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Path: utzoo!linus!cca!decvax!harpo!floyd!vax135!ariel!houti!hogpc!houxm!mhuxa!mhuxm!mhuxd!dthk
From: dthk@mhuxd.UUCP
Newsgroups: net.garden
Subject: Re:  Slugs
Message-ID: <77@mhuxd.UUCP>
Date: Thu, 9-Jun-83 09:35:49 EDT
Article-I.D.: mhuxd.77
Posted: Thu Jun  9 09:35:49 1983
Date-Received: Fri, 10-Jun-83 14:11:24 EDT
Organization: Bell Labs, Murray Hill
Lines: 14

The slugs are bad in N.J. this year too, probably because of all the rain.
After the same experience as rocksvax!reno (I lost a whole crop of zinnia
seedlings in one night), I tried the poison pellets (Ortho Bug-Geta) too.
Result:  the slugs just detoured around them and went on their merry way.
The best attack seems to be a trip to the garden at night with a flashlight
and a salt shaker.  Two or three grains of salt on a slug will rapidly
demolish it.  If you are careful to pick them off first and not use too much
salt, you will probably not poison the soil and/or plants.  There is also a
spray but it's pretty powerful stuff and NOT for use on food crops.  I tried
it in a limited way on marigolds and zinnias (well removed from my
vegetable garden) and it seems to work reasonably well.  My nightly "slug haul"
has gone from 20-30 to 3-4/night.

Don Hawkins     BTL-MH