What slugs eat at home. Various ways to deal with slugs in the garden

The word "slug" alone disgusts people. A nasty, rather disgusting, shapeless, slippery creature immediately appears in front of my eyes, which is always crawling somewhere.

Does nature really have no reason that it was able to give birth to such an unnecessary, useless animal? To find the answer, you should study in more detail what characterizes the large roadside slug, the photo of which is now in front of your eyes. After reading the description of the slug, a person will have an idea of ​​what the appearance of this creature is, what kind of life he leads, where his habitats are.

Large roadside (or leopard) slug: appearance

This species is the largest of all large slugs. These mollusks were brought to different parts of the world from Europe, which is their homeland. The large roadside slug is a mollusc of the order Pulmonary snails. Its body consists of one leg, which merges with the slug's head and is called the sole. The length of the body of the mollusk reaches from 10 to 20 cm. Sometimes the body of the animal grows up to 30 cm. It is shriveled, somewhat rounded, at the end of the rear part it is pointed.

The body of the slugs is symmetrical on both sides. From above, it is covered with the so-called mantle in the form of a plate. Under it are the reproductive organs and the anus. There is a keel on the tail.

The color of the slug ranges from light gray to chestnut, sometimes yellowish-white or ashy. The entire body of a large roadside slug is covered with black spots and stripes. This "cute" creature has very long tentacles. Their mucus is colorless.

Internal structure

On the back, under the skin of the mollusk, a shell is visible, which, like all other slugs, is highly reduced. The shell is white in color, resembling an oblong oval in shape, its length is 13 mm, and its width is 7 mm. It is assumed that medicinal substances are stored there. This shell has been known for a long time and has been used for medicinal purposes.

The digestive system of the leopard slug consists of the radula, pharynx, esophagus, and intestines. In the intestine, four sections are connected to the liver, while the other two simply hang freely inside the body.

At first glance, this slug looks like a very simple creature, but it has a nervous system that consists of ganglia. Each ganglion has its own place: the pedal one lies under the radula, the abdominal one is slightly to the right of the midline, and the visceral ganglia are located in the middle between the esophagus and the lingual sheath.

Habitat

The habitats of the large roadside slug cover large areas. The habitat is located in the humid and temperate climatic zones. Slugs live only in biotopes with sufficient moisture. For them, a very comfortable habitat is the litter of deciduous forest.

Slugs are native to Australia, New Zealand and North America. They are also found in Western and Central Europe, in the Caucasus, where their favorite places are fields, meadows, forests, gardens and caves.

Large roadside slug: what to feed

These molluscs are herbivorous, they are not too whimsical when choosing food. They should be provided with vegetables, fruits and mushrooms when kept in the terrarium. Separately, it is necessary to dwell on what a large roadside slug eats in places of natural habitation.

Vegetation is considered the main food for molluscs. The leopard slug feeds on fallen leaves, flowers, fruits and soft stems of living plants. Sometimes mushrooms are present in his diet. Although these slugs eat a lot, showing gluttony, if necessary, they can survive without food for about 60 days, while being in a humid place.

Large roadside slug: reproduction

This species, like all slugs, has a hermaphroditic reproductive system. Each individual has genitals that correspond to the sex. Sex products mature over time. Sperm maturation occurs first. She presents packaged sachets - spermatophores. Then it begins in males. This substance is endowed with a smell by which the slug finds its relative.

The mating ceremony for large roadside slugs takes place in a very unusual way. Molluscs hang on mucous threads with their heads down, their bodies are woven into a single glomerulus by the genitals. Since the blue penises of slugs reach great lengths, it is not always possible for married couples to unravel. In this case, some individuals resort to at least and bite off the genital organ, which grows back after a while.

After fertilization, the mollusk lays eggs in the ground; on average, one adult individual can lay from 30 to 70 large eggs. Their development occurs within 21-35 days, after which small slugs are born. They reach puberty after 60 days. These animals live no longer than two years.

Economic value. Damage caused

For nature, slugs do some good as nurses. They are able to process leaves fallen from trees, making humus out of them. But most of all, these mollusks, including the large roadside slug, cause quite significant damage to agriculture.

These voracious creatures cause especially great harm to potatoes, eating tubers and foliage of the plant. Cauliflower and white cabbage, various types of lettuce, root vegetables, young vegetable plants, as well as fruits of strawberries, tomatoes and cucumbers suffers from the invasion of slugs. Vineyards and entire citrus plantations are affected by this pest.

Much less damage is caused by the large roadside slug to the following crops:

• Red cabbage.
• Roots and leaves of parsley.
• Onion and garlic.
• Crops of barley and oats.

Spring wheat, flax and buckwheat almost do not feel the invasion of slugs. In addition to the fact that mollusks are voraciously destroying agricultural crops, they are also carriers of fungal and viral diseases. Among these pests is a large roadside slug. The description of these diseases, which include cabbage spot, potato late blight and downy mildew, makes it possible to once again verify the harmfulness of the slug. In this regard, the question arises, how can you get rid of such a nasty enemy?

Methods and methods of dealing with slugs

Before you find out what effective methods of dealing with slugs exist, you need to study and use all available preventive measures in time. First of all, you need to ensure that there are a large number of natural enemies of slugs on the sites. These include hedgehogs, frogs and toads.

In addition, around the site you need to make a trench, and also sprinkle it with sand, pine needles, lime and crushed egg shells. Slugs will be forced to bypass such an obstacle. Plants in the beds should be kept weed-free and thinned out in time.

You can fight slugs by collecting them with your hands. To do this, at night, pieces of wet bark or heaps of cut grass are laid out between the plants, under which the pest will hide. In the morning, the collection of a pest called "big roadside" begins quietly by hand, people know many ways, one of them is to catch shellfish with a can of beer, which in this case serves as a bait for slippery intruders.

If the above methods did not manage to get rid of the slugs and the mass reproduction of pests has already begun, you will have to use chemical preparations. Currently, new generation products have appeared that do not pose any danger to the surrounding nature.

Do you know which animal on the planet ranks first among the toothy ones themselves? Probably, this is very interesting to every person. Surprisingly, the most toothy creature that is not a predator is the large roadside slug. There are about 30 thousand teeth on his tongue! This grater tongue helps the slug to grind all the foods it feeds on and make in them

It can be concluded that among the toothy individuals there are not only large predators, but also mollusks, which are among the smallest representatives of the animal world.

The common idea of ​​slugs is rather boring, but are slugs so simple? The description of slugs will tell us about the appearance, lifestyle and habitats of creatures.

With the word "slug", everyone immediately has negative emotions. Who do we imagine? Slimy, shapeless creature, disgusting to the touch, always crawling somewhere ... but do we really think that nature is so stupid that it created a useless animal, useless for anything? Or do slugs have their own mission on our planet? Let's not argue, just let's study these creatures in more detail ... According to the scientific classification, slugs are representatives of the class of gastropods.

A feature of these creatures is that, unlike snails, their shell is either completely absent or reduced.

There are several hundred different species of slugs on our planet today, but they all represent one of three families: Soleolifera, Sigmurethra and Onchidiacea.

The body of the slugs consists of one leg, also called the sole. It merges with the head of the clam. With the help of this organ, the animal feeds, and moves, and reproduces. The upper side of the body is covered with a mantle, which is presented in the form of a plate. Under it are the anus and reproductive organs of the animal. In general, the body of the slugs is symmetrical on both sides.

On the head of a banana slug there are two pairs of thin mobile "horns".

As for the size of these creatures, belonging to the gastropods, they cannot be called large. The average size of the slugs is only a few centimeters. However, these animals such as the blue and black slug, banana slug and large roadside slug can grow up to 30 centimeters!

The color of slugs can be varied: from inconspicuous, almost transparent tones to bright, juicy shades. In nature, there are anthracite black, bright yellow, orange-red, brown, chestnut colors of the body of slugs.

The habitat of these animals covers vast territories. They live in humid and temperate climatic zones. They are found in Australia and New Zealand, North America, Central and Western Europe, as well as in the Caucasus. Slugs love forests, fields, meadows, caves and gardens.

These animals are rather slow, they make their movements due to the contraction of the foot-sole. And in order to avoid damage to this delicate organ, a special secret is secreted from the slug, which acts as a lubricant.

By the way, sometimes these secretions also serve as a deterrent "weapon" that helps prevent death in someone's mouth: the secret of some slugs has a very unpleasant odor, and this warns its natural enemies that there is no need to eat it!

Slugs feed mainly on plants. They eat foliage, soft stems, fruits and flowers. Some species diversify their diet with mushrooms. But there are those who use living organisms as food: earthworms, small slugs, and sometimes even newborn mice and chicks!

Reproduction in slugs occurs once a year. All representatives of this group of animals are hermaphrodites. Each slug can lay up to 70 eggs. The development of embryos takes about 5 weeks, after which small slugs are born, which are already fully formed. The life span of slugs in nature is only 1 - 2 years.

Natural enemies of these gastropods are salamanders, ducks, storks, frogs, pigeons, raccoons, noses, chickens, waders, ...

Not a single search engine in the world has yet found a single text with the phrase "caring for slugs" until today. Basically, I came across links to advice to gardeners on how to deal with them, caring for the garden. He is called the most disgusting pest of the garden and vegetable garden. It's time to fix the error. Let's talk about the slug.

A slug is a land mollusc without a shell. Wikipedia says that this gastropod was a snail in the process of evolution, but lost its shell. According to one hypothesis, he simply switched to another type of nutrition - leaves, according to another, he began to lack calcium. Without a shell, the slug became helpless, many animals eat it: rodents, moles, hedgehogs, and birds - ducks, for example, and even insects. Ground beetles feed on slugs. In general, whoever does not eat them.

It is unlikely that we will need Serpukhov condensing units for this. Something else will be needed. We are a hobbyist, not energy and money saving.

The main question is, what do slugs eat? Leaves they eat, both dry and wet, green, fresh. They generally live in the forest floor, in a moist layer of fallen leaves. Slugs are necrophages, they eat the leaves, spreading along the way fungi and viruses, thanks to which the fallen leaves rot. They eat potatoes, cabbage, mushrooms - even poisonous ones. Everything they eat spoils very quickly and becomes covered with a thick layer of mucus. They love to eat strawberries, cucumbers, tomatoes. Dislikes garlic and grains. One of the ways to deal with them in the garden is associated with garlic. Garlic is passed through a meat grinder and diluted in a bucket of water. The beds are watered with this water and slugs do not crawl onto them.

Sometimes the slug behaves violently and attacks earthworms.

Let's first look at the portrait of a slug, which is familiar to all gardeners. Here he is, a naked freak, damp, nasty…. If the hens could speak, then their words would sound like this: "Here he is, handsome, naked, delicious." Mother Nature would have escaped with tenderness such words: “How beautiful you are, little cub. How you are needed. "

Number 1 - brown arion, number 2 - striped arion. Striped - a pest.

Arion is brown. While "sleeping" - a lump, and crawled - 80 millimeters of growth appeared from somewhere. The main place for a comfortable life is coniferous, deciduous or mixed forests. They are sometimes spotted in old parks or cemeteries. It does not like sunlight, therefore it creeps out for feeding in the twilight-dark time of the day. Mushroom pickers see only traces of feasts - cavities on the caps of boletus and boletus. And how a slug feasts on dead roots, leaves or dead small animals, only zoologists have observed. In our Altai Territory, it is found, in Eastern Siberia, in the Amur River basin and Primorsky Territory, only the color instead of brown has a rather monochrome black.

Woe to those gardeners and gardeners who wanted to have not just a plot for growing vegetables and apple trees, but a beautiful place on the edge of the forest under the canopy of lonely pines for a beautiful summer cottage with a production bias in the form of growing garden products - slug harms in the gardens and fields located in the neighborhood with the forest. And how not to harm, because there everything is laid out in the beds, here are the most delicate lettuce leaves, and here there is delicious cabbage.

Arion is striped. A close relative of brown, it is lighter in color, it is rather ashy with a slight admixture of yellowness or or creme brulee. This pest loves to live more in culturally cultivated biotopes - in gardens, fields, parks and, of course, in vegetable gardens. It is good that he does not live in all regions, but in the north-west of our country and in its central regions.

The slug is black. A very long slug, such a chicken will be afraid to peck, up to 20 centimeters in length its body can stretch when moving. It's good that he feeds on lichens and mushrooms. Habitat: Karelia, the Baltic States, Belarus, west and center of Russia, and areas located east of Novgorod.

Number 1 - large slug, number 2 - field slug, number 3 - black slug, number 4 - smooth slug.

The slug is big. Less black, and that's a joy, because the body length can be 130 millimeters, which is 13 centimeters. But it is still unpleasant when such living creatures settle in a greenhouse, garden or vegetable garden. He also adores vegetable stores, of course, because the entire range of delicious food is collected in one place, you do not need to spend energy on searches. Distribution: northwestern and central regions of Russia.

Malacolimax is gentle. Gentle for the gardener, because it eats mushrooms and lichens.

Malacolimax is gentle.

Field slug. Not large, only 40 millimeters in a stretched state. This forest and darkness are not needed, he loves ditches, swamps, meadows, does not shy away from forest edges. Most importantly, most importantly, he does not like cultivated land. You can save yourself from it by constantly digging the soil in the beds. The soil will lose fertility. What's better? In order to know ...

The slug is smooth. Less field slug. Loves swamps, damp meadows, shores of overgrown reservoirs. He is not afraid of water, it costs him nothing to feed on a leaf under water. He is not afraid of the cold.

Mesh slug.

Don't believe everything that's written. For example, that slugs love beer. Maybe they do, but who tested them for their ability to die from alcoholic intoxication? Or ash ... What kind of ash, cigarette or wood-burning ash? The first is too little, and the second is required no less. After all, you will have to process the entire area, every square centimeter.

Pine needles will not help, as well as spruce needles. See above, it says that some slugs love coniferous forests, and there are so many of these needles that you will not find a haystack among them.

Chemical defenses against slugs are ineffective. When a poisonous substance gets on the mucus, the animal simply shakes off the sticky clothes and immediately puts on a new one, no less sticky.

Gardeners believe that ground red hot peppers are dangerous. But this is a very costly method.

Can be destroyed chemically. Metaldehyde will help, it is recommended to scatter it at 40 grams per square meter. This is also expensive, considering that the treatment, that is, the sprinkling of the earth is not a one-time procedure, but a multiple one, because every rain washes away all traces. At the same time, you have to pollute the soil with poison, how will the soil inhabitants, who create fertility, react to this?

You can sprinkle with dolomite flour or slaked lime, too, not God knows how good, but this is the most economically viable method, although treatments should be carried out after each rain.

There is a general consensus that you need to sprinkle the paths and around the beds. Do not believe it! What, harmful Velcro only live under the tracks? And crawl to the surface only above the paths? Therefore, it is recommended to sprinkle around the beds with a path around the perimeter. These animals can hide from the sun and wind in the place where they feel like it!

The beds should be well ventilated; there should be no grass or other shelter on them during a period dangerous for plants. The lower leaves should be removed so that they do not touch the ground and do not serve as a walkway. There should not be a lot of plants in the garden; it is much more difficult to find a pest in the jungle thickets, and it is more comfortable for him.

Pollination with soil superphosphate is proposed. For me this is not an acceptable method, I have already switched to natural farming, I do not need chemical fertilizers.

Another funny recommendation is to collect slugs in a jar after rain during the day. This can be recommended by someone who did not collect slugs himself. If on a hectare of sown area, as in Great Britain, there can be a million individuals, how many percent of this amount will be three dozen copies that accidentally caught your eye. Searching for slugs for subsequent destruction is pointless.

If we are to pour the poison, then it must be done in such a way as to protect the plant, and not the planting or sowing area - each plant. These scoundrels love to find themselves in the soil near the stems of plants. So it is necessary to loosen the bed, especially deeply with the soil tilting away from the stem. So all the slugs will be on the surface, they are clearly visible. Take a secateurs and cut each one, believe me, slugs do not have the ability to regenerate tissues. Then sprinkle the stem with the same soil with the remains of the pest and sprinkle lime on top. This is the most effective way to fight, caution will not hurt - lime should not get on the plant itself, otherwise burns and ...

Reproduction of slugs or why there are no slugs in the spring.

They are gentle creatures, soft-bodied, deep into the soil, like earthworms or Colorado beetles, they cannot climb. Although eggs are laid far enough from the soil surface, they are hidden from drying out at a depth of 8 centimeters.

Although they are hiding under the remnants of grass, heaps of debris, in frost they all die. Eggs remain to winter. If mom-dad-slug have found a suitable place for laying, then small children will hatch from eggs, something similar to caviar, in the spring on warm days. They will seem to us adults in the middle of July. Such a reproduction of slugs was invented by nature.

Why wait for the slugs to attack? It can be prevented by destroying child slugs or adolescents in time.

Who eats slugs or nature to help us.

Moreover, the laying hens should not be allowed to peck them, because the chickens will sharply reduce the supply of eggs for dinner.

Hedgehogs, moles, starlings, jackdaws and rooks eat slugs, frogs do not refuse them. Here there is material for thought, who is better for the garden, a mole that will devour a slug and destroy all the plants, or a hedgehog, who himself is not averse to feasting on our green vegetables?

Lizards, salamanders and snakes disappear immediately. Remained ground beetles, toads and frogs - they must be taken as assistants and companions, to create conditions for reproduction and life.

Tell your friends, gardeners and gardeners, about ways to protect vegetables from a pest that eats everything in their summer cottages.

Slug (slug)- the common name for a number of gastropods that have undergone a reduction or complete loss of the shell during evolutionary development ( slugs - English; limaces - fr .; Nacktschnecken - it.). Slugs are contrasted with gastropods with a well-developed shell (snails). The slug form independently arose in several groups of aquatic and terrestrial gastropods, therefore the totality of all species is considered not as a taxon, but as ecological form... Sometimes slugs that have preserved a rudimentary shell are called semislug.

It is assumed that the reduction and subsequent loss of the shell had ecological prerequisites and occurred, for example, during the transition to living in dense thickets of aquatic plants or forest litter. According to another hypothesis, the reason was the lack of calcium necessary for the construction of the shell in the regions where the groups were formed in which the slug form arose. An important consequence of the poor development or absence of the shell is the inability to isolate from the environment when attacked by a predator or unfavorable (for example, arid) conditions.

Structure

The body of ground slugs is quite elongated in length, but it is able to change its shape due to muscle contractions. Among slugs, they are found as "giants", the length of which, when moving, exceeds 20 cm ( Eumilax brandti, Limax maximus, Arion ater), and "dwarfs" - no more than 2 cm ( Arion intermedins, Deroceras laeve). Outwardly, slugs have bilateral symmetry. It is disturbed only by the unpaired pulmonary opening located on the right. The skin epithelium separates a large amount of mucus, which prevents the integument from drying out, promotes better sliding on the surface, and also scares off predators.

Like other gastropods, three sections are distinguished in the body of slugs: the head, the leg, and the visceral mass. The latter, due to the absence of a shell, forms not an internal sac, but a notum (lat.notum - back) spread over the dorsal side of the leg. On the head there are contractile tentacles (one or two pairs), on which the senses (developed eyes, organs of tactile and chemical sense) are located. Behind the head, on the dorsal side, there is a mantle with an unpaired pulmonary opening (pneumostomy) leading to the mantle cavity, which functions as a lung. The anal opening is located next to the pneumatic tube.

© Håkan Svensson

Ground slugs are characterized by hermaphroditism (sometimes sequential) and internal fertilization.

Ecology

Probably due to the lack of sufficiently effective devices to prevent dehydration, slugs live only in humid biotopes, such as, for example, the litter of deciduous forests. In the ecosystems existing there, they play an essential role, eating fallen leaves, non-lignified parts of living plants, as well as fungi (including those poisonous to other organisms). Usually, slugs prefer relatively juicy and soft parts of the plant, avoiding areas with hard integuments or fibrous vascular bundles.

The choice of food largely depends on the nature of the vegetation growing in the immediate vicinity of the shelters in which slugs hide during the daytime, as well as on the age of the animals - adult slugs willingly eat rougher food than young ones.

Newly hatched slugs feed on the remains of their own eggs and unhatched eggs from the same clutch, and then move on to feeding on humus and decaying plant debris. Only with age does fresh plant food take an increasing place in their diet.

Due to the fact that the activity of slugs most often occurs at night and dusk, they mainly feed at this time. The greatest gluttony of slugs coincides with the period of intensive growth, that is, before and at the beginning of reproduction, and sharply decreases by the beginning of copulation (connection during intercourse) and during oviposition. During this time, the slugs do not feed.

Representatives of some species are predators and necrophages that eat live soil invertebrates (for example, other gastropods and earthworms) and their corpses.

The feeding intensity of this predator is quite high. So, in summer, one slug 2 cm long on average every day eats one worm 4-6 cm long or an equivalent number of smaller worms.

Slugs have a fairly wide assortment of enemies, including predators. Many vertebrates feed on them, however, there are no specific "slug-eaters" among them. Among mammals, slugs are readily eaten by hedgehogs, moles, shrews and some murine rodents; from birds - rooks, jackdaws, starlings and some seagulls, and from domestic birds - chickens and ducks. Slugs are also a part of the diet of many frogs, toads, salamanders, lizards, and snakes.

Among invertebrates, many insects feed on slugs. There are especially many of them among ground beetles (Carabidae).

© Spleines

Reproduction

Slugs are hermaphrodites and have both male and female genitals.

After meeting with a partner, they surround each other with sperm, which they exchange through protruding genitals. There are times when the slugs' genitals become entangled with each other, and if the slugs are unable to free themselves, they can allow the penis to separate. After that, slugs are able to reproduce only by the female part of the reproductive system.

© Lipedia

Economic value

In the practical activities of people, the role of slugs is manifested in two aspects: as transmitters of dangerous helminthiases for domestic and game animals and as pests of many cultivated plants.

Slugs - pests of cultivated plants... Slugs harm a very wide range of cereals, vegetables, flowers, industrial crops, as well as citrus and grape plantations. Every year in many countries, special brochures and bulletins are published, informing about the harmful activities of slugs, giving forecasts for the near future and instructing farmers on how to deal with these pests. Although it has not yet been possible to accurately calculate in all countries of the world the losses that slugs cause annually, it is clear that they are very significant. In addition, harmful slugs differ from many other agricultural pests by their very wide distribution.

Slugs damage a very wide range of crops. Potato tubers and foliage, white cabbage and cauliflower, lettuce, various root crops (foliage and root crops protruding from the soil), seedlings and young shoots of many vegetables, beans and pea leaves, strawberries, cucumbers and tomatoes. They cause less harm to red cabbage, parsley, garlic, onions, leaves of ripening cucumbers and strawberries.

They cause especially tangible harm to winter wheat and rye, eating both newly sown grains and their seedlings. To a lesser extent, oats and barley suffer from slugs; they practically do not touch spring wheat, flax and buckwheat.

The damage caused by slugs is very characteristic and easily distinguishable from the activity of other pests. In the leaves, they usually gnaw irregular holes, leaving only the stem of the leaf and the largest veins intact. On root crops, potato tubers, strawberries, tomatoes and cucumbers, they gnaw cavities of various shapes and sizes, usually widening inward.

In cabbage, they damage not only the surface and ground leaves, but also gnaw out deep depressions in the head of cabbage. In cereal grains, they gnaw both the embryo and the endosperm.

A characteristic feature of such injuries are numerous traces of hardened mucus, heaps of feces and earth. In addition to direct harm, slugs cause indirect harm, contaminating crop products and contributing to their decay, and thereby shortening the snoring period.

Crawling from one plant to another, slugs contribute to the spread of various fungal and viral diseases among agricultural crops - cabbage spot, downy mildew of lima beans, potato late blight. These diseases can cause losses to the farm no less, and often more than the direct harmful activity of slugs. The fact that many of them willingly supplement their diet with fungal hyphae further contributes to the infection of plants with fungal diseases.

Size regulation

Preventing slug harm

The very first preventive measure is competent gardening... This includes various techniques aimed at improving the quality and structure of the soil, the correct selection of plants, the timeliness of all garden work, maintaining the hygiene of the garden, attracting birds and other useful fauna for the natural control of pests (in this case, lizards, frogs, toads, fireflies and some other beetles, as well as hedgehogs), mutually beneficial neighborhood and crop rotation, and much more. All these measures help to strengthen the plants, because strong plants can resist the attacks of garden pests and diseases much better.

Mechanical controls

To physical barriers include special plastic gutters that are attached around the perimeter of the prefabricated ridges. These gutters are filled with water, which serves as a mechanical barrier for the slugs. Any dry, porous materials, as well as fine gravel, crushed shells and eggshells, are unpleasant surfaces for slugs and snails, and therefore are well suited as filler between rows. However, it should be borne in mind that in rainy weather, their effectiveness is significantly reduced. The same principle is the basis for the action of a special ecological granular material (Slug Stoppa Granules), which are scattered around the plants and act throughout the season. Granules create a physical barrier for slugs and snails: they absorb moisture and mucus, dry out the surface of their bodies, making it impossible for pests to move. There are also wide, folded-edge plastic bands available on the market that anchor in the ground around the plants to keep snails and slugs out of the plant. Plant vegetables in raised beds or tubs, tie legumes, tomatoes and pumpkin seeds to supports in time, use clear plastic caps (such as the bottom halves of large plastic water bottles) and film covers for young vulnerable plants - all of which make desirable slug plants physically less accessible.

You can pick snails and slugs with your hands in the evening or after rain, so that you can destroy them later (for example, in a strong saline solution or boiling water) or take them somewhere away from gardens and cultural plantings (this option is more humane, but also more laborious). Live slugs and snails should not be placed in a cold compostarium, as adults will lay eggs under favorable conditions. Special traps for slugs and snails are a bowl covered with an umbrella-roof. The trap is installed so that the entrances are at the level of the ground surface. The bowl is filled with beer, fruit juice or other bait (the tasty smell attracts snails and slugs), the roof prevents rainwater and debris from entering. In the absence of such a trap, pour the bait into simple bowls from an old unnecessary service and dig in flush with the soil surface on ridges and borders with the most beloved plants of snails. Check and empty traps regularly in the morning.

To distracting maneuvers can be attributed to the old leaves and tops of plants loved by slugs (lettuce, tomatoes, cucumbers, medicinal comfrey, etc.) scattered among the plantings. I personally successfully use this method in a greenhouse, where it helps to keep in check not only slugs, but also wood lice: carried away by eating these waste, they no longer crawl to growing vegetables. Periodically, the leaves and the pests that eat them can be collected, replacing them with new ones.

Electrical controls

Garden centers have self-adhesive tapes made of copper, headbands or copper-clad coverings (trademark Shocka). Contact with copper gives the molluscs a slight electrical shock, so they will not want to cross the copper barrier. Headbands with a small battery have recently appeared on the market, which also give snails and slugs a small electrical shock when crossing.

Biological controls

Phyto-control means

The plants that slugs and snails do not like and try to avoid include, first of all, garlic, as well as many (but not all!) Aromatic plants (lavender, sage, santolina, thyme, rosemary, laurel, etc.), which they never touch. Garlic is used by manufacturers of special phyto-infusions that repel slugs. Infusions of garlic, hot pepper, and mustard are well-known folk remedies for fighting slugs and snails.

© Daniel Ullrich

Chemical controls

On sale are granules of metaldehyde (sold in Russia under the brand names Groza and Meta) - an effective agent that attracts and kills slugs and snails. The package says that the product is poisonous to pets and people if it gets into their digestive system. The high toxicity of the agent is also evidenced by the fact that Bitrex (the most bitter substance) is added to it to scare away animals and children if they suddenly decide to eat beautiful blue granules. Manufacturers claim that when used correctly, the product is completely harmless to people, pets and the environment, however, warnings are often found in the gardening press. Metaldehyde should be stored and handled with great care. Wash vegetables and herbs especially thoroughly if you have used metaldehyde in your garden. I scatter blue granules exclusively around ornamental plants (hosta, delphinium, lofant, etc.) and only in early spring, when young leaves emerge from the ground and are especially vulnerable to slugs and snails.

Caffeine is bad for slugs and snails

Caffeine, in the form of an aqueous solution, applied to the soil or to the leaves of plants, repels and kills slugs and snails, presumably by destroying their nervous system. This conclusion was made by Hawaiian scientists from the US Department of Agriculture as a result of a series of experiments. According to the observations of scientists, a 1 or 2 percent solution kills even large individuals (although it discolors the leaves of some plants), and a 0.1 percent solution introduces pests into confusion, accelerating the heartbeat, and scares them away from plantations. To obtain a 0.1% caffeine solution, you can, for example, dissolve a double dose of instant coffee in a cup of water.

• Likharev. I.M., Victor A.Y./ Slugs of the fauna of the USSR and neighboring countries (Gastropoda terrestria nuda). - L., "Science", 1980. - 438 p. (In the series: Fauna of the USSR. Molluscs. Vol. III, issue 5).