slugs!

[vclark321]

on youtube there is a film of a lady who trained her chickens to eat slugs. Take a look at it, if nothing else, it is so funny to watch the pullets running around with slugs.

 

[NHchicks]

My chickens absolutely show no interest in slugs, unfortunately. But I didn't realize ducks might love them. Will a couple ducks flock with your chickens? Do they roost with them and everything? Or do they need a pond of water? I wonder if I could stick a couple ducks in with my flock and they wouldn't know the difference.

 

[woodmort]

Yes ducks will eat slugs but no they do not roost. With luck you may get them in the habit of going in to the coop at night. I lost more ducks to nighttime predators than chickens. Also ducks make a mess--they need water 24/7 and spread it every where. I kept both ducks and chickens for about 15 years and haven't regretted getting rid of the ducks.

 

[Momhen]

Thanks for all the info. In the end, I stuck with the (cheap) beer as it was a guaranteed slug catcher. I can't imagine why slugs exist as they are such pests! I can appreciate that they are part of the food chain, but we have very few toads here and any frogs we have are small (some of the slugs could eat the toads they are that big!).

Winter is quickly arriving here in Northern Ireland so hopefully we'll see fewer slugs for awhile!

 

[vclark321]

There is a video on youtube about a lady who trained her chickens to eat slugs. This is the link I copied, but you can still find it under How to train chickens to eat slugs.

Apparantly they have to get a taste for it. The video is funny to watch. Since normal table salt would melt in the rain you can use kosher salt that comes in bigger chunks. Good luck!

I use the cheap beer method myself since I could not bring myself to cut up a slug, or I toss the slugs into my neighbors yard. That sounds bad, doesn't it? The area behind our houses turns into a duck pond in the winter and the ducks use his yard for foraging. He is truly allergic to any kind of yard work and only does once a year!

 

[Imp]

Here we get banana slugs that can rarely get up to 8-10 inches long. I cannot find a solution to getting rid of them, so I just live with them. I have found "Deadline" does work, and the chickens don't eat it. It is a grey paste you squirt around the garden. I put a solid line, although the directions say a drop every few inches.
I have Stall dry in the coop. It is 40% DE. Doesn't even slow slugs down. They roll in it, dust bathe in it, send me thank you cards for it.

Just this morning I fed the outside cats, after I was done I saw something weird on the kitchen counter. Ugh, there was a dead slug. Must have been on the bottom of one of the dishes.

Imp

 

[Eva Hargrave]

I have had some of my chickens that have had Gape Worms. When doing research on it, I read that they are caused by the chickens eating slugs. I ended up having 2 chickens die for lack of knowing how to treat them. I was finally able to get some Verm-X. It saved a couple of my chickens that I thought to have gape worms Anyway having said that I do not want my chickens eating slugs. But I've yet to find a solution to kill them out. They are so nasty. Any input in this?
Thanks,
Eva

 

[Momhen]

This past autumn I had containers out with beer to catch slugs at night. in the morning there were a number of slugs caught but I left the containers as is to catch a few more before I replaced the beer. The next day all of the dead slugs were gone! I ruled out the dog and chickens as the slug thiefs as neither like them. However, much to my surprise we found out that we had a hedgehog living in the woodpile beyond our fence. I can only assume that the hedgehog had a slug fest. I would raise hedgehogs if they would get rid of the slugs!