance the effect - ground hot pepper and powdered wood ash. Everything is in proportions 1:1:1.
Fruit baits
Slugs love citrus fruits, especially grapefruits, the peels of which can be used to make a wonderful trap. To do this, cut the grapefruit in half and remove (eat it yourself) the pulp of the fruit. Make a hole in each half, place it on a flat surface like a dome and leave overnight. In the morning, your enemies will gather under the peel, and you can easily get rid of them.
How to get rid of snails and slugs: 10 ways to fight
You can find them during the day under previously laid out boards, pieces of linoleum, old wet rags, in damp places in the garden. In the warm winter of 2013, I came across snails under old cut stumps, brushwood, and fallen leaves.
There are several chemical methods to combat it, but only birds can be poisoned. For pets and people, this chemistry is not always harmless.
I know several fairly effective ways to fight how to get rid of these garden pests.
1 way. Place a tablespoon or two of cornmeal in the jar and place the jar on its side where you notice the silvery marks. Snails and slugs love cornmeal, but they die when they try it. In the morning you will see many dead shellfish in or around the trap. All that remains is to get rid of them by collecting them and throwing them away from the garden.
Beer trap
Method 2. Dig several holes as deep as a plastic disposable cup. Fill two thirds of the glass with beer and place it in the hole. Snails or slugs, sensing the smell, will definitely crawl. Check these traps daily to get rid of any pests. Top up beer as needed.
3 way. Pour ammonia diluted with water (proportion 1:6) into a container with a spray bottle. Spray the plants you want to protect from these pests with this solution. This concentration of the solution will not burn your plants, but will repel snails or slugs. These pests do not like the smell of ammonia - you will rid the plants of their invasion.
4 way. Prepare strong coffee (brew a double dose). You can prepare a repellent solution from double-strength instant coffee. Cool, strain, charge the sprayer. This solution can be sprayed not only on plants, but also on the soil around them. If you have time, watch in the evening for snails or slugs crawling towards the treated area. They will turn sharply (of course, sharply - this is boldly said, but as quickly as they can because of their slowness) and crawl away.
If you decide to use the third or fourth methods to get rid of snails or slugs, then you will have to repeat these techniques after every rain or after heavy dew.
5 way. Salt destroys and dissolves shellfish. But I would not recommend using salt in your garden beds. Sprinkle salt on paths or paths in your area where signs of pest movement have been observed. Salt corrodes the body of snails or slugs; they will not be able to crawl across the salt path without harm to themselves. Once on the salt, they seem to dissolve. After a while, you will see empty shells, and, as they say, there will be no wet spot left from the slugs.
6 way. To get rid of snails or slugs, fine gravel, crushed shells, eggshells, coarse sand, and coffee grounds are poured between the rows of beds - all this will be an “unpleasant” surface for crawling mollusks. They will not be able to crawl over such an obstacle without injuring their tender tummy.
We suggest you read: How to get rid of slugs - advice from an agronomist
Scarlet chard will repel snails and slugs
7 way. Slugs do not like plants with red leaves. If you sow, for example, chard beets of the “Scarlet” variety with bright red petioles, leaves with red veins, or amaranth of a variety that has not only bright inflorescences, but also bright crimson leaves, around the perimeter of your plot, then most of the snails or slugs will not reach your plants, will rid you of its presence.
8 way. Place pine needles around pepper seedlings, tomatoes or other plants you want to protect from slugs or snails. You will simultaneously protect them from pests and also mulch the soil, preventing it from drying out. Pine needles create an acidic environment, and mollusks cannot tolerate it, so they will not be able to reach the plants and damage them.
9 way. If you have hedgehogs or frogs, rejoice - this is a great way to get rid of slippery pests - for them slugs or snails are a delicacy!
10th way. Chemical. Gardening stores sell Groza or Meta. This powerful remedy against snails or naked slugs comes in the form of blue, rough granules. I had to resort to this remedy (I used Thunderstorm), since the number of these unpleasant mollusks in the spring exceeds the permissible amount. I have already mentioned that on the first day after planting bell pepper seedlings, 15 out of 40 planted plants were eaten at the roots.
Manufacturers claim that when used correctly, this product is completely harmless to people, pets, and the environment, but I still recommend using it only if the situation is critical.
Blue Groza granules will protect pepper seedlings
And below, see the result of Thunderstorm’s action.
Two days after using the “Thunderstorm” product
Preventing slugs
Please note that limiting the spread of slugs is a labor-intensive process that must be carried out every year. There are many preventative measures, the regular implementation of which will help limit the spread of the Spanish slug - this includes regular mowing of roadsides, ditches, and grassy areas near slug habitats.
It is advisable to remove the mown grass so that slugs do not have the opportunity to hide. Given that slugs are also attracted to compost, it is recommended to use closed compost bins that do not allow slugs to enter or move around.
Why do slugs appear on the site or in the house and what harm do they cause?
Mollusks live in natural conditions and eat leaves, excrement, and mushrooms. They balance the ecological balance of animal communities in the forest and field. Sometimes they crawl onto plants that are placed in the house, for example, decorative flowers. Stalkeyes are also introduced into areas with newly acquired infected vegetation.
The increase in pests becomes massive in a suitable environment. Ideal conditions for them:
- warm damp spring and autumn;
- slushy and moderately warm summers;
- not too cold winter.
Wet, trampled earth and a pile of fallen leaves are a good place for pests to live. On a personal plot, they settle under large leaves, in the shade of bushes, and in pits with compost. Mollusks happily stay in basements and cellars, where they spoil the collected fruits and vegetables, spread mold, various infections, including fungal diseases. Some of their species carry helminths - parasitic worms that infect other living creatures with diseases: chickens, sheep, goats.
In the vegetable garden and in the garden, pests gnaw at crops and spoil the appearance of ornamental vegetation. The nature of the damage differs and depends on the culture and the period of its formation:
- they eat the stems of sprouted grain crops, seedlings and vegetable seedlings;
- in cabbage, beets, clover - they gnaw out uneven round holes in the foliage;
- leaves of cereal crops are eaten completely or eaten around the edges.
In greenhouses, greenhouses and greenhouses they destroy tender sprouts of seedlings, and in storage they eat potatoes. Apartments, houses and country houses are part of the territory inhabited by gastropods. The most common objects of sabotage:
- ground floor apartments;
- houses with high humidity;
- buildings with cellars;
- bathrooms - constant use of water leads to dampness, which they love so much.
You can also find a pest in the bathroom, toilet, and kitchen. This happens to residents of the private sector, as well as to people living on the first floor of an apartment building, or in an apartment with high humidity. In summer, slugs enter people's homes in the hope of finding coolness and moisture, and in winter they crawl into warmth.
They will not crawl out of the premises themselves, because they take root well and reproduce in suitable home conditions. If you find these neighbors on a plot of land, it is not necessary to immediately use chemicals, because summer residents have a large number of organic methods in stock to reduce the number of pests.
We suggest you read: How to get rid of midges in the kitchen when they appear
The best protection for a plot of land is competent gardening. The following measures help strengthen plants to increase resistance to pest and disease attacks:
- the use of methods and means of increasing soil fertility;
- improving the quality of land structure;
- correct selection of plants, their thoughtful combination, rotation of vegetable crops;
- timely gardening work and sanitary and hygienic measures;
- attracting birds and other beneficial fauna for natural pest control.
To prevent slugs from appearing in the garden or vegetable garden, do the following:
- Make conditions unbearable for pests - deprive them of their home by removing stones, weeds, and grass from the area.
- Dry the wettest areas of the ground.
- When planting cultivated plants, keep your distance.
- Periodically cut off the lower leaves and thin out the plantings.
- Dig up the soil: shellfish love to live in cracks.
To prevent slugs from appearing in an apartment or house:
- Maintain hygiene in the wettest areas - the bathroom, toilet and kitchen;
- try to keep these rooms as dry as possible;
- find all the cracks and holes in the floor and walls and seal them.
Common mistakes: what not to use
The first instinct is always to place traps and bait where slug and snail damage is most severe and where the plants are most valuable. But be careful. The enticing scent will attract slugs from all over your garden, and along the way to the desired treat are delicious, succulent plants that just need protection.
Plants are sprayed with a solution of mustard powder early in the morning, in the evening after sunset or in cloudy weather, because in bright sunshine the moisture quickly evaporates, and the mustard remaining on the leaves can cause burns.
Features of character and lifestyle
Photo: Blue Slug
Slugs are adapted to life on land and in the sea. They play an important role in natural ecosystems, removing dead, decaying plant matter and serving as an important source of food for various animal species. In many areas, slugs are classified as pests because they can cause serious damage to garden plants and crops.
Mucus is an unusual compound, neither liquid nor solid. It solidifies when the slug is at rest, but liquefies when pressure is applied—in other words, when the slug begins to move. The slug uses chemicals in the mucus to find its way home (the mucus trail makes navigation easier). Dried mucus leaves a silvery mark. The slug avoids hot weather because it easily loses water from its body. It is mainly active in spring and autumn.
Slugs travel on many surfaces, including rocks, dirt and wood, but they prefer to stay and travel in damp areas for their protection. The mucus produced by slugs helps them move up vertical areas and maintain balance. The movement of slugs is slow and gradual as they work their muscles in different areas and continually produce mucus.
