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Fighting slugs in the Denver garden
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Milk jug slug trap - Photo by Jaipi Sixbear
Slugs in the Denver garden are not something generally encountered. Snails and slugs like it wet and Denver is not normally wet. Recent rains have changed that. Slugs and snails are indeed making an appearance in Denver gardens, including mine. Luckily, there are solutions that can rid the Denver garden of slugs and snails quite efficiently.
I went to weed my Denver garden a few days ago and was shocked to find huge white slugs blanketing the ground and crawling all over my produce. These ugly creatures were feasting on my Denver garden in horror film numbers. Surprisingly enough, the thing they enjoyed most was my hot pepper plants. Naturally I went into ninja gardener action at the first site of these slimy critters
My first thought was salt. Salt will quickly dissolve slugs on contact but will not harm fragile garden plants. I proceeded post haste to the kitchen where I grabbed my giant salt shaker and returned to the garden. I liberally sprinkled salt all over the garden soil, slugs, and even the slugs on the plants. What resulted was a disgusting slimy mass of disintegrating slugs.
Having been successful at eliminating the existing slugs, I lightly watered the garden to remove any traces of slimy slug residue. I had hopes the salt would leach into the soil to further discourage the attraction of the slugs to my Denver garden. Now it was time for step three, constructing a slug trap for the garden.
I rummaged under the sink for my future slug trap and came up with an empty milk jug. I then cut a sort of fold down slug walkway from the plastic jug. My plan was to fill the jug with cola so the slugs would crawl in, attracted to the smell and drown. No cola could be found but the neighbor had some beer and I had heard this works just as well.
Out to the garden I go to annihilate more slugs. I filled the jug with a can of beer and folded the little walkway down for easy slug access. I then placed the jug in the garden where I had seen the most slugs. Apparently slugs are not fond of onions and garlic as there were none in those rows. Next year I may randomly scatter onions and garlic throughout the garden.
The following day I checked my slug trap and found that I had achieved success. Five or six slimy dead slugs were floating in the beer. I would like to mention here that I normally resort to no kill methods but had no idea where to deposit hand picked slugs from the garden without more plants suffering their wrath. I plan to repeat the salt and trap routine until this infestation has subsided. Meanwhile my peppers and corn are back to their old perky selves.
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