dyzzypyxxy said:There are pet-friendly baits, and also organic baits that are safe to use around edibles as well. ...
The baiting with beer gets expensive if you have a lot of snails, ...
You can make almost-free "slug beer" - slugs aren't fussy.
Hopefully the same brew would work with snails:
Slug Beer from mittsy
2 cups warm water,
1 pkg. dry yeast,
1 teaspoon sugar,
1 teaspoon salt
(You could even save money on yeast by using less but incubating it in a warm place before putting it out in the garden. Or treat it like a sourdough starter culture: save a little from the last batch to "start" the yeast growing in the next batch.)
I use bottoms cut from the bases of soda bottles as drowning saucers. Clear plastic is fairly inconspicuous if you push it down into the soil or mulch a little ways, so it is less likely to tip over.
You can flush out most of the dead-slug-yeast-soup with a mist or fine spray from a garden hose, without touching it. The saucer is less likely to "blow away" from the hose spray if it is pushed into the soil almost to its rim. Then you can refill it from a bottle of "slug beer" while still staying at arm's length.
We had two very-bad-slug-years in a row, and I tried to catch as many as I could in the spring. I succeeded, but we had a cold snap and my slug saucers turned into slug-sickles.
They sure do come from all around the neighborhood! The beer surely attracts them. Try setting out a beer saucer far away from any plant or soil ... they will find it.
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AMMONIA
I haven't tried this one yet, but I plan to use it next time we have a bad slug year.
Dilute household ammonia by 1:5 or 1:10. (Household ammonia is around 5% to 10% NH3, so this dilution comes out to somewhere around 0.5% to 2%.) Using the stronger dilution, or spraying right on plants with tender leaves probably means you should rinse the leaves off to avoid possible damage.
But mainly, keep the diluted ammonia in a spray bottle dialed to "stream" or "jet".
Now you can kill slugs without stomping their guts into the soles of your shoes. And the ammonia (plus the slug bodies) are fertilizer.
Turn over rocks (or in my case paving stones) to find more slugs and, in season, their
egg masses. The spray kills slugs promptly, and seems to dissolve egg masses.
I don't know whether snail shells would protect them.
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BAIT
I read one claim (on the Internet, so who knows?) that slugs do remember and avoid areas where they became sick within the last week or two. That might be the mode of action of the "iron phosphate" slug bait (send them to your neighbors' yards).
I never see dead slugs with the "iron phosphate" slug bait, whereas I always see thick slime trails radiating away from the metaldehyde bait, each usually ending in a dead slug.
I think the slug baits that use iron phosphate (and EDTA) are quite safe around food crops. (Though not everyone agrees about what is "safe".)
The metaldehyde-based slug baits are very effective even when scattered very thinly: they attract slugs and kill them promptly. I wonder whether the slugs that cannibalize poisoned slugs are also poisoned?
Bait should be scattered thinly so that it would take an extremely dedicated, very patient and hungry small pet to find and eat enough grains to have any effect at all. Also, it is not more effective when scattered thickly.
I think the main pet hazard with baits is that dogs might get into the box and eat significant amounts. They do "flavor" the grains with molasses and/or bran to make them attractive to slugs. And the ones with larger grains might look like dog food.
I THOUGHT that some slug baits were required by law to include a very bitter compound that deters most things with taste buds from eating the second grain. But I don't see that now, searching online. Maybe only in Great Britain?
Maybe you could shake the bait up with some cayenne pepper to de-motivate dogs.
The more effective slug bait contains metaldehyde, which IS quite toxic if around one teaspoon of slug bait is eaten per 10 lbs of body weight.
