Is Safer's/Sluggo actually safe for chickens?

[catchthewind]

I hope this is the right forum. It's about a pest, but not a chicken pest, and I couldn't see any forum that would be better!

Anyway, we have an explosion of slugs here. I have never seen so many slugs before. In our last place they were pretty bad, but we kept them mostly under control with beer traps and going out at dusk to pick them off. Here, there are 100's of them and it doesn't matter what time of day it is, I can find them. So yeah, I know I need ducks, but I promised my husband no more birds until at least later in the summer when we don't have our roosters any more. We don't have room in the coop for more anyway, I'm already over stocked. I'm trying to train the chickens to eat slugs using a video I found on permies.com, but they really aren't very fond of them, even baby slugs. I wish we had more frogs around. My garden is way too big for copper tape.

We are fairly organic gardeners and I have never used pesticides or herbicides, but I'm considering sprinkling some Sluggo around. I am hoping to get the slug population under control and then maybe be able to keep it that way with the beer traps and collection (and ducks, later in the season). It says it's safe for birds, but I'm skeptical if it's really safe if a chicken were scratching around and actually ingesting a lot of it. I found this:

In the last couple of years, a new product has been released into the market that is receiving rave reviews from organic gardeners. Baits made from iron phosphate have been found to decrease slug populations without harming birds, small pets or humans. Scientists are still not sure exactly how these elements affect slugs but figure that they inhibit the slug from feeding anymore. The baits are sold commercially under the name Sluggo, Es-car-go, and Safer's Slug & Snail Bait.

Read more: Non-Toxic Slug Control | Garden Guides http://www.gardenguides.com/833-non-toxic-slug-control-garden-pest-tip.html#ixzz1KqlvX0Kz

Has anyone used this around chickens?

I'm hesitant to use DE because it kills beneficial bugs too, including beetles that prey on slugs. And I actually don't mind slugs that much. They're great for the compost and beneficial in the forest. I just wish they would stay out of my garden. Everything I have planted is getting eaten before it has a chance to grow more than an inch.

 

[GiddyMoon]

What about salt?

 

[GiddyMoon]

I'm hesitant to use DE because it kills beneficial bugs too, including beetles that prey on slugs. And I actually don't mind slugs that much. They're great for the compost and beneficial in the forest. I just wish they would stay out of my garden. Everything I have planted is getting eaten before it has a chance to grow more than an inch.

I would not worry about this. DE works by working itself into the flesh and drying out the bug...beetles have hard exoskeletons which would keep them very safe..we have used DE for years in our yard and garden and never had a drop in good bugs.​

 

[catchthewind]

Quote:
Thanks. Unfortunately, salt barely slows them down, we have tried that too. It is something else that worked well in our last place that they don't even seem to care about here. It seems we would need so much it could start to affect the vegetation. One of our gardens is about 6000 sq ft, so that's a lot of salt even just around the perimeter! I am definitely open to other suggestions, but I have googled and tried all sorts of natural things: egg shells, coffee, beer traps, salt, and so on, and none of it seems to have made any difference. I can walk out to the garden at any time of day and find slugs munching on all the new shoots trying to come up and destroying others. Dusk is, of course, even worse for them. Few of my peas have grown this year and it's really too late to plant more now. The ones that have sprouted are like a magnet for the slugs. So disappointing, usually we grow enough to freeze for most of the rest of the year. I'm dreading what they will do to my tomatoes, considering how much they loved them at our last place and that our slug population was actually fairly minimal there. I feel like I might need to do something a bit drastic to get it under control, and then use the more natural methods to keep it that way, but not at the expense of my chickens.

As for the DE, I may sprinkle some into the garden. We used to use it a lot and I do still use it when we have ant problems and such, but it's one thing I didn't find worked well for slugs at our last place and I do worry about other beneficials. Though I suppose beneficial insects could potentially eat the Sluggo too, so that's not necessarily going to change.

 

[GiddyMoon]

I would be tempted to build a mote with pvc filled with beer!

 

[catchthewind]

Quote:

I love this idea. Wonder if I can get my hubby on board.

 

[GiddyMoon]

You might get some drunk chickens!

But it would be a great conversation piece...cut them in half lengthwise...fill it up with cheap beer...pull up a chair and watch LOL