[jacnal]

Hello fellow gardeners,

My allotment is plagued with slugs and snails. My mother in law suggested ammonium as an effective killer for them, with the end result being fertiliser good for the soil. Has anyone ever tried this? A quick google search yielded good results in this interesting discussion: http://forums.gardenweb.com/forums/load/nwest/msg0918315310420.html. I'm planning to go get ammonium on my way to the allotment this morning, but thought I'd ask here first. Is it safe for the lovely earthworms and other helpful bugs? Hopefully they're all burrowed underneath though.

Thanks!

[WG.]

Try organic gardening

 :?:  :?:

Ammonium what?  Ammonium nitrate, Ammonium sulphate, Ammonium chloride, Ammonium hydroxide etc etc
None are organic if that matters to you & I suspect none would selectively kill out your slug population.

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[jacnal]

Ammonium what?  Ammonium nitrate, Ammonium sulphate, Ammonium chloride, Ammonium hydroxide etc etc
None are organic if that matters to you.

D'oh!
Don't know what sort of ammonium  :oops:
See what I mean by steep learning curve? I thought if it doesn't harm what it's not intended for and leave nasty residues the end result is organic? That's the sort of organic I mean. Harmful to the baddies, not harmful to the goodies, and residue free. :oops: again.

Looks like I might have to re-define organic to suit me, lol!

I'll go do the search........

[WG.]

Household ammonia is ammonium hydroxide and I don't doubt that it would kill slugs if sprayed on them.  The only residues will be water and gaseous ammonia (in small quantities).  Ammonia is a nasty gas but does also occur naturally (notably in urine or in your compost heap).

Your choice but I would advocate against its use since it will tend to sterilise the soil where sprayed.  Instead of spraying the slug why not simply snip it in half with a pair of scissors?

[jacnal]

Household ammonia is ammonium hydroxide and I don't doubt that it would kill slugs if sprayed on them.  The only residues will be water and gaseous ammonia (in small quantities).  Ammonia is a nasty gas but does also occur naturally (notably in urine or in your compost heap).

Your choice but I would advocate against its use since it will tend to sterilise the soil where sprayed.  Instead of spraying the slug why not simply snip it in half with a pair of scissors?

Thanks WG.

So, that's ammonia out of the window. Wouldn't like to sterilise the soil. We need the bacteria!

I still can't bring myself to touch the slugs. Can't even crush them looking. Too slimy! I take them with a small hand shovel and throw them next door (unused allotment). No doubt they crawl right back to my cabbages and tomatoes  . Do you seriously snip them in half? Yeuchs!  :o

[Trillium]

A huge hosta grower I deal with regularly uses a spray of 1/4 cup household ammonia to 1 L of water against slugs and hostas with great success. Apparently the ammonia, on exposure to either the air or water, quickly becomes nitrogen, harmless by the time it reaches good bugs. Further, ammonium is directly sprayed on commercial corn fields at planting time to boost the harvest.  

[WG.]

ammonium is directly sprayed on commercial corn fields at planting time to boost the harvest.

Ammonium nitrate presumably?

[DD.]

Ammonium nitrate presumably?

Reminds me of the old joke about copper nitrate being time & a half.

Gets coat, hangs head in shame & leaves :oops:  :oops:

[WG.]

Apparently the ammonia, on exposure to either the air or water, quickly becomes nitrogen, harmless by the time it reaches good bugs.

Nay lass.  

Ammonia + water is what you buy as household ammonia (ammonium hydroxide)

Ammonia + air ... it must be burned in oxygen before it produces nitrogen gas and water.  Please see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ammonia which states "the gas itself is caustic and can cause serious health damage. The United States Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) has set a 15-minute exposure limit for gaseous ammonia of 35 ppm by volume in the environmental air and an 8-hour exposure limit of 25 ppm by volume.[5] "

Also http://www.ecifm.rdg.ac.uk/airpollution.htm which states "Agriculture main source (90%) of ammonia emissions in UK"

Remember that jacnal was wanting to do this organically ...  

[Bernard]

A small point -
it occurs to me that any fertiliser containg ammonium salts, if used on soil which has very high pH, eg if recently limed, will release ammonia.

[WG.]

A small point -
it occurs to me that any fertiliser containg ammonium salts, if used on soil which has very high pH, eg if recently limed, will release ammonia.

Can't help you with that one Bernard - the chemistry of the soil is rarely simple since it contains so many buffering mechanisms.

Free ammonia is certainly produced when manure and lime are added at the same time.