slugs & snails

Hi everybody,



The following message recently popped up on the orchid guide digest.  It
discusses another approach to evicting snails that I thought some of you
might find interesting.  Now, orchids have a thicker cuticle than ferns,
so this might be too strong for ferns.  But it is still interesting and
maybe worth a test.



Julia



________________________________________

::Copied message::



Date: Mon, 26 Jul 2004 13:02:28 -0700

From: Monica L Jones <mony1@juno.com>

To: orchids@orchidguide.com

Subject: [OGD] Re: physan/RD20 and slugs

Message-ID: <20040726.130228.3756.0.mony1@juno.com>

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Reply-To: "the OrchidGuide Digest \(OGD\)" <orchids@orchidguide.com>

Message: 7



> As long as the topic of Physan is being discussed......... Now that my


> paphs are outdoors for the summer, I'm adding 1/4 tsp per gallon of

> RD20 (ammonium chloride, like Physan) to my usual

fertilizer

>  At any rate, I am wondering if RD20 can also act as a slug

repellant....whenever

> I dump the RD20 solution I use to soak seedlings in while repotting, I

find

> that the earthworms literally fly out of the soil......slowly followed

by the

> slugs.

> My guess is that adding RD20 to the fertilizeer will

...hopefully..drive

> slugs and snails out of the mix. Has anyone had experience with this

> aspect of quat use?



I haven't been using ammonium chloride, but I have an idea why the slugs
are reacting to it the way they are!  The worms may not like the
saltiness of the water, but I don't know how sensitive they are.  I
sometimes see worms in the yard flying out of the ground when I dump
just plain water....



My slug and snail killer of choice for the last 10 months or so has been
a 50/50 mix of water and ammonia (whatever the concentration is from the
grocery store). This was recommended in a book from the California Ag
Extension office, and boy does it work!!  A squirt or 2 from a spray
bottle, and the slimy little buggers dissolve- just like using salt,
only no harm to plants!  The only side effect is lots of empty snail
shells....



So, the chemistry is NH3 + H2O <---> NH4+  + OH-

and  (NH4)Cl ----> NH4+  + Cl- in water (please excuse the crude
equations).  I imagine the slugs aren't being killed by the dilute
solution, but dislike it anyway!  Maybe try catching a slug and drip
some of the solution on it.  If it kills him, then you could just dip
your pots in it to rid them of slugs!



Monica Jones

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