Slugs!!

[Dan1990]

So to my horror slugs are becoming a problem. I'm not sure where I got them but in all honesty I did not serialize all my pants before putting them in the viv. By not doing this I must have introduced them along the line somewhere.

At first I thought it was just one. I caught it and fed it to my fish. A fitting end to the creature that was eating my plants. It was not big. Maybe a half inch in length. So with the removal of it I thought the catastrophe was averted, but that was just wishful thinking. I soon found another. It was smaller maybe 1/4 inch. I was still in denial thinking that surely the one I had got rid of before was too small to have reproduced and this must have been another that hitchhiked and after removed would be the last I would see of them.

I was wrong. I keep finding small baby slugs here and there. They are starting to inpact my plants significantly and I don't think picking them out when I see them is going to do the trick anymore.

So my question is, short of a complete redo what can I do to remove these pest?

[joneill809]

You can try placing a piece of lettuce in the viv each evening and collecting what slugs aggregate there each morning. I also used a flashlight at night to hunt around and remove any I could find. In the end I tore down my 120 and re-planted and used new substrate to get rid of my problem.

[Philsuma]

Almost all viv pests undergo a boom and a bust cycle. Like Jim said, use a piece of ice cold lettuce each night and augment that with 'hand squishing' via Kleenex, and then keep at it and await the 'bust' . Dry ice is goofy and not effective. A tear down for a small viv is a third option.

[tazman]

Beer makes for a good slug trap. Put it in a yogurt cup half full. The slugs are attracted to the smell crawl down into the cup and drown.

Edit** I'm pretty sure alcohol / Etoh, is deadly to amphibians. If they touch it or soak in it, they die. Do not let your frogs come in contact with any type of alcohol.

[Sherman]

"Sluggo" used at regular intervals seems to keep slugs at bay.
I have not been able to eliminate them, but they do go away for long periods of time.
This has been my experience for the little, spiral snails too.

[tazman]

Yes you can say that again, I read that it can take 100 days for slug eggs to hatch. I found out the hard way after breaking down a tank and carefully cleaning my plants and disinfecting them. About 3 months after doing this I started seeing slugs again in the newly set up tank. AAAArrrg, needless to say I don't keep plants from infested tanks anymore.

[Dan1990]

Thank you everyone for your comments