Slugs and the circle of life

When the temperature is above freezing, slugs and snails are venturing out in our gardens. Now is the time to get rid of them, before they get any bigger and more numerous. 

How should we do this? In this age of AI, surely the internet can make us all slug control experts. 

But alas, the main value of Google’s AI introduction to slug control is as source material for comedy. 

For instance, it poses the question “Does a slug have a purpose?”  

A literate slug would find AI’s answer comforting: “Slugs and snails are very important. They provide food for all sorts of mammals, birds, slow worms, earthworms, insects and they are part of the natural balance. Upset that balance by removing them and we can do a lot of harm. Thrushes in particular thrive on them!” 

Among other things, this raises the question of how AI decides when to use an exclamation point.  

 (Also, I thought all worms were slow, but there is a specific reptile called a slow worm. It is a legless lizard. It can shed its tail, blink, and be kept as a pet in a terrarium.) 

A little further on, as an alternative to killing slugs, AI suggests putting out dishes of cheap beer to “deter” them. We appreciate the thriftiness of using only cheap beer. But beer of any price is fatal to slugs. In fact, it has long been valued as an “organic” way to kill them, and many people like to believe that they die happy when they ingest it. 

You have to read much further before AI mentions ducks, but ducks are the most prolific slug killers around. Turn a couple of ducks loose in your garden, and before an hour is over, they will be happily quacking around with slug slime hanging from their bills. Soon the garden will be slugless.  

AI also lauds slugs as a clean-up crew because they digest rotting vegetation. But isn’t decomposing vegetation already cleaning itself up? Realistically, slugs can only claim to accelerate that process. 

The hard truth for slugs is that they are completely, 100 percent unwelcome in our gardens, no matter how much thrushes adore them. 

However, there are so many native and imported slugs and snails that life, this column, and my memory are too short to memorize more than a few of their names.  

About 10 or 15 years ago, after decades of seeing only slugs, I noticed an influx of snails, which are probably the ones Invasives.org says are “Cornu aspersum.” Originally from Europe, now they’re all over the world. They’re an escargot species, so go ahead and fry them up in butter and garlic. You first. 

Another European colonizer is the Arion Ater, a big black slug that can outcompete our native banana slug. Others — both slugs and snails — come from far and wide. 

Fortunately, Rebecca Lexa knows about many of the ones who live on the soggy side of the Cascades. I recommend her website to anyone who has deep interest in slimy creatures, or just wants to see cool photographs, including one of a well-named leopard slug. 

But to cut to the point: You need to kill slugs and snails in your garden — the big ones and the little ones, and the ones hiding under leaves, pots and rotting wood. Mercy is not an option. A saucer of beer works. So does salt, but you don’t want to get a lot of salt in your soil. A guy I know puts salt in a plastic bag, then drops slugs in the bag, and drops the bag in the garbage. Maybe he wears gloves or uses tongs to pick them up. I would. 

Store-bought slug bait is fine if you are careful about what you buy. If it has metaldehyde in it, don’t buy it. That’s the stuff that kills dogs and cats. 

There is a harmless version of commercial slug bait called Sluggo whose active ingredient is iron phosphate. It’s not cheap, but it’s safe, effective, convenient, and won’t harm dogs or cats or anyone else. There is also Sluggo Plus, which contains spynosin A and D  (aka spinosad) which also kills earwigs, cutworms, sowbugs and pillbugs. This ingredient is approved for organic gardens, but some people are concerned about its possible harm to bees. 

Killing critters of any sort — even marauding slugs — may make the sensitive gardener wince. The solution to that problem might be to rewatch "The Lion King" for its reminder of “the circle of life,” which includes death. If you don’t kill the slugs, they will kill your spinach seedlings. Sometimes, the circle is quite small. 

Jill Severn writes from her home in Olympia, where she grows vegetables, flowers, and a small flock of chickens. She loves conversation among gardeners. Start one by emailing her at  jill@theJOLTnews.com.