Citrus Growers Forum

dauben · Posted: Sun 23 Mar, 2008 1:41 pm

Well, I don't know if this is new or not, but it's new to me. I've had problems for years with slugs and snails eating my lettuce in the garden despite ample applications of slug/snail bait. Romaine is next to impossible to grow and if it does survive, the all of the holes in the lettuce is hardly something you want to put on the dinner table.

I had been throwing peels of my Gold Nugget Mandarin into the garden whenever the kids and I eat one out in the yard. This morning I made my rounds in the garden on my way out to get the newspaper and noticed a ring of slugs around each peel while none were on the lettuce. Now I don't know if the d-limonene will kill the slugs, but the slugs obviously preferred the orange peel over the lettuce. I don't like the idea of attracting any more slugs than I have to into the garden, but if I give them the choice between orange peels and lettuce, I'd happily allow them to munch on the orange peel if they leave my lettuce alone. The one thing that was also clear was that they prefer the inside of the rind and leave the outside of the rind alone. I'll need to make sure when I put future rinds in the garden, that I make sure they land inside up.

In the name of science, I think I will experiment with my grapefruit rind that I'm currently eating for breakfast and see if they have the same fondness for grapefruit as they do for the Gold Nugget rind. Smile

Phillip

tomm · Posted: Mon 24 Mar, 2008 1:15 am

Phillip:

You got me to dig in my garbage to pull out pieces of
Eureka Lemon peal! I put them inside down next to a
slug damaged cabbage in my garden. I guess that the
slugs will prefer the moist inside facing downward
were they can be in the dark and damp.

Tomorrow morning I will be out there at dawn to collect them.

_________________
Tom Mortell

dauben · Posted: Mon 24 Mar, 2008 1:41 am

tomm wrote:

Phillip:

You got me to dig in my garbage to pull out pieces of
Eureka Lemon peal! I put them inside down next to a
slug damaged cabbage in my garden. I guess that the
slugs will prefer the moist inside facing downward
were they can be in the dark and damp.

Tomorrow morning I will be out there at dawn to collect them.

Let me know if you have any success. Maybe the San Diego slugs have acquired more of a taste for citrus than the Costa Mesa slugs Smile

. I'd feel bad if I had you dumpster diving for your lemon peels for nothing.

BTW, I gave up on cabbage a couple of years ago because of the slugs. They destroyed the entire crop!! Good luck!

Phillip

tomm · Posted: Mon 24 Mar, 2008 8:17 pm

I went out with a flashlight this morning and collected
4 slugs on the cabbage plant and one on a neighboring
lettuce plant. On and under the pieces of lemon rind,
I found 0 (zero) slugs.

_________________
Tom Mortell

JoeReal · Posted: Mon 24 Mar, 2008 8:22 pm

They prefer mandarins?

I know they'll drink beer (especially left over by the guests during the party) and drown in it, the common liquid trap bait used.

dauben · Posted: Mon 24 Mar, 2008 9:14 pm

tomm wrote:

I went out with a flashlight this morning and collected
4 slugs on the cabbage plant and one on a neighboring
lettuce plant. On and under the pieces of lemon rind,
I found 0 (zero) slugs.

I found the same thing with my Grapefruit this morning although I didn't see any slugs on my lettuce either. I wonder if the little monsters prefer mandarins like Joe suggested. I'm also using coffee grounds and snail bait so it's hard to tell which one is working the best, but they definitely liked the mandarin peels that I set out over the weekend. They were all dried up this morning so I didn't see any slugs on them either.

Phillip

dauben · Posted: Mon 24 Mar, 2008 9:17 pm

JoeReal wrote:

I know they'll drink beer (especially left over by the guests during the party) and drown in it, the common liquid trap bait used.

I've used beer to drown the slugs in the past, but my problem is that I have a Golden Retriever that invades my garden to drink the beer. There's nothing like a staggaring, tipsy dog wandering around the yard looking for their next bottle (or bowl). She's the first dog to join AA in San Diego. Smile

Phillip

tomm · Posted: Wed 26 Mar, 2008 1:04 pm

Yes, Joe, they prefer mandarins!

I put out three mandarin peal pieces among the lemon rinds
and this morning found three small slugs under the mandarin
and, again, none under the lemons.

_________________
Tom Mortell

dauben · Posted: Wed 26 Mar, 2008 5:10 pm

tomm wrote:

Yes, Joe, they prefer mandarins!

I put out three mandarin peal pieces among the lemon rinds
and this morning found three small slugs under the mandarin
and, again, none under the lemons.

My slug count this morning was 2 on the mandarin peels, none on the grapefruit, and unfortunately 2 on my lettuce.

Phillip