Backyard Poultry Forum

Hi ,

We have thousands of slaters. They eat our veg and fruit - especially strawberries - we have hardly got any this year! I can't use slater killer as it is on food crops. I have used pyrethrum, which is effective, but you have to actually spray each last one, and there is also a witholding peroid of a couple of weeks.

Does anyone have any suggestions for KILLING the little dears but not harming the fruit and veg?

NellyG

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NellyG ............[ img ]............

hiya Nells, in one of our permy books it mentions for pest control you gather a teaspoon of the dried 'pest' (no matter what type) and mix mashed up with a cup of water, stand in the sun for a day, filter through an old stocking, dilute in 4 litres of water. Pathogenically potent for the insect pest. spray on the critters or the area. May not be quite what youre after but works... :D

good luck!

Y :D

You could try this forum for an answer....they certainly send enough people to BYP for advice....and have BYP memberS as well.

www.aussieslivingsimply.com.au

Cheers

I looked up a German site. There they recommend to fill up a bottle (approx. a quarter full) with strong alcohol and lay the open bottle on the ground in the area with most of the slaters. They seem to like the smell of the alcohol, crawl into the bottle and drown.
I don't know if this really is going to work, but it might be worth a try.
Good luck, Inge

Use two hands and scoop them up ,drop in a bucket and give them to your chickens ..They love them its a good protein for chooks .

Generally slaters only eat fungi and rotting material..But perhaps if they are in plauge proportions they might eat green mater ..
Are you sure it is the slaters and not caterpillars that hide under the leaves .

In an organic garden slaters are normally classed as a good critter as they clean up rotting material ..

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New Hampshires and a few bantams

Yes my first suggestion was to get your chooks in the area for some supervised eating! Should decrease the prob in no time.

In plague proportions they can start to eat new shoots and can, say, ringbark a brocolli so it's not all good. Which is the problem Nelly has.

I'm with Pete on this - slaters are far less destructive than caterpillars - you probably have white butterflies.
And of course feed the slaters to the chooks. :)

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Meredith

http://www.agric.wa.gov.au/content/pw/i ... 004_15.pdf


this link provides some suggestions as to how to control slaters when they reach plague proportions.

another link suggests that there are also some introduced species which cna be a pest

i have found that my chooks turn their noses up at eating slaters :shock: :o

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Silkies and Pekins :) Caladenia Cottage
Silkies
Wonderful Silkies

Yes we have caterpillers but the damage I am referring to is most definitely slaters. If you have a close look there are clusters of them in holes in the strawberries or veg, munching away. Not at all like caterpiller holes. These are deep scoops out - not nibbles. I will investigate all the ideas mentioned and try! Many thanks for your thoughts.

Nellyg

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NellyG ............[ img ]............

I too have a bad slater problem. That is why I bought myself some ducks. I know from personal experiance that both Indian Runners and Kharki Campbells love slaters. Other breeds may too, but I have never kept them so I can't be sure.

Do chooks eat slaters too? The chooks we used to keep never did, but the ducks loved them.

The other thing I have found works well for slaters is the beer trap method for snails. I always find more slaters in the traps than snails. The only problem is beer isn't really all that cheap.

I also read recently that snail pellets also work on slaters. I am trying that now, so I will let you know in a couple of weeks if it is working. I use the Iron Chelate based pellets.

Hi libellule,

I tried the beer trap idea but it did very little. snail bait gets a few I've found, but not droves of them :lol: My chooks aren't that keen - may eat a few but don't clean them out. So I'm still probably going to pyrethrum them before I start to pick the strawberries (there is a witholding period). Hmmm ducks eh?

NellyG

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NellyG ............[ img ]............

Ducks will eat the slaters alright. You've just got to make sure they don't get distracted by things like lettuce and cucumber leaves growing in the garden. :shock:

I let my ducks in to my strawberry patch for slater, earwig and snail and slug control. They certainly lower the numbers down. The best thing was when Flop was a baby I'd take him in there to weed the garden and he'd be right there waiting for the feed of wriggly things that would appear..hehe

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Those who say it cannot be done shouldn't interrupt the people doing it

I find it is easier to put about a month old chickens onto slaters ( I know not everyone always has chickens, except me ) but when you do have chickens make the most of them.
The chicks are too small to cause a lot of damage and they get the taste for all sorts of bugs early on.

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The majestic Campine.
Should be classed as a game bird.

That's a really good idea Kazlee. I'll try it next time I have some babies.

NellyG

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NellyG ............[ img ]............