Garden Slugs

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Hooky87

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i am finding that digging for worms in my garden is proving hit and miss but there seems to be plenty of slugs of all sizes.I would like to know if garden slugs are ok to feed to my animals, and does anyone have a good method for catching them.
Cheers

Matt
 
Seems alot of people are feeding them to their axolotl with no problems. Just avoid any brightly colored ones and make sure they are small enough for the axolotl to swallow them.

As for catching them, just pick them up with your fingers.
 
Mind out for pesticides mate.
 
I use small grey slugs as a food for some of my newts and salamanders and find that they are the favoured food of all my fire sal subspecies, as well as my mandarin newts
 
I just got some from the garden last night. I know the slugs near me are o.k. to use. Axolotls loved them, but not as much as the turtles. Slugs around here are also on the menu for some of wild amphibians. At least i found a way to get rid of the slugs in the garden. I find them best in the evening after a rain. I go out with the flash light and pick them up. you might get a lot of mucous on your hands.
 
morg said:
I use small grey slugs as a food for some of my newts and salamanders and find that they are the favoured food of all my fire sal subspecies, as well as my mandarin newts
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Cool are these slugs from your garden.Any methods to attract them to my garden in large numbers
 
There's a sentence you'd think you'd never hear. :)
 
I´ve succesfully fed slugs to many of my caudates. If i´m not mistaken most if not all european species are edible(not poisonous). I know i´ve used slugs of the genuses Arion, Limax and Deroceras without any apparent problems.
The one thing to be wary about are parasites, i guess....as snails, slugs can be vectors for different types of parasite, so there is a risk. Ideally, slugs should be cultured to ensure they are "clean".
Well, and obviously pesticides and such-like....garden slugs may be full of nasty things.
 
Hooky87 said:
Cool are these slugs from your garden.Any methods to attract them to my garden in large numbers
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Beer.



I kid you not.

Cheap beer works best- American style Pilsners or Lagers. (In other words, the stuff not fit to drink...)

Take a clean aluminum pie plate. Place it in a part of your garden where the plants are a bit tall, or a flower bed. Fill the Pie Plate up with beer. Add a wadded handful of paper toweling so that your slugs and snails do not drown.

Let it sit over night.

The next morning, head out with your collecting jar and a plastic spoon and scape off all the slugs from the beer soaked paper toweling.


If you just want to rid your garden of slugs and snails without using dog and cat unfriendly pesticides, omit the paper toweling. They drown happy, I assure you.

(Thanks to the Old Farmer's Almanac 1968 and my grandpa...)


Trust me on this one, it works. Well, it works here in the States anyway. Perhaps those Euro-Slugs are not drunks.;)
 
If the slugs drink the beer, would that have any negative effects on the Caudates they are being fed to? If not, that's a great method of obtaining live food. I'd known you could use the method to kill them, but using paper toweling to save them for newt food is smart.
 
Hey, Johnny, I tried this after you posted it last time and it didn't work for me. :(
 
There is just no way i would Ever even consider feeding garden slugs to my sals, to many unknowns in it for me.
 
mantighoul said:
I just got some from the garden last night. I know the slugs near me are o.k. to use. Axolotls loved them, but not as much as the turtles. Slugs around here are also on the menu for some of wild amphibians. At least i found a way to get rid of the slugs in the garden. I find them best in the evening after a rain. I go out with the flash light and pick them up. you might get a lot of mucous on your hands.
Click to expand...


If you dont want to use your hands to pick them up, you can always use a plastic spoon and slide it under them and toss in the bag. After you collect alot you will have nasty fingers unless you use a spoon. I do this or wear latex gloves.
 
Nathan050793 said:
If the slugs drink the beer, would that have any negative effects on the Caudates they are being fed to? If not, that's a great method of obtaining live food. I'd known you could use the method to kill them, but using paper toweling to save them for newt food is smart.
Click to expand...


Thats the last thing I need is a spannish ribbed newt buzzed out of his mind haha.
 
benw said:
There is just no way i would Ever even consider feeding garden slugs to my sals, to many unknowns in it for me.
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Hi ben i did think that but what makes slugs more of a risk than digging for worms

Matt
 
Since someone mentioned gray slugs, I thought I'd mention that they're capable of carrying Meningitis. I don't actually know if amphibians can get meningitus, or the likelihood of ingesting it accidentally when harvesting these slugs, but it's worth investigating if you're feeding them to pets. It might be safer to start a colony and chuck the parents if you want to keep feeding them to caudates. I'd look into particulars of any wild caught feeders fed to captive animals, though.

http://www.newworldencyclopedia.org/entry/Slug
 
slug pellets in short, they are widely used, and whereas the worms i dig are from chemical free gardems, can you be sure the neighbours to whereveryou get the slugs from havent put down a handful, whuch the slugs munch on slip over into your garden.... you think ooohhh nice slug for the sals, ill have that!!!
One dead sal later, was it worth it, lets be realistic here how long does a slug take to die from the pellets and in that time how far could it travel

Not worth it by a long chalk in my mind
 
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