I saw some slugs on my marigolds concluding hours of darkness. The marigolds are around my veggies. What to do? Should I be concerned that they were on my marigolds, which...
Should I be concerned that they were on my marigolds, which outline my veggie garden, so should I not verbs about it too much. I am trying to be as natural as possible, so I dont want a ton of chemicals all over everything.
Answers: A couple of things you can do. the easiest and tiniest gross is buy diatomacious earth (not the swimming pool kind) and run a 2" tie of it around your garden beds or individual plants. the DE is made of diatoms which are unsophisticatedly like sharp pieces of chalice to the slugs and they will not cross the barrier. this wishes to be inspected and replaced as needed.
Hand pick the slugs and place them into a container of either brackish or wood ash. the salt/wood ash melts the buggers. Do this any early surrounded by the morning or evening when the slugs are active. A week of foot picking will dramatically reduce your slug population.
You can place a board by your garden and the slugs will crawl below it during the day. Flip it over and remove the slugs and toss them into the salt/wood ash container. I would suggest sprinkling saline directly on them but since the board will be in your garden here is a big risk of the salt getting into the soil and making the soil pretty sterile and inept to grow much.
I have never have much luck with beer traps and you own to replenish them after any rain as the precipitation dilutes the beer and becomes objectionable to the slugs.
Find a shallow dish or old mason jar lid and crowd it with beer. the slugs will be in motion to the lid and not your plants. They will either die or you can collect them and move them somewhere else smaller amount harmful to your garden.