Salt and slugs.

[SirJoe]

Is it a good idea to put salt around your veggies to keep slugs away? Won't it have a negative effect on the veggies?

 

[Corzhens]

I don't think salt will have a bad effect on the plants especially with vegetables because it is a natural element unlike insecticides. My husband was doing that when he was young. He had a bed of lettuce that he was protecting from the slugs. However, he was reprimanded for wasting the salt when his mother caught him. Yeah, salt is expensive to use as deterrent for the slugs. What we do in our backyard is to collect the slugs one by one then grind them for purposes of fertilizing the plants.

 

[rz3300]

I have always wondered about this. I have no reason to suspect that it does not work as advertised, but I do think that I might have a little issue with it. I am not the type of person who liked to kill things or watch things die, so it does seem a little harsh to me, but I can see why it is necessary.

 

[kgord]

I think salt is pretty cost effective really, however, I guess it depends on how big an area you need it in. I am sure a bag of commercial salt or fertilizer would not be too costly, and you could have all the slug control you want. I never tried to do anything with an outoodr garden and slug control though, so I wouldn't really know.

 

[Becky]

I don't think salt will have a bad effect on the plants especially with vegetables because it is a natural element unlike insecticides.

That's not necessarily the case - arsenic is a completely natural element...!

They say that the dose makes the poison, and with salt that is certainly the case. A little bit won't do too much harm, but in larger quantities it is a herbicide. So to answer the original question, I wouldn't recommend using salt against slugs if you still want a garden at the end

 

[Beverly]

I agree with @Becky and i would not use salt around my plants as a cure for slugs. I don't want salt in my soil. The salt might kill the slugs but it also might kill your vegetables. There are so many plants that are salt intolerant. There are a few threads here at GF that thoroughly cover what to do about slugs, and one has the most comprehensive collection of ideas about how best to deal with slugs that i have ever read. I got my idea about what to do about slugs there. Just above your profile in the upper right hand corner is a "Search" option and if you enter slug control or something similar, those threads will pop up and you will find a wealth of information.

 

[headfullofbees]

Salt, in reasonable quantities, is easily tolerated by most brassicas; in fact its alkalysing of the soil will help deter club root.

 

[MaryMary]

I do not want salt in my garden. (Wasn't that something conquering armies used to do? Raze the buildings and salt the earth?) If @headfullofbees has found it helps certain plants, I won't argue; I've never tried it so I can't dispute it!

But I have lit upon a plan, (insert evil laugh, Mwahahaha... ...) and I'm going to try it next year in my garden.

I have learned that slugs LOVE dry cat food. At least, they love 9 Lives Daily Essentials. Indeed, they crawl through my flower bed and up and across the concrete porch to eat my cats' cat food. They do not touch the plants as long as there is cat food!! They will eat all the cat food. I've seen up to 8 at a time making their way to the bowl!!

I've decided to use this fact to kill the little buggers!!

I'm going to get (or make) something like this, and fill the little bowl with cat food, and the outer rim with salt. That way I have bait I know they love, and a means to kill them without having to salt the earth. I'm not very worried about attracting cats into the garden, they are well fed on my porch , so I think they'll leave it alone.

We do have skunks and possums that eat the cat food from the porch, so I am also considering putting the food in a small sieve and then screwing it upside-down to a metal serving tray, to keep them from getting in it. I haven't decided yet.

Anyway, it's an idea.

 

[CrazyConure]

How can the snails get to the bait if there is salt blocking it? I feel you will have to check the container multiple times a day and manually kill them. Don't just put them in a different location. They know their way back.

 

[MaryMary]

How can the snails get to the bait if there is salt blocking it?

I don't want them to get to the bait!! It's bait, not a free dinner!! I've fed them enough, and I'm tired of it! I want them to fall into the trough of salt.

Don't just put them in a different location. They know their way back.

Wait... you mean the slugs?

I've decided to use this fact to kill the little buggers!!

KILL...KILL...KILL !!! Nasty little things.

 

[CrazyConure]

Oh, I see. I'm not sure if the slugs will pass the salt though. You should try it though.

Snails and slugs have a good homing system. They did a study, and the snails found their way back!

Snails and slugs are IMO one of the worst pest you can get. Especially if you live in a wet climate. I used to go out every night and kill as many I could find but they would still be producing more.

I saw a small population of decollate snails and I did not kill them. Soon enough, they grew and now we have a massive population of those snail and slug eating snails.

 

[MaryMary]

I'm not sure if the slugs will pass the salt though.

Hmm... you might have a point. I wonder if they can smell salt, and will avoid my trap. Tonight when I get home from work, I'll experiment with a ring of salt around the cat food bowl. If they advance on the bowl regardless of the salt, the trap will work. If they avoid the ring altogether, it won't work.

 

[DeborahJane]

Good luck MaryMary. I can hear that evil laugh and the rubbing of hands together, the squinting eyes with maybe even a twitch .

 

[remnant]

Salt is an effective antidote against slugs. Salt has a high osmotic potential and draws water from the slug and the animal appears to dissolve in the water so withdrawn. The cloud within the silver lining is the fact that it will effect the same osmotic pressure on the plants if applied on the leaves. It should be applied around the base.

 

[SirJoe]

I do not want salt in my garden. (Wasn't that something conquering armies used to do? Raze the buildings and salt the earth?) If @headfullofbees has found it helps certain plants, I won't argue; I've never tried it so I can't dispute it!

But I have lit upon a plan, (insert evil laugh, Mwahahaha... ...) and I'm going to try it next year in my garden.

I have learned that slugs LOVE dry cat food. At least, they love 9 Lives Daily Essentials. Indeed, they crawl through my flower bed and up and across the concrete porch to eat my cats' cat food. They do not touch the plants as long as there is cat food!! They will eat all the cat food. I've seen up to 8 at a time making their way to the bowl!!

I've decided to use this fact to kill the little buggers!!

I'm going to get (or make) something like this, and fill the little bowl with cat food, and the outer rim with salt. That way I have bait I know they love, and a means to kill them without having to salt the earth. I'm not very worried about attracting cats into the garden, they are well fed on my porch , so I think they'll leave it alone.

We do have skunks and possums that eat the cat food from the porch, so I am also considering putting the food in a small sieve and then screwing it upside-down to a metal serving tray, to keep them from getting in it. I haven't decided yet.

Anyway, it's an idea.

I think that's were I got it from. I was always under the impression that if you put too much salt onto the ground it would destroy the plants. By the look of things it's not true.