By Mary and David Lowther
Genetic modification is often criticized, and quite rightly so.
Why mess with peas when they already taste wonderful? With pork genes in tomatoes how can I make kosher tomato sauce? Frankly, if the scientists want to impress me they need to make morning glory taste like chocolate or develop a variety of venus slugtrap to guard my seedlings.
I am reluctantly prepared to admit that slugs break down compost, are vital to forest ecology and have their own intrinsic value in being themselves. They might be as essential a part of the ecosystem as bees, and life as we know it could come to an end if they were no more. That being said, slugs belong in the forest or compost heap, so every gardener needs a few tricks up her sleeve to discourage these voracious mollusks when they come for lunch.
Early spring, lay plastic over the beds you plant first. The soil will dry out and become unbearably hot for cool, moisture-loving slugs. Make a path around the entire garden, clear all vegetation off the path and leave it bare to discourage them from crawling across. Keep it hoed and dry all the time. Install low plastic edging along the outside of the path to help prevent grass from encroaching.
Soaker hoses water all my crops so no paths or in-between soil gets wet. Have I mentioned that slugs don’t like crawling across dry, hot soil? Hoeing up the paths and beds also creates a dust mulch that prevents water in lower levels from percolating up to evaporate.
I have seen slugs climb plastic, glass and sandpaper to get to a nice, juicy flat of seedlings, so I cover my flats with Remay and tuck the edges under. Once they are big enough, I repot the seedlings to allow them to grow even bigger so that when I finally transplant them into the garden, they’ve got a head-start.
I never use slug bait. It harms snakes, frogs and other lovely creatures that eat slugs, not to mention the micro organisms that live on their dead, decomposing bodies. Besides, dogs eat the most disgusting things and nothing is more disgusting than a slug. There are some dogs (I won’t name any names) that I’m not thrilled with, but I wouldn’t want to see them suffer. Their owners are a different story, but persuading them to swallow a slug is problematic and might require force. This tends to damage relationships.
I have read many suggestions to fight off slugs, and devotedly followed them to the letter. Few of them had any effect. I have lurked in the garden after dusk, picking them off by flashlight. I have drowned them in saucers of beer, blended bug spray with five alarm hot sauce, built slug traps of newspaper and scattered acres of broken eggshells to no avail. Spreading copper tape is pointless because the slugs push dirt onto it and build a bridge to crawl over!
I am so desperate I have equipped David with a weed whacker and sent him out to chop them to pieces. Who cares if my plants are at risk when the slugs are killing them anyway? David complains about blowback, but with proper protective gear he should be fine and I can always hose him down before I let him indoors again. We all have to make sacrifices for love.
Please contact mary_lowther@yahoo.ca with questions and suggestions since I need all the help I can get.