Using hydrated lime against slugs

[DennisD]

Thanks for the idea of hydrated lime. So far I have used two other option with fairly good success:

1. Encircle the plant with Epsom salt: useful where you can keep rain from dissolving the salt. I used this around my small pawpaw trees while they were breaking bud this spring to give the small trees a chance to survive.
2. In other places I collect them each night and morning tossing them in a container where a handful of 3-16 fertilizer quickly dissolves them into a useful product to side dress my potatoes. Of course this is laborious and must be done daily here in the pacific NW where slugs are very plentiful. I will try hydrated lime this week!

[Hillbillyhort]

Update on the hydrated lime…
I tried using some from a old bag that had been sitting in the barn for a few years…
It did not really work… I watched slugs crawl over it
May have absorbed moisture from the air and slaked itself.
But a new ,fresh bag did the trick.
So maybe store it in a air tight container.

[lordkiwi]

Have you considered a real Slug poison? like Sluggo? Its 1% iron phosphate and 99% other stuff. The most important other stuff ingredient is yeast

Amazon.com : Monterey Garden Sluggo (Iron Phosphate), 40 lbs : Garden & Outdoor

If I where to try to mad scientist my self. I would take some 3oz of steel wool combine it with a few ounces of vinegar, hydrogen peroxide and salt. Outdoors in open glass container. That will produce some instant Iron oxide rust. Drain that and combine it with 6oz of phosphoric acid. Once that is reacted you will have about .4lb or Iron Phosphate I guese Mix that with 1lb of brewers yeast and 39lb of other filler and you have your own sluggo.

Amazon.com: NOW Foods Brewer's Yeast, 1-Pound: Prime Pantry

1 Quart / 950ml 85% Food Grade Phosphoric Acid Rust Remover Clean Etch Metal - - Amazon.com