Why does Salt Kill Slugs?
The reason salt is used to kill slugs
Are you suffering from the common problem of slug damage? If yes, then you have come to the right place.
The most common problem that vegetable growers or cultivators face these days is pest outbreak on their hard work or slug problems.
If you are having problem in your home with slugs it might be worth getting a Himalayan salt lamp.
If you have similar reasons to worry, you can use homemade remedies to get a solid solution! Go through the following to find out now.
What are Slugs?
One of the most common things you would want to get rid of from your vegetation is none but slug. Have you ever seen a snail crawling around?
Snails are more noticeable than slugs. You can be sure of seeing a slug if you have ever seen a shell-less snail. Yes! That’s it, that is a slug!
Slugs are of various types and colors like tiger slugs, sea slugs, etc. Most of them have got a similar taste in food and similar preferences in food habits.
Slugs are a part of the animal kingdom and are a type of gastropod mollusc. Most of the common questions invading people's minds are whether they are slimy. Yes, they have got shiny and slimy skin which is not particularly harmful to human skin but can put one in trouble in having some allergies.
Slugs generally crawl on their chest and do not have any legs or arms. The only way they get directions and can sense things is with their tentacles' help on the head.
Slugs have gained immense power and choice of mating. They are hermaphrodites which means that they have got both male and female reproductive systems in their bodies. They can either reproduce like a female or mate like a male!
The most notable and yet creepiest fact about this gastropod mollusk is that they have thousands of teeth! Have you ever noticed a slug crawling on the ground but leaving a slimy layer behind?
The slimy layer is the traces that the slug is leaving behind only to find its way back home or marking the food source so that it can visit again.
All the slugs you find in your garden, or anywhere would not have a shell-less back. They can have a small shell, rudimentary shell, shell inside the skin, etc.
If you are unlucky enough not to spot a single slug to date, then you can visit the cool and damp places at your house or any other vegetation-prone area to find one!
What do Slugs eat?
If you think slugs only survive on vegetation, then you are as wrong as the man who hallucinates water ponds in a desert! The more you get to know slugs, the more you become curious.
Slugs are a few of the Animalia kingdom who eat whatever they get. Slugs are herbivorous, omnivorous, carnivorous, and also detritivorous at the same time.
They feed on almost everything they find. They prefer eating fresh vegetables most of the time, which becomes a threat to your plant growth.
But do not be surprised upon seeing a group of slugs feeding on some dead animal remains, or plant remains. They even swallow fungus and other snails at times! They are voracious eaters and lovers of cabbage and lettuce leaves.
Why does salt kill slugs?
Are you looking for ways to get rid of slugs? If yes, then nothing can be your company and ally other than salt crystals. The fun fact about slugs is that their bodies consist of 90% water.
What will happen if most of the things drain out of your body or get destroyed at once? You will end up being dead! Similarly, salt kills the proportion of water in the slug body.
If you ever spot a slug and want to get rid of it, then you can do a few things, grab a handful of salt from your kitchen, find out the slug and throw the salt on it.
Within seconds or a few minutes, you would find the gastropod mollusc moving in pain and being dead. How? Salt has got a higher density than water.
A slug's body consists mainly of water. When you put salt on its body, the water inside the slug's body tends to come out to the salt particles to reduce the density as the nature of fluids.
The slug's body and the salt particles around it go through the process of osmosis. After osmosis, the slug's body gets drained of water entirely and dehydrates to death. This is why salt kills slugs!
Does salt keep slugs away?
Practically thinking, salt particles do keep away slugs. But there are a lot of buts and ifs in the process. Keep an eye on the following points to find out now:
- Get Info:
One of the most vital things you should not miss out on is nothing but to know your enemies first. When you want to destroy something, you need to know every knit and bit of them.
You need to get information like their weaknesses and their strengths, what attracts them, what destroys them, everything.
- Plan ways to attract them:
The second thing which you can do is to find out ways to attract the slugs. There are several ways in which you can attract hundreds of slugs at ease.
You can either grow their favorite vegetables in your garden, keep your garden as wet and damp as possible, look for them after dusk, open used beer bottles to collect them by attracting them with the smell, introduce other centipedes and hedgehogs, plan out traps to catch them and get rid of them quickly.
- Salt remedies:
You already know that salt particles drain out water from the slugs' bodies within seconds or minutes. But have you ever thought if salt is a threat to your plants and vegetables as well?
Yes, salt can do the same thing with your plants in the gardens and give your plants a slow death. Salt would kill the slugs, but it would also kill the plants slowly.
It is best to avoid using salt to keep the slugs away. You can go for other random ways to behead them or trap them to death, etc.
What keeps you waiting? Go and deal with your slug problems now!