All Natural Ways to Control Slugs

Tom hates always giving up his beer to battle slugs …. Just kidding!! … Here are eight ways to stop those little critters in their tracks.

All Natural Ways To Control Slugs from The Funtime Guide.

1. Beer: Those pesky slugs hold their alcohol like a 12-year-old girl. Ideal Bite has some clever thoughts on using beer traps for natural slug control… including the “one for you, one for me” approach. Ha!

2. Egg Shells: Mother Earth News recommends crushing up egg shells and sprinkling them around your plants. Obviously the egg shells will also benefit the soil as they decompose… so they provide double the benefit.

3. Diatomaceous Earth: Diatoma what? Diatomaceous earth is basically the natural fossilized remains of diatoms, a type of hard-shelled algae. Just as with egg shells, soft-bodied pests (like slugs and snails) will not crawl over it… for the same reason humans won’t walk on broken glass.

4. Sandpaper: Just as with egg shells and diatomaceous earth, rough sandpaper is too painful for the slugs to cross.

5. Citrus Rinds: Planet Green recommends using upside down halves of grapefruit rinds as a slug traps. Set them out at night and you’ll have slugs up inside them in the morning. Personally i’m not a big fan of the trapping techniques as I don’t really want to have to see and dispose of the slugs… they disgust me. Blah!

6. Seaweed: EarthEasy.com says, “If you have access to seaweed, it’s well worth the effort to gather. Seaweed is not only a good soil amendment for the garden, it’s a natural repellent for slugs. Mulch with seaweed around the base of plants or perimeter of bed. Pile it on 3″ to 4″ thick – when it dries it will shrink to just an inch or so deep. Seaweed is salty and slugs avoid salt. Push the seaweed away from plant stems so it’s not in direct contact. During hot weather, seaweed will dry and become very rough which also deters the slugs.” Be sure to check out EarthEasy’s list of natural slug repellents. You’ll find some of the same and some different methods than what we’re talking about here.

7. Organic Baits: The Weekend Gardner web magazine recommends using either Sluggo or Escar-Go. How do they work? Iron phosphate. Weekend Gardner says, “Iron phosphate is an organic compound that is found naturally in the soil, and if the bait is not consumed by a slug or snail, the material breaks down into fertilizer for your soil. Iron phosphate is not volatile, and does not readily dissolve in water, which minimizes its dispersal beyond where it is applied.”

8.Companion Planting: I didn’t know about companion planting when we planted our garden, but I’ll definitely be using it next year. Basically, certain plants planted near each other benefit each other and may also deter certain pests. Plants that deter slugs are: wormwood, rue, fennel, anise, and rosemary.

Home=Made Non-Toxic Weed Killer

Image from Scott Astle's Blog

We feed our cows grass clippings from time to time so we can't use weed killer or other chemicals on our lawn.  This year I am going to try this Non-Toxic Weed Killer from Scott Astle.  This would be a great formula for people with kids and pets too.




NON-TOXIC WEED KILLER

1/2 gallon of Apple Cider Vinegar
1/4 c table salt
1/2 tsp Dawn liquid dish soap 

Mix above ingredients in a spray bottle.
Spray weeds thoroughly.

1/2 gallon for around $6.40
Works better than Round Up - kills weeds on 1st application.

The Dawn dish soap strips the weed of its protective oils so the vinegar can work with deadly force. Safe to use a yard used by pets.

I hate weeding ... and so do my back and knees ... I hope these suggestions from The BBB Seed Company help because I am starting the weeding process this weekend!

I hate weeding ... and so do my back and knees ... I hope these suggestions from The BBB Seed Company  help because I am starting the weeding process this weekend!

How to Outsmart Your Weeds

by Sandy Swegel

It's Spring. Your plants are tiny and growing. Your weeds are huge and growing. If you want a nice garden, you really do have to deal with the weeds that are gobbling up your soil nutrients and drinking your water. Weeding doesn't have to be a horrible task if you address the problem areas early and try to learn to understand how weeds behave so you can be smarter than they are.

Prioritize.

 

Here's the order I go in...tackling the worst weeds first and then moving on.

1. Noxious Weeds – for your state's noxious weed list, go to http://plants.usda.gov/java/noxiousDriver. These are the weeds known to be a problem in your area. You must ban them from your garden.
2. Weeds you know to be a problem for your garden bed. These are the weeds that come up every year and make the same problems every year. Time to stop that cycle.
3. Weeds that are in the areas that really matter to you—the flower beds in your front yard, your vegetable garden. There are no doubt weeds everywhere, but start with the ones that spoil your gardening.

Know your Weed and Have a Strategy for Each Kind of Weed.

Weeding isn't just an aerobic activity to do in a frenzy of spring energy. Different weeds require different methods of dealing with them. I see four different kinds of weeds in my garden:

Weedy Grasses
Weedy grasses are easier to get very early in the year. In late winter, the weedy grasses often green up first, making them visible a block away. Dig these up thoroughly getting all the runners when possible.

Annual Weeds
These are the weeds that grow from seed every year. Killing them is usually very easy when they are young because they have a very small root system and you can sometimes just pull them by hand, or run a hoe across them to slice off all their heads. Small annual weeds also die when burned with a propane torch or soaked with boiling water. Approach when they are small and win!

Perennial Weeds
Yikes, these are the deep-rooted weeds that have grown in the same spot for years. My strategy for dealing with them is to be more aggressive each time I see them. I try to dig out the weed completely. If it returns, I dig an extra four inches down to make sure I get it. If it returns again, I dig even deeper until I get the bottom of that weed or I exhaust its ability to regrow. Burning or boiling water only work if you repeat it for three or more days in a row.

Pernicious Weeds
OK, so there are bindweed and weeds with subterranean runners. More than just perennial, these weeds seldom die by pulling alone. But you can control them by aggressively blocking out their light and reducing their water. A sheet of cardboard or multiple layers of newspapers laid directly on the weed and soil and covered by mulch blocks out water and light...two crucial items for growth. Keep the area well mulched and you will eventually win. But you must be thorough and consistent.

You'll notice I don't have chemical controls on this list. I certainly try to limit the toxic chemicals I introduce into the environment, especially with things that might kill bees. But the real reason I don't use chemicals is because the chemicals legally available aren't always that effective. Take Roundup, for example. It works because you spray the Roundup on the foliage and the plant takes the chemical down into the roots. But in the Spring, plants aren't taking energy down to their roots, they're sending it up making new leaves. Roundup just doesn't work that well in the Spring. And the time you spend standing over the weed dousing it in chemicals could have just as well been spent digging.