Jim, I ended my slug epidemic overnight with diatomaceous earth from a pool supply no less. The stuff I found at a pet supply struck me as much to silky smooth. I tried the beer and was making progress after several weeks of collecting hundreds of slugs with 8-10 dishes of beer, as the slugs were showing up as smaller and younger animals towards the end. But after the DE, I collect zero slugs, even tho I continued the beer for another couple of weeks. I like to use one of those small hand pumped flour sifters and cover the entire floor of my GH. Snails/slugs are not native to Prescott, AZ, so the only time I have more mollusk problems is because they come in on new plants. I reapply the DE when I think of it, or when I start to see damage, which is pretty rare, as I repot every thing that I get into a closed mix that snails and slugs can't enter. If your first attempt with DE doesn't work, keep trying it from other sources.
If you continue to use beer, be sure the bowls are big enough. I watched one large drunk slugs stretch his way from one lower internal edge of the bowl to the lip on the opposite side, and start to escape. Bowl size was increased after that. In the mean time, you can protect your tasty orchids parts by spraying them with pyrethrin. I used a very light spraying of this on the flowers every 2 or 3 days, and the slugs left them alone. Cynthia From: "James Brasch" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Subject: Re: [OGD] snails and sllugs I lose the new growth of phals about one or two a night. I have sprinkled every pot aand the gravel floor with the standard (Safers, etc) snail baits and installed the guaranteed beer snail trap. A few slide in there, but the proportion of beer to snails is not favorable. All bests, Jim _______________________________________________ the OrchidGuide Digest (OGD) [email protected] http://orchidguide.com/mailman/listinfo/orchids_orchidguide.com
