Sluggo, Escar-Go or any other bait whose active ingredient is iron phosphate. Harmless to everything that isn't a snail or slug.

Organic gardeners, when they get their soil into good tilth and cover that soil with mulches create good living conditions for slugs, evenly moist with lots of good cover and food. You can spend a lot of money on controls, products containing iron phosphate, etc., or you could put out shallow saucers of stale beer (what might be leftover) or you could spray the plants with cold caffienated coffee.
Apparently with the amount of mulch I have the slugs find adequate amounts of food because even though I see the slugs I find very little plant damage from them.

The advantage of the iron phosphate controls is that they are rain proof while most other methods are not. Yes, they cost money, but what I have found to hold true in my garden (your mileage may vary) is that if I apply the product one time in the spring just as the slugs are starting to get mobile, I kill all of them. There is no second generation (they die before they reproduce). This then means the area is slug free until others migrate in. As a rule slugs don't migrate very far unless it is cool, dark and wet.

In practice I simply apply the produce once in the spring and once in the fall (the cool, wet seasons) and I no longer have any slug damage in my yard with plants that previously showed a lot of slug damage (hostas).

I do agree with kimmsr that just because there are slugs in the area doesn't mean there will be plant damage from them. Some plants they seem to favor and others they seem to ignore. Some plants the parts they eat we don't care much about.

So, whether or not you need to control them is an open question that only you can decide, but if you do need to control them the iron phosphate baits are incredibly effective, don't lose effectiveness when it rains and are considered non toxic to people and pets and pretty much everything that isn't a member of the mollusca phylum.

Get a bag of garden grade Diamatasious Earth and apply it at the soil level, or over the mulch and let it migrate through. Under a microscope, the DE looks like microscopic razor blades that just cuts slugs to bits. They dry out and dive quickly, and yet DE is perfectly safe and organic. It works perfectly every time!

Ron
The Garden Guy
http://www.TheGardenGuy.org
Check Out My Forum!

DE also doesn't last through a rain

That's true, but it doesn't have to. If it's down a few days to a week, most of the slugs will be dead. If they come back and start causing problems, put it down again. It doesn't take much. And don't forget, al of the other recommended treatments doesn't last after a good rain either.

Ron
The Garden Guy
http://www.TheGardenGuy.com
Visit My Forum!

Iron phosphate pellets last for a number of good rains.

Wayne

i have a thick hay mulch in my garden bed, so i don't think the slugs lack for food. at first my plants didn't have much damage, but once the deer nibbled on tomatoes the slugs are *all* over those plants. i think one tomato alone must have had at least 8-10 of those little buggers!

anyhow, i have little ones and work fulltime so it sounds like some sluggo is the way to go.

thanks everyone,
engk916