tom haggen - 22-7-2005 at 16:25
I invented new snail bait by accident this morning. I was doing an organic extraction by taking advantage of the fact that plant alkaloids are
soluble in non-polar solvents in alkaline conditions. Anyway, I set some diethyl ether out side behind the shed thinking it would evaporate better out
there. I woke up in the morning and all these stupid dead slugs had contaminated my experiment. I was quite pissed but oh well. Anyone know why the
hell a snail would be attracted to diethyl ether?
saps - 22-7-2005 at 18:33
The chemical might smell like the female (or male) slug durring mating season. Therefore the slug of the oposite sex would be attracted. This might be
slug mating season
was it just ether?
[Edited on 7-23-2005 by Polverone]
sparkgap - 22-7-2005 at 18:44
saps: Please edit your posts if you have something to add in the few minutes after your first one in a thread. It keeps threads less cluttered.
tom: I can't answer, but I would suggest that you try laying out pure ether in your shed to see if that's what might have attracted the
slugs.
What alkaloid were you extracting?
sparky (~_~)
Mr. Wizard - 22-7-2005 at 19:53
I've heard they are attracted to beer too. Maybe their scent receptors can detect the acetyl group?
tom haggen - 22-7-2005 at 23:53
Actually it wasn't just ether; it was starting fluid so it contained some heptane. Also I was trying to extract some psilocin out of this clump
of shit I got from my friend. I'm not really sure if psilocin or psilocybin is a plant alkaloid, but the extraction procedure I got of
rhodium's archive sounds exactly like a classic alkaloid extraction. I too have herd slugs are attracted to beer. What exactly does the acetyl
group look like again? I know ether is R-O-R
joe_aldehyde - 23-7-2005 at 02:48
acetyl rests and diethyl ether don't really have much in common (smell-wise and structure-wise). furthermore, psilocybin and psilocin aren't
classical alkaloids since psilocin readily decomposes in an atmosphere of oxygen and psilocybin is an inner salt and thus has a polar nature, making
it quite insoluble in ethers. soxhlet extraction of raw fungus with dry ethanol works quite well i've been told.
tom haggen - 23-7-2005 at 07:17
I guess it did say to evaporate the ether under and atomsphere of nitrogen. But I figured that the molecule would only oxidize slightly. It also so
said that psilocin would decompose quickly in alkaline conditions so I don't even know how well this extraction would work.
unionised - 23-7-2005 at 11:35
"The chemical might smell like the female (or male) slug durring mating season. Therefore the slug of the oposite sex would be attracted. This
might be slug mating season "
Slugs are hermaphrodite. A "sex pheromone" for slugs would attract all of them.
sparkgap - 24-7-2005 at 17:50
"...psilocin readily decomposes in an atmosphere of oxygen..."
I don't really see psilocybin, heptane, or ether attracting slugs so maybe it's them decomposition products? 
"...A "sex pheromone" for slugs would attract all of them..."
That would adequately explain why his experiment got contaminated, if indeed something in there smells like slug pheromone.
sparky (~_~)
tom haggen - 24-7-2005 at 20:12
I just thought it was really bizarre. I put out some solution to evaporate. It was a somewhat nasty chemical, and presto three slugs were floating
around in it the next morning. I was pissed at first but now that I think about it, my original experiment probably wouldn't have worked so I
stumbled onto a new experiment. Operation Slug Destruction. Pot growers from miles around will come to buy my magic slug potion.
chemoleo - 25-7-2005 at 05:40
Did you try the control experiment, ether on its own?
tom haggen - 25-7-2005 at 18:24
I was too lazy to distill the ether out of my starter fluid so I guess no it wasn't really controlled. I wasn't planning on consuming any of
the extracts so I figured it wasn't a really big deal.
indole slug
Ephoton - 5-8-2005 at 18:26
maby we could make indoles from slugs
yep that trip was 100 slugs man 
DrP - 11-1-2006 at 09:24
Tom - have you done anything else like this lately? We have a slug problem in my office (portacabin) - we get in in the morning to find slug
trails all over the carpet and sometimes the kitcken draining board and tea spoons. I don't have any diethyl ether so I thought I'd try something
else. Last night I tried a soya based methyl ester (smells sweet - thought it might attract them) - I put some in a shallow pot - the slugs came (you
can see the trails) but no dead ones to be found. Tonight I have some other things to try - some phosphoric acid ester - smells sweet but has pH
of about 0.0 - I'm thinking if the smell attracts them then the pH will kill them if they get in it. (maybe a bit crewl though)
The thing with the beer is if you need to use a deep pot apparently - they climb in and drown. Was your vessel deep enough for drowning or did
the solvent kill them? If this doesn't work I'll go for the drowning in some alcohol. (for me and the slugs) 
Lotek_ - 11-1-2006 at 09:37
mabye they wernt atracted. mabye they move over that whole area that much and the ether killed them there over a 12hr period thru absorbsion thus it
seeming like they were atracted.
DrP - 12-1-2006 at 02:06
Well there were about 4 trials leading to and from the pot containing the acid. Where the slugs had left their slime in the acid it had gone thick
and gloopy. No dead slugs though. Also tried a pot of isopropanol - no interest. I'll try a deeper pot and go for drowning. 
Nerro - 8-4-2006 at 06:09
What if you add some KCN to flypaper and put that on the floor? They crawl on, get more or less stuck and die of KCN poisoning. (or any other number
of nasty posions. K2Cr2O7 maybe?)
neutrino - 8-4-2006 at 17:41
Wouldn't just getting stuck do them in? No way to get food or water or escape to a safe place. I know that's how it works with flies, anyway.
praseodym - 8-4-2006 at 18:44
Well, i think it all boils down to how you wanna kill them. Whether you want it to be a long, torturous, painful process for them or just a fast death
where everything is over just after a snap of your fingers. 
DrP - 29-6-2006 at 08:02
The poison sounds like a good plan. I read recently that Iron Phosphate was poison for slugs and also caffine. I don't have Fe Phoshate but I do
have some zinc phosphate, which I think is worse than the Fe. I mixed shed loads of instant coffee with a bit of Zn Phosphate and mixed it with hot
water in a spray gun. I then spayed the carpet over their usual routes arround the portacabin. I left a piece of paper near one of the walls.
Success so far!! After 2 nights of this it seems that only one determined little critter has run the caffine gauntlet so far on both nights. He
made his way across the paper and wandered arround the room stopping on the edge of the spayed areas - it then went round the edge of the sprayed
area and back the way it came (over the paper). I have removed the paper now and hopefully it will stay away.
(I also found a gap in the wall where it meets the floor!!! This is now blocked with mastic - hopefully this will sort them out once and for
all.)