Martensville Messenger August 11, 2016 | Page 10

Page 10 - AUGUST 11, 2016 - mArTenSville meSSenGer GARDENING Slugs: Slimy, Shiny, Slippery, Slithery And Just Plain Gross -Erl Svendsen- I have a brick mowing edge between my lawn and my wood-mulched shrub/ perennial beds. Recently, I’ve wondered why the birds insist on digging through the mulch and scattering it over the brick and into the lawn. This weekend, I discovered why as I was pruning back my Wilton juniper: they’re on the hunt for the multitude of juicy slugs that have invaded my garden. Slugs are gastropods not insects, related to snails and clams rather than to flies and beetles. They are nocturnal creatures and the most telling clue that you have slugs in your garden aside from the damage is the silvery trails they leave behind. And their preferred habitat is damp which unfortunately describes a lot of territory. Growing up on the West Coast where slugs come in many shapes, sizes and colours, I particularly remember the banana slug named for its resemblance to said fruit in colour AND size. Thankfully in most Saskatchewan gardens, you’ll typically only encounter the diminutive grey garden slug (Deroceras reticulatum): small, 1 - 2 cm long, dark to light grey, shiny and, of course slimy. Don’t let their size fool you. What they lack for in size, they can rapidly make up in number, laying 200 – 300 eggs at a time. And in numbers they are voracious, decimating leafy plants and most other garden plants including root crops like potatoes and carrots (unfortunately not dandelions in my experience). Slugs and their tiny eggs can move in from the neighbour’s yard, on plants from the nursery or your friends, on borrowed tools and even on the bottom of your shoes. There are ways to fight back. Start by making your garden less hospitable by removing daytime hiding places like wooden boards, bricks, stones, and garden gnomes. Remove all decaying vegetation throughout the season, the fall especially. Trapping slugs is a good next option. They are attracted to yeasty, fermenting odors. But don’t waste your beer: add a package of bread yeast to a cup of water sweetened with sugar, stir and set aside to bubble away for a couple of hours. Add an inch of the yeast solution to any shallow container (e.g. empty cat-food or tuna tins). Place several in the garden in the early evening, about 10 feet apart. Next morning, empty the containers (hopefully filled with drowned slugs) and repeat. Another option is to place short boards in the garden. In the morning, just scrape any cowering slugs off the bottom-sides into a bucket of soapy water. Repeat. Another effective trap is an upside down rind of a half grapefruit. Slugs can’t help themselves and will be found munching away in the morning on the inside. Simply dispose of rind, slugs and all. Re peat. control DE products (e.g. Safer’s Insectigone). Do not use pool-grade DE. Wear a facemask to avoid breathing in the fine particles when sprinkling around the garden. Reapply after heavy rains. There are a number of control options, most of which are safe to use around your home, children and pets. Slugs are said to avoid wood ash and coffee grounds (some coffee shops give bags of grounds away for free). If nothing else, these will enrich your soil. To a slug, crushed baked eggs shells sprinkled around the garden act like razor wire, as does diatomaceous earth (DE), a powdery substance composed of sharp fossilized microscopic hard-shelled algae or diatoms. There are several registered insect and slug Gardens are made up of many things. They can be filled with fruits, vegetables, flowers and sometimes ceramic gnomes. Gardens can be also be used to attract birds and butterflies, but how about attracting something a little different? How about attracting bats to your garden? These little guys get a bad rap and are experts at insect control. Read on, you may want bats to become a part of your landscape. After a meal of iron phosphate (registered slug control product; is safe around children and pets when applied according to label instructions), slugs stop eating and die. As a last resort, there are several registered metaldehyde slug control products. While very effective, metaldehyde is poisonous to slugs, people and their pets alike and should be used with care. ABOVE: Grey garden slug hanging upside (Joseph Berger) A Batty idea First, bats are wild animals and should not be caught or handled. The risk of getting rabies from a bat bite is minimal, but it does exist. Bats are not naturally aggressive, but like any wild animal, they will bite if they feel threatened. With that said, bats can be fascinating creatures to observe and as mentioned above, they are a natural insect disposal system. That is to say that they eat insects, a lot of insects. A small brown bat can eat more than 1,000 insects an hour. Now imagine what a colony of bats can do. You would never have to buy insect repellent again. decide which layout is best for you. If you are building your own bat house, there are a few things to keep in mind. Bats need warmth. They like temperatures between 85 and 100 F. This means your bat house needs to be painted with dark colors, preferably black or dark gray. The color will absorb the sun and make the house warmer. The house should have a chamber at least 14 inches wide and a couple of feet tall. The landing area, or entrance, should be rough to aid in traction for the little bug-eaters. The house should also be waterproof. Placement of your bat house is crucial. Because heat is so important to bats, the house should be placed somewhere that gets a lot of sunlight, all day long if possible. It should be off the ground at least 12 feet. This will put it at a good landing height and also keep ground predators away. Mounting the house on a pole is a great idea. They can be mounted to your house, but consider the bat droppings. If you do want to mount it to a structure, see if you can find a barn or another out of the way building. Trees seem like a good idea, but they are not. Trees make the bat house too vulnerable to predators like owls, birds of prey, snakes and other creatures that might enjoy a nice batsnack. When placing your bat house, it should be close to a water source like a pond, creek or garden pond. Try to get the structure within a mile of water. Other than making sure the house stays in good condition, the only real maintenance is cleaning up the bat guano (bat poop). But there is an upside to guano, it makes great fertilizer. Again, remember that these are wild animals and should be observed and not caught, played with or touched. So, is being a landlord to bats for you? It may not be for everyone, but for insect control and just plain coolness, bats can’t be beat. Attracting bats requires a bat house. You can a buy a bat house or build your own. Many plans exist on the Internet for building your own bat house. If you are a do-it-yourselfer, do some homework and just THINK.. Had this been your ad, people would have noticed it. Call the Martensville Messenger and ask about our affordable advertising Ph: 306-668-1093