How did her stem taste you rat bastard fuckers?

[*mistress*]

beer...

but...
use empty 1-2 liter clear soda bottles.

1. cut off top 1/4 of bottle.
2. use razor to cut out little triangles on edge of bottle top.
3. invert bottle-top & into bottle.
4. pour in beer.

this makes so easy to get in, difficult to get out. they crawl in, but have 'bottle-neck' trying to get out. the sharply cut edges of the inverted top also make for not good for snails when try to crawl out of bottle.

place in circle around plant. when they approach, they crawl into bottles. w/ snails, may have to make entry bigger, for shell. work well for slugs...

collect & discard.

hope this helps.

 

[rogerw]

A bag of cheap tobacco chew or 3 or 4 big cigars 1 qt water 2 drops dish soap spray them for a week focus on the stems and soil near the plants . It will K/O them along with the beer traps. No long lasting sides from this cure either .

 

[KushKwazy]

Another thing that worked well for me was buying decollate snails. They feed on the brown helix snails that do the damage. They don't eat plant material unless it is already dead and decaying but they LOVE to eat the bad snails. Their shells look like the long spiral seashells you can find on the beach. They live under the soil so you don't see them often. They will reproduce naturally. I purchased some about 5 years ago due to a severe snail problem and haven't had any issue with the destructive type of snail since. You might need to buy a lot of them if the problem is really severe. You might try it before your next grow to give them time to do their job before you plant. Caution: Snail killers will off these guys too so don't accidentally kill off your investment. Good luck.

 

[argoagro]

Another thing that worked well for me was buying decollate snails. They feed on the brown helix snails that do the damage. They don't eat plant material unless it is already dead and decaying but they LOVE to eat the bad snails. Their shells look like the long spiral seashells you can find on the beach. They live under the soil so you don't see them often. They will reproduce naturally. I purchased some about 5 years ago due to a severe snail problem and haven't had any issue with the destructive type of snail since. You might need to buy a lot of them if the problem is really severe. You might try it before your next grow to give them time to do their job before you plant. Caution: Snail killers will off these guys too so don't accidentally kill off your investment. Good luck.

WOW. Thank you! I really was going to pass up on using this place next year, you have saved the day according to what I'm reading elsewhere also, I can't believe my research never lead me to this!

 

[dgr]

Have you tried Sluggo? It's active ingredient is iron phosphate (a fertilizer).

 

[argoagro]

Have you tried Sluggo? It's active ingredient is iron phosphate (a fertilizer).

Technically no, but that's only because it's not available in my area. Yes I've used them every visit, and allthough I HATE it the metalhyde or whatever pellets work better because death happens much sooner after ingestion then with the IP pellets, Ortho's eco-sense line has a version of sluggo that is easier to get here than sluggo.

Sadly I don't want to spend my last $10 on beer, but I'm off with some aluminum foil, gorilla tape, and more slug & snail nasties. I'll try to snap some pics of my contraption I have devised.

 

[argoagro]

I think for next year I'll shell out $250 and call it a day, that will allow me to cover vast sections of the area!!

Snail Destroyer 3,500 249.99

 

[BorgClone]

In my area this is a problem between April and June its impossible to kill all of the mtf snails and slimes, i found out the best thing is the beer thing that i did not knew about and only found out in forums last year and it really works. Before i used to unwrap the electric wire and get the cooper and make circles around my plants and stems, plus chemical control tablets that i dont need since i use the beer. The Tape trap seems efficient also.

 

[niggle]

I've been fighting them the whole season, I emptied one bag of slug bait around the grow area and then I put some around the base. I have a spray bottle I use to get the ones on the plant off... I didn't bring any bait this last visit and now I have to go back to spread more.

 

[Granger2]

Yeah it's called Bordeaux Mixture. Can't speak about its effectiveness. Good luck. -granger

 

[Cannabinoholic]

I use crushed eggshells around my outdoor veggie garden. They will not cross a line of crushed eggshells. You could also try food grade fossil shell flour diatomaceous
earth. It is a super fine powder so you will have to reapply frequently, but no ground bugs will be able to pass through that stuff and live. Both all natural solutions.

 

[woolybear]

the title of this thread made me LOL after reading a few posts. thanks OP for the laugh

 

[Still Invisible]

Never heard of snail eating stems of plants; usually they like fresh green leaves.
Growing in winter/spring I often had trouble with rats eating through the stem of the plant; one way of fixing that is to get some polythene pipe, cut it into about 8 inch lenghts and then make a slit along one side from the top to the bottom. This allows you to fit the pipe around the stems of the plants. Works well.

 

[Guest 226076]

crushed oyster or clam shells sprinkle around plant,cuts the little buggers to shreds.happy trails..........

 

[Leroy Brown]

Never heard of snail eating stems of plants; usually they like fresh green leaves.
Growing in winter/spring I often had trouble with rats eating through the stem of the plant; one way of fixing that is to get some polythene pipe, cut it into about 8 inch lenghts and then make a slit along one side from the top to the bottom. This allows you to fit the pipe around the stems of the plants. Works well.

Interesting, last season I began to I wonder if it was related to the large vole population in the area, and I think it might have been. HOWEVER, in a different spot I did catch a slug in the act of killing off a beautiful plant late in flower by perfectly girdling it's stem IN THE EXACT SAME WAY. Sucked knowing if I had been there probably two hours early I could have saved it.

Either way I ran plants at this same spot last year (And plan to this year as well). Last year I lost 0 of like 6 or 7 plants because of WEEKLY applications of the phosphate based pellets & mole/vole/varmint repellents. I also, basically fabricated pipe protectors over the bottom 8" with guerrilla tape, they had little roofs with sticky side everywhere as well. You're idea is MUCH better, thanks, will use it this year.

 

[djonkoman]

Never heard of snail eating stems of plants; usually they like fresh green leaves.
Growing in winter/spring I often had trouble with rats eating through the stem of the plant; one way of fixing that is to get some polythene pipe, cut it into about 8 inch lenghts and then make a slit along one side from the top to the bottom. This allows you to fit the pipe around the stems of the plants. Works well.

I've had slugs eating stems too, usually they atack en masse in one day or so when the plants are about 30-40 cm, some plants will still have some sall young leaves left, some only 1 node without leaves, and some only a small piece of stem, and no node so the plant dies

but in flower they usually just take a few leaves and won't really be noticable

 

[sierraskunk]

Never heard of snail eating stems of plants; usually they like fresh green leaves.
Growing in winter/spring I often had trouble with rats eating through the stem of the plant; one way of fixing that is to get some polythene pipe, cut it into about 8 inch lenghts and then make a slit along one side from the top to the bottom. This allows you to fit the pipe around the stems of the plants. Works well.

Thanks for the tip

 

[joe fresh]

i find that the saliva of the snail is what eats through the stem like acid, i could be wrong though this is just an assumption....

but this has happened to me before...2 or 3 of them wi eat thye stem at the base of the plant near the soil till the plants fall over...then they eat the rest of the plant...

2 years in a row i lost 200 plant crops from this...i then figured because it was such a marshy and humid area that they are just too abundant there so i just stopped growing there...

i did find slug/snail bait worked pretty good in my backyard crops...