SLUG WARS

Earlier this year, during the spring, I noticed holes all over the leaves of my newly planted coleus plants. The problem got worse and pretty soon many of the leaves were only stems, the fleshy part having been eaten away. Some had been attacked from the edges and all were a sorry lot. The container in which this problem was manifest also contained a sweet potato vine which also had chewed up leaves but it wasn't as bad and as the vine got longer the problem lessened.

I fought back with Sevin which usually kills flying parasites and caterpillars after only one substantial application especially if the infestation is caught early and the parasites are small. It didn't help at all even after several applications and I realized I was fighting a pest I hadn't encountered before.

It is difficult fighting an enemy you can't see or even know. So I turned to that repository of all commonly accepted human knowledge and discovered that what was eating my coleus was probably slugs. This knowledge came with some suggestions on how to eliminate them, such as using poison or copper strips or wire or by enticing them with beer. Finding the latter to be the most practical and using the most available ingredients, I set up Soupy's Slug Bar and waited for customers.

That evening, one of my assistants confirmed the presence of slugs in the coleus pot by photographing some as they approached the bar for a late night drink.

I also set up a tavern at a different location where we had observed potential customers, assumed to be pretty heavy drinkers based on their size and one evening discovered a customer on his way in. Not wishing to lose his custom, I helped him along with the use of a small stick and he landed inside. I thought that would do it, but wouldn't you know, about 5 minutes later I saw him leaving. I wasn't going to let him go, so I prodded him back in again, but again he climbed out. It had rained earlier and a member of my team observed that the reason my customers were leaving was because I watered the beer.

Subsequently I caught four rather large critters along with some beetles, all in my western branch. While my initial quest was to eliminate the things that were eating my coleus, where I had opened the original bar, so far I hadn't caught anything there. In frustration, I bought a jar of snail bait and applied it. So far I haven't seen any results but today I also noticed a whole colony of inchworms in the soil under the coleus and think that maybe they are eating the leaves. I destroyed them (by stepping on them) and will report back in a few days when I see if the the holes in the leaves have remained status quo or  have increased.

Stay tuned.