What am I doing in the garden this month?
What aren’t I doing?
Hooked up a drip watering system,
rotating lettuce crops,
just got the tomatoes planted in the hoop house,
hardened off the cucumbers …
and fighting slugs.
Something’s been bugging me since the last big rain we had...though it's actually not a bug at all, it's a slug. What’s to love about slugs? — Absolutely not much when they’re in my garden. Though here in the PNW we have one slug that’s a native here, and the rest are transient enemies. The native slug I am referring to is the wonderful banana slug. This slug you will usually not find in your garden but on a wooded trail in Gazzum Lake or the Grand Forest. Banana slugs are decomposers and play an wonderful role in our ecosystem. They eat dead organic matter then recycle their food into nutrient-dense waste, which fertilizes healthy soil. They would rather eat cardboard than a fresh bean start from your garden! What’s not to love about that?
What’s to love about slugs? — Absolutely not much when they’re in my garden. Though here in the PNW we have one slug that’s a native to here, but the rest are transient enemies. The native slug I am referring to is the wonderful banana slug. This slug you will usually not find in your garden but on a wooded trail in Gazzum Lake or the Grand Forest. Banana slugs are decomposers and play an important role in our ecosystem. They eat dead organic matter, including fallen leaves and plants, animal poop, moss, and mushroom spores, and then recycle their food into nutrient-dense waste, which fertilizes healthy soil.(1) They would rather eat cardboard than a fresh bean start from your garden! What’s not to love about that?
All the rest of the slugs, and there’s a long list of them, should be happily run-out of town or at least my garden. In the Northwest, March, April, May, June, and October are considered the best months to “dispose” of the bad slugs because they are out and about in abundance. They are more abundant after light rains and when night temperatures are above 50 degrees.(2) We want to get rid of this voracious foliage eater in our garden though I understand salting them is a very painful way for them to go, may I suggest a slug-pub? Many people use beer-baited slug traps to lure their garden enemy into a happy demise. There are notes below on how to make a slug-pub at home …or you can pickup some Sluggo at the store, though that's not as satisfying. (facts on Sluggo at the bottom of this article)
When I was young, I have memories of my mom walking thru the garden during the mornings in her bathrobe with an old rusty kitchen knife that she had bent in the shape of an ‘L’.. Her knife was a designated killing weapon intended for slugs; without hesitation. That’s a real PNW gardener for you! My husband would capture the brown slugs with orange bellies and skewer them on a stick and leave them as “an example for the others”…. I don’t think that trick had much influence though.
baby banana slug… still slimy!
Here are some fun facts about slugs:
They have teeth! The teeth are described as a “guillotine-like jaw” and mouth that’s equipped with a radula (Latin: a scraper). The radula is a ribbon thing with thousands of backward-pointing, replaceable teeth. It’s also used in slug-to-slug combat. Sounds kinda like sharks teeth though I’ve never been bit by either to know.
Then there’s the slime…ugh. Slugs are well lubricated! “Mucus”, I call it slime, is used to keep their bodies hydrated (their bodies are mostly water), for locomotion, self-defense, moisture control, trail finding, and mating. Some slime is very slippery making movement easier while another type of slime produced is actually viscous and can increase traction. Gardener Tip!— The mucus absorbs water so it’s best to wipe it off your hands first rather than washing with soap and water. And if you must, handle slugs with gloves as they may carry parasites potentially harmful to us humans.
The slime trail can also impede or slow down attackers such as salamanders and garter snakes. When ingested, the slime can make an attackers’ tongue go numb. To neutralize the mucus, predators will roll banana slugs in soil before eating them.(3) One story I read was a garter snake found with his mouth glued shut! So gross.
Another fun-fact about slime, apparently it has inspired researchers to design a medical adhesives using proteins similar to the proteins slugs exude! Ugh. Nature is so cool.
I’m going to finish this up with a daunting fact: there are 2000 species of slugs and snails west of the Rockies,(4) though this includes fresh water snails too so it can’t be that bad.
Besides a slug pub and Slugo I have successfully used a roll of copperflashing that I bought from ACE a few years back. It’s not cheap but you can cut it in half so it goes a very long way. I make collars to to go around individual plants like dahlias. Works like a charm.
…So get your environmental slug-trap ready. It’s slug season!
https://misfitgardening.com/make-your-own-slug-traps/
Slug-pub—
Slugs are able to smell beer over ranges of at least 100 yards!
The classic beer trap is based on the idea that the baited slugs fall into the beer after drinking the intoxicating liquid and then drown in it.
https://www.thegardenwebsite.com/slugs-and-snails.html
- Neat article on banana slug slime with a wonderful video to watch too: https://www.treehugger.com/slimy-facts-will-change-how-you-look-banana-slugs-forever-4863231 (not fact checked)
footnotes:
1- https://www.nationalgeographic.com/animals/invertebrates/b/banana-slug/
2- https://oregonstate.edu/dept/nurspest/slugs.htm
3- https://www.nationalgeographic.com/animals/invertebrates/b/banana-slug/
4- https://oregonstate.edu/dept/nurspest/slugs.htm
https://misfitgardening.com/make-your-own-slug-traps/
