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Ants , slugs and slaters

In my garden on the Mornington Peninsula there are three kinds of ants 
that I commonly see:

Small black 'house' ants (about a few millimeters long);

'Bull Ants' that are red/brown about 2cm long, tend to 'hunt' by 
themselves and give a painful bite; and 

'Jack Jumpers' which are back ants about 1cm long, also seem to 'hunt' 
by themselves, have red pincers and give an extremely painful bite (some 
people are actually highly allergic to them). 

Only the small black ants ever come inside. A friend of mine has a 
theory that they leave scent trails for their fellow workers to follow - 
so with this in mind I tend to deal with them by simply washing them and 
their invisible trails away with plain water and a wash cloth. It seems 
to work - but I don't know if it is terribly scientific! The other two 
species I simply let be. 

RE another garden pest that seems to get a run in the list from time to 
time - SLUGS - I have finally got around to trying saucers of beer in 
the garden. WOW!! Over the last 3 nights I have 'collected' over 150 
slugs (only a few snails) in 3 saucers placed strategically nearby 
plants such as Hostas and Kniphofias and other highly slug attractive 
plants. I am feeling very pleased with myself!! Not only have I saved my 
plants - but the slugs are dying 'happy'!

Also - does anybody have a suggested remedy for slaters - I always 
thought that they only ate only decaying matter - but I seem to have a 
plague of them and they are eating seedlings and other plants - 
including the roots of my bearded iris (the creeps - just as they are 
starting to flower).

Susan George
McCrae, Australia   

>From owner-medit-plants@ucdavis.edu Sat Oct 24 03:45:18 1998
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>Message-ID: <000601bdff39$76cb5de0$588419d4@hugo>
>From: "Hugo Latymer" <latymer@ctv.es>
>To: <heverlyj@ccnet.com>, <medit-plants@ucdavis.edu>
>Subject: RE: synthetic pyrethroids
>Date: Sat, 24 Oct 1998 12:30:24 +0200
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>
>-----Mensaje original-----
>De: Jerry Heverly <heverlyj@ccnet.com>
>Para: medit-plants@ucdavis.edu <medit-plants@ucdavis.edu>
>Fecha: s=E1bado, 24 de octubre de 1998 3:58
>Asunto: synthetic pyrethroids
>
>
>>The whole subject of synthetic pyrethroids contains within it all the
>>subtleties and paradoxes inherent in the larger topic of pesticides.
>>Consider:
>
>Jerry
>Ants are one of the plagues of the Med - tiny black superintelligent 
litt=
>le
>brutes and no doubt cousins drive California nuts too. Here you used to 
b=
>uy
>"lead" toothpaste tubes of syrup called "Lotus" containing an 
unspecified
>amount of arsenic that worked a dream. I rather think that Spain has 
stop=
>ped
>that, certainly my wife has and now uses phenomenal quantities of "Vim"  
=
>a
>household scourer in powder form wherever she sees an ant. This has 
worke=
>d
>too, though I do not see clearly why chlorine is preferable to arsenic.
>Miraculous Chinese Chalk is obviously one weapon and possibly Vim.  Has
>anyone others? Has anyone tried rings of Chalk round orange tree 
trunks?
>    Your letter was very interesting. It reinforces ones opinion that 
lif=
>e
>is a practical matter of drawing lines in a continuum avoiding 
excesses.
>
>Hugo Latymer                                                
latymer@ctv.e=
>s
>
>


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