# ALL SNAILS/SLUGS ARE EVIL



## Anoleo2 (Feb 1, 2006)

:evil: Snails and slugs are evil!!! :evil:
I hate 'em, I hate 'em, I hate 'em!!

I'll start out the beginning.... I brought home an aroid and put it in my "holding" tank for my extra plants and a couple days later it started to die! I kept it dryer because I thought it was rotting...then I see this slug crawling around in there and I take it out and kill it...then, a couple days after that, I notice my bromeliad that was pupping is wilting!! The pup falls off and I took the brom out of the tank...(by now the aroid was long gone)
And I thought I had gotten rid of them because I had seen no sign of them since the bromeliad incident. But tonight, I am putting some creeping fig on the background of my 20 vert and I barely even touch the Neo. 'Tiger Cub' and it falls off it's stem!!!! So I take it out and see these white dots in the axil of the brom and I try and wipe them off and the whole leaf thing comes out!!! I hardly pull on another one and it comes out too!!! By now I'm pretty mad...and by the time I'm done pulling off leaves the brom only has four left!!! :x 
And that is why I HATE snails and slugs.

OK....deep breathes...deeeep breathes....  

So the point of this whole thread is...WHAT CAN I DO TO GET RID OF THESE EVIL CREATURES!?

Thanks!


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## josh_r (Feb 4, 2005)

well, i have a feeling its not snails and slugs attacking your broms that is causing them to fall apart. that sounds more like rot to me. i have snails and slugs (well, not the slugs anymore) in my tanks and i have never had one brom die from them. they tend to attack the new growth points of various plants and thats about it in my experience. they also love frog eggs. what i do is spray my tanks down and 10 minutes later, i check for snails and slugs and kill them. worked for the slugs very well and the snail population is SEVERELY low in numbers. you will never get every one with this method. so, you could gas your tank with C02 (take the frogs out of course) and let it sit for a day. this will however kill any beneficial insects in the tank as well. good luck

-josh


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## sbreland (May 4, 2006)

Wait til you get eggs and then tell us how evil they are! Go with the CO2 like josh said. I belive marty (mistking) made a very detailed and informative post on it some time ago that should come up in a search.


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## Anoleo2 (Feb 1, 2006)

Well I suppose it could be rot, but it started to drop leaves when it was in the holding tank (which wasn't very wet) right after the first slug appeared.

Yeah I have heard about slugs attacking eggs...good thing I don't have any! :x 

Thanks!


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## josh_r (Feb 4, 2005)

good luck with this man! i know they are a pain in the butt! i have a 150 gal. tall that was overrun with snails. ive gotten teh population under control, but the only wy ill be able to get them gone is to gas the tank. 

-josh


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## zaroba (Apr 8, 2006)

(going from a houseplant book i used to have)
sounds to me like stem rot, which is a fungal infection. a sign of it is noticable wilting, the stem turning all mushy and bad smell coming from it when broken, the roots are often left unharmed but can suffer similar symptoms. the fungal spores can be transmitted via wind, water, soil movement, and by just touching a plant that has it and then touching other plants. it can survive for long periods of time in soil living off of decaying matter.



but, hopefully its not stem rot and gassing the tank works.


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## Anoleo2 (Feb 1, 2006)

Uh oh...That kinda sounds like what is happening :shock: Fortunatly the brow hasn't touched any other plants and is out of the viv now...but ARE THERE ANY CURES FOR STEM ROT?

Thanks!! :shock:


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## josh_r (Feb 4, 2005)

many species of broms are very tolerant of wet conditions, especially neoregelia which are the most common broms in the frog hobby. if they are rotting out, that usually means they are too wet at the base of the plant (where the stolon meets the plant. pups form from this area) or the air is too stagnant. when things like this happen to me, i usually take the plant out of the viv asap and dump all water out of the axils and let it dry out completely for a few days. the base rot must dry completely as well. if you do this before the rot has totally destroyed the base of the plant, it will recover, grow roots, more leaves, and lead a normal life a bromeliad could.  i actually have an aechmea that had some rot and im doing just that. when the plant dries out, dont just go put it back in the viv. it will rot all over again. you need to put the plant in a pot with a very well draining mix with good air flow and let it slightly dry between waterings. keep the humidity high and it should grow new roots and recover in no time. good luck

-josh


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