This time we will not talk about all snails, but about the Spanish slugs found in Latvia. Although these snails do not survive our winters, their eggs survive the winter quite successfully. One Spanish slug can lay up to 400 eggs per season.
Go on an egg hunt
These slugs can be found in gardens from spring until December, but the greatest activity of Spanish slugs is observed from June to the end of September or beginning of October. During this period, they actively feed, and in August and September they reproduce intensively, laying eggs, as a rule, in damp and dark places. They can be found under stones, bricks, pots, piles of boards, in cracks in the ground in the shade of bushes and other similar places. The eggs spend the winter there, and in the spring a new generation of voracious snails hatch from them. The best way to limit the spread of Spanish slugs is to destroy their eggs. Check all the places in your area where snail eggs could be laid, collect everything you find and destroy it by throwing it into salt water.
Use salt water and bait
Autumn is the best time to ensure that eggs are not laid at all. The first and best way to control Spanish slugs is to collect them. This is not the most pleasant task, but it can be done with gloves. However, it is better to use disposable gloves, since after this work they will be covered with mucus. Pour water into the container where you will collect slugs and add salt to it – the slugs will die in it. Another way to reduce the number of snails is to use bait. Iron phosphate works well, which snails really like. Having eaten such bait, they stop feeding and crawl into their shelters to die. The iron phosphate itself breaks down into plant nutrients iron and phosphorus.
Source: www.gorod.lv
