Squirrel discovers Sluggo

[dice]

I have a neighborhood squirrel who has decided that Sluggo
is a tasty squirrel treat.

I sprinkled some around the seedlings when I put them out,
and then after a few days I noticed that the Sluggo seemed
to be disappearing from around some plants by the back fence.
I sprinkled more Sluggo around them. Another day later,
and it was missing from around the same plants again,
but not from around plants elsewhere in the yard.

Then the next morning I actually saw it eating something
from around those seedlings. I had sprinkled corn meal
in a circle around them to kill off cutworms (swells up inside
them and kills them), and I thought maybe that was what
the squirrel was after. I nailed it from the deck with a fir
cone, and I tossed a few more after it as it made its
getaway.

When I walked over there and looked, the Sluggo was missing
again. So I put more out, but the squirrel has not returned
since. I figure it is only a matter of time, though. Once it gets
hungry enough again, it will decide to try to sneak into the
garden and get some more Sluggo treats. I may have to put
out piles of real corn or sunflower seeds or something around
there for a distraction.

At least the squirrels around here don't bother the tomato
plants directly (but running interference for the slugs
and snails is not friendly).

[maryinoregon]

dice, I have never seen the neighborhood squirrels go after Sluggo. Will have to watch out for that.

I leave plenty of black oily sunflower seeds for our birds and squirrels. They love them and since it has been nothing but cold and rainy here, they are especially glad to get those seeds.

[dice]

dice, I have never seen the neighborhood squirrels go after Sluggo. Will have to watch out for that.

I leave plenty of black oily sunflower seeds for our birds and squirrels. They love them and since it has been nothing but cold and rainy here, they are especially glad to get those seeds.

I had never seen it before this year. I think it is only one
particular squirrel that has the taste for Sluggo. It has been
back since for more Sluggo a few times.

I am thinking of getting a more powdery iron phosphate based
slug and snail bait than Sluggo, mixing it with a quick dry
mold-making plaster, and using a cake decorator to make rings
of it around the plants (when it is not raining). That should be a
little less tasty for the squirrel, while still exposing enough of
the actual slug bait on the surface to provide an effective slug
and snail barrier. (Maybe I'll mix some cayenne in with it, too.)

[dice]

I am thinking of getting a more powdery iron phosphate based
slug and snail bait than Sluggo, mixing it with a quick dry
mold-making plaster, and using a cake decorator to make rings
of it around the plants (when it is not raining).

We finally got a break in the rain, so I tried this. I could not
find any powdered slug bait with iron phosphate, so I used
the pelletized stuff (like Sluggo). I made a bead of
Sculptamold (
http://www.pearlpaint.com/shop~ocID~...r~vertical.htm
)
around the plants (like a bead of caulk, only lumpy), with dried
cayenne pepper mixed in with it. I sprinkled the pelletized slug
bait on top of it. Scultamold is quite sticky as it dries, so the
slug bait should stay put on top of it. It is a cellulose compound,
very light weight, and biodegradable.

Mixed at 2 parts Sculptamold to 1 part water, it air dries fast,
in about half an hour. Mixed 1 to 1, might take a day or more.
I did not want it drying on my tools, etc, so I mixed it in between,
maybe 3 parts Sculptamold to 2 parts water (eyeballed
it; I was just adding dry Sculptamold until the texture was thick
enough for the water to not separate out).

Half an hour later, I looked over at this one bed where I have
two transplants and a tricot volunteer that happened to be in
the shade (so the Scultpamold was drying slowly), and here
was this squirrel, lapping it up. I watched him for a few minutes,
then threw a few fir cones at him to chase him off. I went over
there and looked, and sure enough, he had eaten 3 inches of the
moist Sculptamold bead, slug bait, cayenne, and all.

I guess it needs more cayenne pepper.

[dice]

PS: It turns out that Sculptamold cleans up easy. A little water,
a little scrubbing, it comes right off.

There might be better products for this (regular plaster of paris,
raw latex, etc), but this one was cheap, easy to find, and low
impact on the garden.

[maryinoregon]

dice, if you happen to get a picture of the little rascal eating sluggo, I hope you will post it here. I have to smile. I'm glad it was only sluggo.

I have a neighbor with a cute little dog that I love dearly. A couple days ago, she was out eating slug bait that was not a sluggo type. Her human did not know this at the time. After a bit, she started shaking/seizuring and scared her owner half to death. She called the vet's office who asked if the dog had eaten slug bait. They said it happens every year and to bring the dog in.

They had to give the dog an IV and I'm not sure what else. The dog is all right now, and would head to the slug bait again if she could I think. I don't know what ingredient could intrigue a dog so much. Her human buried the bait and bought some sluggo.

[dice]

I didn't think of taking a picture, but that's a good idea.

I used to use Deadline, because it was pretty efficient:
lay a bead down around the edges of a garden, and it
is good to go for weeks, even months, depending on
the weather. Our pets never showed any interest in it,
and it was effective on slugs and snails. It sticks to
the top of mulch instead of falling through it whenever
the mulch is disturbed by weeding, rain, etc.

Around the vegetable garden, though, iron-phosphate based
slug baits are clearly safer, and I used them everywhere in the
yard last year (ran out of Deadline and did not buy more). It
seems to me that an iron-phosphate based product in a
Deadline-type sticky emulsion would be a big improvement.
We typically find 3 brands of iron phosphate slug bait around
here: Sluggo, Worry Free, and Schultz. All are pelletized baits,
so suffer from the "disappearing into the mulch" problem.

I tried to find just iron phosphate powder this year, to mix up
my own, with corn meal or brewer's yeast to attract the slugs
and snails and some kind of plaster to stick to the mulch. All
of the vendors that I found that sell it, both online and locally,
however, are wholesale only (need to buy a lot of it at once).
The one exception was iron phosphate mineral supplements
in the vitamin trade, but the unit price seemed too high on
those to be practical for this, at least in the quantities I wanted.

I may try that next year and see how far a bottle of it goes.
Sluggo is only 1% iron phosphate, so a little of that goes a long
way in a slug bait.