Control of Slugs in No-Till Beans, 1986

Abstract

Abstract No-till bean plots were located at Cornell Vegetable Farm, Freeville, NY. The field was prepared by mowing of the rye cover crop and spraying over with 1.5 lb (AI)/acre of glyphosate on 16 Jun. Seeds were drilled in with an Allis Chalmers No-till 33 Planter at 90 lb of seeds/acre on 36 inch rows. Fertilizer (13-13-13) was applied at 100 lb/acre at time of planting on 23 Jun. Preemergent herbicides, chloramben and metolachlor at 2.5 lb (AI)/acre and 1.5 lb (AI)/acre, respectively, were applied the next day. The molluscicide treatments were replicated 6 times with each plot consisting of six 20-ft long rows, the outer two rows were untreated buffers. In each plot 3 holes, 4 inches in diam × 6 inches deep, diagonally and evenly spaced, were excavated between rows with a golf-hole digger. Each hole was covered with a 1-ft-square asphalt shingle wrapped with aluminum foil. The reflective surface kept the hole cool and moist and provided an ideal refuge for slugs and served as an efficient sampling method. On 21 Jul field-collected slugs were introduced at 5 slugs per hole because of low numbers of slugs in the plots. Baits were applied on 23 Jul after the slug populations had stabilized and beans were at the 8- to 10-leaf stage. Mesurol® bait was prepared by coating cracked corn with the wettable powder using soft drink as a sticking agent and applied at 20 lb bait/acre. All baits were applied by hand broadcasting evenly over the bean rows. Deadline® was a new meal formulation of metaldehyde. Slug counts were taken by inspecting the refuge holes for live slugs at 1 day pretreatment and at 2, 5, 7, and 14 days posttreatment.