Subject: Re: Slug death recipe

From: FEENEY <[email-masked]>
Date: Tue, 28 Feb 1995 08:29:41 -0800

Several years ago we received an excellent tip from a gardening friend in 
Vancouver, BC.  As we live in the Pacific Northwest and have extensive 
gardens, slugs are a major pest to contend with each Spring & Summer.  
While this is a pro-active approach (one requiring your active 
participation) it has many virtues:  it knocks the rascals into slug 
heaven in milli-seconds (I exaggerate only slightly), is safe in the food 
garden, effective on large and teeny tiny slugs, excellent for reaching 
into the way back of your garden beds or in knocking slugs off delicate 
plants, cheap and easy to use.  We fill a plastic spray bottle with 1/3 
non-foaming household ammonia and 2/3 water.  That's it.  We then take a 
morning wander through the garden, coffee/tea and spray bottle in hand, 
and can enjoy the pleasure of seeing what is happening in the garden as 
well as accomplish our hunting tasks (we can get over 300 in a morning), 
and early attention to this job yields the benefit of much smaller 
populations later in the season when there is so much to feast on.
Stephanie Feeney
"The Northwest Gardeners Resource Directory" 
[email-masked]
PS  I have read and recommend "The Field Guide to the Slug", which is 
actually a very thorough and well-written book on everything you'd ever 
want to know about the beasts.  (Sasquatch Books, $5.95, makes a good 
gift!)  Know thine enemy (and learn respect for those that are not a 
threat to the garden so you do not kill them by mistake.)  The book 
discusses some of the myths about slugs--the most astonishing of which is 
that they are quite capable of gliding across razor blades without 
harm--which throws out the window our attempts to corral our precious 
plants within eggshell/hazelnut shell etc. barriers!

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From: [email-masked] (Craig Brossman)
Date: Tue, 28 Feb 1995 12:28:18 -0700

In article <[email-masked]>,
FEENEY <[email-masked]> wrote:
> ... in knocking slugs off delicate 
> non-foaming household ammonia and 2/3 water.  That's it.  
> Stephanie Feeney
--
Stephanie,
You promise me that this will not harm the plants which are hit with the
spray? I tried the salt trick last year with little concern where it
landed, and without realizing, killed much more than the slugs. The dill
and pickles never recovered from the cell damage I caused.

Thanks ... Craig

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From: [email-masked] (Meliva)
Date: 1 Mar 1995 13:11:43 -0500

I fertilize houseplants with Parson's Sudsy Amonia and have for 10 years. 
It won't harm your plants.

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From: [email-masked] (Fellwalker)
Date: Wed, 1 Mar 1995 02:16:15 GMT

FEENEY ([email-masked]) wrote:
....about zapping slups
: heaven in milli-seconds (I exaggerate only slightly), is safe in the food 
: garden, effective on large and teeny tiny slugs, excellent for reaching 
: into the way back of your garden beds or in knocking slugs off delicate 
: plants, cheap and easy to use.  We fill a plastic spray bottle with 1/3 
: non-foaming household ammonia and 2/3 water.  That's it.  We then take a 

    Is there any burning of the plants that get hit with the solution? I 
got really ticked off at the aphids on the Nasturtiums climbing around my 
front door, and in a fit of destructivness went at them with Windex (a 
much higher concentration of ammonia, tho). The plants survived (the 
aphids didn't) but I lost all the leaves that were touched. (Windex is 
also great for stopping houseflys in flight, and killing ants before you 
wipe them up).

-Max
-- 
--  ...with rings on her fingers and bells on her toes... <[email-masked]>