THE SLUG PEST.

Shannon News, 15 June 1928, Page 4

THE SLUG PEST.

AN EFFECTIVE REMEDY.

Some experiments with slugs at Harpenden are described in the Royal Horticultural Society’s Journal, and as a result should interest many who .have not had an opportunity of reading that magazine. Twelve substances were employed with the object of testing their effect. Cur.ously enough, the one most commonly used in gardens, lime, was not among them. That may have been because it was tried a good many years aj..> and it was found that it. merely made the slugs change their skins and that they seemed none the worse for it. Soot, another substance often used in the gardens, is still less effective. So long as it remains dry it may keep b them away from plants surrounded by it, for it adheres tb their slimy bodies and would eventuaiiy suffocate them if they became covered by it, but when once, it has been matted by rain of heavy dew they can crawl over it in safety. N! v Of the twelve substances employed in the Harpenden experiments, four , produced little or no effect; five were irritant, but the slugs afterwards recovered; the remaining three, borax, sodium fluoride and aluminium sulphate, proved to be deadly. Borax, however, had to be discarded, as it 'destroyed vegetation, and sodium fluoride had a scorching effect which could not be remedied. Aluminium sulphate acted in the same way, but when lime was added it was found to be quite safe. > 1 The recipe given is: Half a pound of quick lime dissolved in four gallons of water, the clear liquid strained off ‘ when cold and added to one pound of aluminium sulphate dissolved in one gallon, the whole again strained. “The most advantageous time to spray,’’ we are told, “is shortly After sundown or. after a showier —that is to say, when •* slugs are most likely to be astir. In the experiments thorough wettings with the spray at this concentration proved fatal to the slug. Individuals sheltering at the base of the plants were not actually killed, but would not touch foliage, so sprayed, and, being unable to crawl far on surrounding soil, ‘eventually perished. Several applications at intervals of a few days have been .found to destroy every slug in an area so treated. ” ,