Abstract
As acreage of row crops managed with conservation tillage increases, more growers are encountering slugs, elevating their importance as crop pests. Slugs can eat virtually all crops and they inflict most of their damage during crop establishment and early growth in the spring and fall. This damage tends to be most severe under cool, wet conditions, which slow crop growth and favor slug activity. These mollusks are particularly troublesome within the Chesapeake Bay watershed where conservation tillage is strongly encouraged to minimize agricultural run-off into waterways that lead to the Bay. Slugs are challenging to control because of the limited number of management tactics that are available. We consider the species of slugs that are commonly found in mid-Atlantic field crop production and discuss their natural history, ecology, and some of the factors limiting their populations. We conclude with cultural, biological, and chemical management options, particularly for corn production, and suggest elements of a potential integrated management program for slugs.
Highlights
Slugs have been one of the most serious pests of crops grown in no-tillage systems since these conservation-based farming practices first were adopted in North America (Gregory and Musick 1976)
Slugs thrive in the low-disturbance, residue-rich environments characteristic of no-till fields, and with no-till farming practiced on Ͼ88 million acres (35.5%) of U.S cropland (Horowitz et al 2010), slugs have become a prominent pest in parts of the United States with high no-till adoption rates
One area of heavy no-till adoption has been the mid-Atlantic region, where no-till farming has been encouraged to limit agricultural run-off into streams and other bodies of water that flow into the Chesapeake Bay (USDA-NRCS 2011)
Summary
Slugs have been one of the most serious pests of crops grown in no-tillage systems since these conservation-based farming practices first were adopted in North America (Gregory and Musick 1976). Spring-time damage often can be caused by newly hatched D. reticulatum, which appears to have a more synchronized life cycle in this region than some other species.
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