I've discovered something both stange and irritant today, in my garden...

Slugs seems to specifically eat sacred plants. They don't touch potatoes plants, nor do they destroy tomatoes, peas or carrots plants. No, full of wisdom, they choose to eat Tabacco plants, and what I thought to be impossible, Peyote and San Pedro! After a very short research on internet, slugs indeed seem to love all sorts of cacti!

I now must completely reconsider my manner to consider those creatures, they also have a mind, and want to expand it!

Nevertheless, now, the war is declared with those poor slugs!

Have a nice day and good courage to those of the Nexus who try to garden under the same sky as me!

Peace (slugs excepted)

I was very confused when I stuck my cacti outside a few years ago and started finding large holes taken out of them. It took me quite a while to work out it was slugs, I was astounded. They seem to love Trichocereus, I don’t leave my them outside at night anymore.

I chose to try to push off those malevolent slugs with a repellant. Bringing my cacti every evening in my house would be exhausting. Some of them are beginning to get quite big!
I was especially astonished by the fact they also ate Lophophoras. They chose fresh growing parts of Trichocereus but attacked older parts of lophos, with a quite thick skin! I'm worrying for them, as they do not seem to recover as easily as Trichocereus do...

I have a big slug problem in my veggie patch, as do most gardeners. Dont want to kill them though so Ive tried various other methods. Copper rings work if you keep the copper clean and shiny. Buy a sheet of copper, cut into strips and put these round the stem or base of the plant, like a collar. Push it down a bit into the soil as slugs can burrow underground. A ring of crushed eggshells round the stem also works, or any other sharp material like coarse sand.

If you want to kill them, beer traps seem like the most humane way. Just bury a jar of beer in the soil near your plants, the rim being at ground level, and they will gravitate towards it. Get drunk and then drown, possibly feeling nicely charged.

There's also nematodes, but these are worms that eat the slug from the inside out. Natural, but a horrible way to go.

Hedgehogs and ducks eat slugs and are nice animals to have round the place.

Yes slugs wreck my chard/beets and I'm sure they're responsible for some other plant nibblings! They really chomp things down. I need to try the beer method again! They've never touched my cacti as far as I know! I've found snails tucked into grooves along my trichocereus species before though.

Hedghog is by far the better ally I ever had against slugs! Sadely, the owner of the house where I live moved the heap of wood which was standing in the garden. My little thorny friend didn't appreciate to see his house destroyed that way and then certainly decided to settle in my neighboor's garden, letting us alone, my cacti and I, facing those starving slugs...

of course slugs love lophs.
this is one of the main reasons i promote the indoor grow.

theres no way a serious crop is gonna survive against slugs.

They seem to like the best cacti too. Do they eat the PC? No, of course not. But a good named bridge or pachanoi... you bet!

I know of one person who uses sluggo, which supposedly works really well. The copper ring around the pot trick and beer trick are supposed to work well too.

I've tried these methods with varying success. Another way I find good for detering slugs from your veg and other plants is to feed them. Put down something like comfrey before you plant the young ones out and then around the base of those plants. Slugs are usually attracted to dead and weak/young plants so this should be ok for distracting them from your cacti too. You should be able to then go on a nightly inspection to remove them, where they can then begin their garden to garden journey via over the fence

yeah bro, 11,000 neurons and counting

I often find garden slugs hiding under the cap panaeolus cinctulus mushrooms, it looks like they are eating the gills...

-eg

Before this episode, it seemed logical to me that slugs ate mushrooms (if you want to harvest ceps, you have to be fast where I live!). Now, I know they also eat plants which seem exotic to them, in order to have a varied diet!

Thanks for the various strategies given. It's hard to use beer those days, it's raining to much! (and I prefer to keep my IPAs for myself!). A friend of mine told me he used this technic: he nailed potatoes slices under a plank in his garden. Every morning, potatoes were covered of starving slugs. He chose to kill them but you can also choose to throw them over the fence!

Personally, I finaly found an organic slug killer. Sad for those slimy creatures but it is very efficient and won't affect birds, cats or hedghogs if they eat a dying slug.

My own grandmother used a non-lethal technique. At breakfast grannie had a half a grapefruit or orange and scooped out most of the flesh with a spoon. These citrus half skins were then placed near the plant to be protected and could be removed the next morning often filled with our slug friends.

Poor slugs...

I was never sure if they were eating the panaeolus cinctulus gills, or just hiding under the cap of the mushroom...regardless it leaves the gills and dented in the shape of the slug...

-eg

my great grandma used cheap beer in a margarine container. Every morning filled with dead slugs. Sad for the slugs, happy for the plants...

Incal, thanks for your granny's tip. I dont want to kill them, just gather them together and then take them to a distant field somewhere. Ill try this technique and see if it works.

Grow your cacti in large pots off the ground. Put them on a shelf with poor access to the shelf (narrow legs). If need be, put strips of copper around the legs of the shelf + around the pots. The slugs hate copper and won't cross it as eagerly.

If they can't easily get up to the pots, they won't ever be able to bother them. That also means they won't ever get down into the soil and colonize it either.

Go snail and slug hunting in your garden. If they are eating it, they are hiding out in dark places during the day. Flip over every stone, every log, etc. Find them and remove them from your garden every time you water them.