Ermones^® Pest Management
                        Your  Pest Control Professional!

SLUG - Limace, Limacidae (Mollusca)

DESCRIPTION and LIFE HISTORY

* indicates damaging stage

*Adult & immature (to 20 cm):

Slimy, soft-bodied, legless; resembles shell-less snail; may live more than a year; hides in damp, sheltered places during day.

Egg: Laid in masses in damp places Often held together with sticky, substance, hatch in one month.

DAMAGE

Attacks CABBAGE family**, LETTUCE, POTATO, flowers, small fruit. etc.

Eats leaves at night, leaving a slimy trail (shiny when dried); feeds on roots in winter ;

** Includes BROCCOLI, BRUSSELS SPROUT, CABBAGE, CAULIFLOWER, KALE, KOHLRABI, MUSTARD, RADISH, RUTABAGA, TURNIP, etc. and related weeds.

CONTROL

•  Eliminate all but a few hiding places and collect regularly from the remainder (under boards, lettuce leaves laid on the ground, etc.); or collect at night with a flashlight, using tweezers, drop into a jar & dispose of;
•  Diatomaceous earth¹ on leaves and resting places,
•  Wood ash or sharp sand on soil around plants (irritates slug's body); lines of lime or sawdust can discourage migration from one area to another,
•  Trap in overturned clay flowerpots placed on north side of plant, one edge elevated slightly for easy entry; bait these with squashed bodies of other slugs & snails;
•  Shallow pans of beer (refresh daily) or yeast sunk into ground are good traps.
•  Slug fence-We fence slugs out of our raised beds by using strips of aluminium screening about 3 inches high. We unweave the top two horizontal strands from one long edge and bend the exposed vertical strands to face outward The bottom edge is pushed about 1 inch into the soil. The fences are flexible and easy to make, and we've had no slug problem since installing them.