01-01-2009, 07:48 AM
A few replies..notes...question?
You can get liquid copper sulfate at Garden Exchange in Hilo. The powdered is hard to dissolve. We put it in a sprayer, dilute it, making sure it is still very blue and put a coating around the base of the catchment, pillars, etc. NOTE, this is not a federally approved use for copper sulfate (when I suggested using it, I was forgetting we found this out recently) so if you ask for copper sulfate for the purpose of repelling slugs they will not sell it to you. If the caffeine did work, much better.
Just finishing up the last cup of coffee here, so dumped a few TBS. on one and it went right through it unscathed, and I drink strong coffee. (I believe when Rob was working on the caffeine for coqui, they were looking at industrial strength stuff that you had to wear protective clothing to spray and would actually be quite dangerous if it got on your skin.) So I tried the grounds next. When not given a choice, it went over them again unscathed, though I very unscientifically did not see what happened to it later. Saw where it went so will go check in a bit. The interesting thing is that when given a choice, it would avoid the grounds, maybe because they tend to like smooth surfaces as well as trying to avoid the caffeine, so that looks very hopeful for repelling. Instead of putting grounds in the compost, they will go around the catchment and my lettuce bed table. Thanks Carey. Epsom salts sound like a good idea too, if in an area that did not get wet.
Yeah, it is good to try to keep populations of slugs down around your home, but does that get old after a while. My husband and I spent many a romantic evening out in the moonlight, exterminating the slugs with spoons, and yogurt containers filled with salt water or alcohol and writhing slugs. My neighbor throws handfuls of lime on them. They tend, at least where we are, to come out full on about 9:00 or 10:00 p.m. When they first arrived, we did another unscientific experiment by trapping one in a bottle with Sluggo bait. It stayed in there for days without touching it, then finally ate some and died. So it seemed like it was a food of last resort. Unlike others of the slug/snail type, I think they may prefer algae and mold to plants.
Reducing rat population is always a fine idea too. Still with all the trapping, mega rats occasionally chew through screens and wood walls to get into the house. Cats are a big help.
I have been using vinegar water to clean vegetables too, as suggested in a post. Seems like if it is supposed to kill bacteria, it should do something to a parasite.
When I did a lot of research into the illness a few years ago, nothing I could get my hands on said exactly how long the nematode can live outside of the slug. Just not very long. Maybe there is new info now.
Question to Hotzcatz? How did you get your chickens to eat a semi-slug? Ketchup? We have tried, and the chicken just gets a disgusted look on its face, spits the thing out and rubs its beak on the ground to remove the slime. I suspect that ours eat the eggs or really small ones, but we just cannot get them to eat slimy mature ones.
You can get liquid copper sulfate at Garden Exchange in Hilo. The powdered is hard to dissolve. We put it in a sprayer, dilute it, making sure it is still very blue and put a coating around the base of the catchment, pillars, etc. NOTE, this is not a federally approved use for copper sulfate (when I suggested using it, I was forgetting we found this out recently) so if you ask for copper sulfate for the purpose of repelling slugs they will not sell it to you. If the caffeine did work, much better.
Just finishing up the last cup of coffee here, so dumped a few TBS. on one and it went right through it unscathed, and I drink strong coffee. (I believe when Rob was working on the caffeine for coqui, they were looking at industrial strength stuff that you had to wear protective clothing to spray and would actually be quite dangerous if it got on your skin.) So I tried the grounds next. When not given a choice, it went over them again unscathed, though I very unscientifically did not see what happened to it later. Saw where it went so will go check in a bit. The interesting thing is that when given a choice, it would avoid the grounds, maybe because they tend to like smooth surfaces as well as trying to avoid the caffeine, so that looks very hopeful for repelling. Instead of putting grounds in the compost, they will go around the catchment and my lettuce bed table. Thanks Carey. Epsom salts sound like a good idea too, if in an area that did not get wet.
Yeah, it is good to try to keep populations of slugs down around your home, but does that get old after a while. My husband and I spent many a romantic evening out in the moonlight, exterminating the slugs with spoons, and yogurt containers filled with salt water or alcohol and writhing slugs. My neighbor throws handfuls of lime on them. They tend, at least where we are, to come out full on about 9:00 or 10:00 p.m. When they first arrived, we did another unscientific experiment by trapping one in a bottle with Sluggo bait. It stayed in there for days without touching it, then finally ate some and died. So it seemed like it was a food of last resort. Unlike others of the slug/snail type, I think they may prefer algae and mold to plants.
Reducing rat population is always a fine idea too. Still with all the trapping, mega rats occasionally chew through screens and wood walls to get into the house. Cats are a big help.
I have been using vinegar water to clean vegetables too, as suggested in a post. Seems like if it is supposed to kill bacteria, it should do something to a parasite.
When I did a lot of research into the illness a few years ago, nothing I could get my hands on said exactly how long the nematode can live outside of the slug. Just not very long. Maybe there is new info now.
Question to Hotzcatz? How did you get your chickens to eat a semi-slug? Ketchup? We have tried, and the chicken just gets a disgusted look on its face, spits the thing out and rubs its beak on the ground to remove the slime. I suspect that ours eat the eggs or really small ones, but we just cannot get them to eat slimy mature ones.