Slugs
Slugs can be a
huge source of
frustration, hiding
in dark moist
places during the
day, then
devouring your
plants at night. To
start to battle
slugs, remove their hiding spaces.
Where possible, remove lower
branches and keep the garden weed
free. Removal of slugs is very
important - hand picking the slugs
early in the morning or at dusk is
most effective. However if hand
picking isn’t your first choice, here
are some other suggestions:
Slug Traps - Use purchased traps or
plastic containers filled with stale
beer; slugs crawl in and drown.
Safer’s Slug and Snail
Bait - This quick acting
bait has an active
ingredient safe for
pets and birds but kills
slugs when ingested.
Cory’s Slug Bait is also
very effective, but can
be toxic to birds and
pets. Note that for
thick mounding plants such as Hosta,
foliage must be lifted up and bait
placed underneath where slugs tend
to travel most.
Natural deterrents include crushed
egg shells or sawdust spread around
and beneath plants.
Sod Webworm
Moths flying around
your lawn? Round,
dying patches that
follow? Sod
webworm are those
little grey moths you
see flitting about the
lawn in spring, depositing eggs that
will soon hatch into grubs.
These grubs feed on leaves and stems,
causing the grass to die back. You
can monitor for webworm by mixing
up 10L of tap water with 2 tablespoons
of liquid soap. Sprinkle the solution
over the area you suspect is infested.
If 10 to 15 larvae are
present in 1 square
yard of turf, then
treatment may be
warranted. Affected
areas can be drenched
with an application of
Grub Buster nematodes or BTK.
More about What’s Bugging...
Note that control for every insect
pest and disease is different and very
dependent on their life cycle. If you
find an insect in your garden, always
identify it prior to using chemical
treatments. We are fortunate to have
several natural predators in our area
that help control insect pests.
Free diagnostic service... simply place
a sample of the insect or affected
plant material in a sealed container
and bring it to Greenland. You can
also check out the What’s Bugging
section of our site.