There are several products on the market that contain iron phosphate which is bad for slugs but good for the garden. I included a link to Gardens Alive simply because it's so easy to find. I bought my bag -made by Schultz- on sale at Walmart at the end of last season. I started sprinkling the bait in spring as soon as the nights were above 50 degrees so I could get them before they had a chance to breed. You do have to reapply after heavy rains but it was worth it -my Primroses were not turned to lace.

It worked well for me but I did not bait all of my garden beds. Others found that the slugs crawled right over the bait to get to their seedlings. The earlier you start baiting, the better.

Here is a link that might be useful: Escargo

My daughter has the same problem, and her friends and neigbors suggested box turtles. Now, she has three box turtles, but this summer she was collecting slugs at least every other day, and poured salt on them prior to tossing the mess in the garbabe can.

Mulching with pineneadles or Ukaliptist (spelling) wood chips is supposed to keep them out. I have had some success with sprinkling coffee grounds around the base of plants that are especialy atractive to slugs, make sure the plants won't be harmed if the soil gets a bit acidic. You have to renew the coffee grounds after heavy rains ect. Best way I've found to at least reduce the number of slugs is to inpell them on a sharp stick. Yuchy but affective. This is best done in the early morning or evening or after dark with the aid of a flash light. Also check under planters ect for slugs. And DON'T us rocks, brocken pottery ect in the bottom of pots of drainage, slugs love to lay eggs there.

Take care, Penny

ooppss also slug bait does kill them BUT it also attracts them INTO your garden from all over the nieghborhood. I came across and article on slugs that stated a slug can crawl 6 city blocks in one night!!!

Shallow saucers filled with beer lure them like crazy.If any don't drown quick enough,fish 'em out and pour salt on them.(someplace where the salt won't also kill plants/grass!)

Have the search box at the bottom of this forum look for "slugs"... lots and lots of comments and experiences!

I use bait occasionally, putting it into a soda bottle that has had the top inverted. I've heard others say slugs will travel to bait, but my gardens are usually slug-free while neighbors may be infested, so I don't put too much stock in that. The only times I've gotten slugs is when I've used commercial bark mulch... which I've not done for several years now! I also spray new seedlings and seed flats with an ammonia-water solution which seems to protect the tender plants from slugs and other chomping critters.

Yes, the ammonia works better than salt and it's safer.
We had a very wet spring this year and my garden was overun with them. I handpicked and handpicked and then I handpicked some more. The beer traps definitely got a lot of them but there was a lot they didn't get too.

As for pine needles, I have a large white pine with several hosta's mulched with pine needles underneath. They tore my hosta's up!

6 city blocks in one night huh? Wow!!

Copper works too! It does not kill the slimy thing, but it kind of gives them a "charge". Use copper wire or pennies or whatever around anything you want to protect from slugs or snails.

I read a research paper on the copper tape sold as a slug barrier (sorry, can't find it now, but I'll keep looking): it seems that the slug has to cross the copper (have a good portion of it's body on the copper) for the 'electrical charge' to be effective. i.e. if you use the copper tape, it needs to be laid flat. I've had no luck at all with copper wire, and only fair success with the tapes, not reliably enough to be worth the bother - if only one slug gets across, that's enough to wipe out the seedlings! I've never tried pennies - what stops the neighborhood kiddies from thinking they found a treasure trove?

I have had copper wire that got dirt on it, after encircling a new seedling with it, the slugs can cross where the dirt is. But if it is kept clean when they touched it, I have seen them back away and not cross it. As for the pennies, I have glued them to some of my pots in a circle around the pot and not had problems.

"....a slug can crawl 6 city blocks in one night!!!"

Poor little guys probably have to stop every block and fill up on slime...

Okay, what I really want to know is who spent the night following that slug... and are they sure it was the same slug?? I mean, how did they *know* it was the same slug arriving at point B (6 blocks later!) that left point A? I can maybe imagine somebody painting stripes or dye-ing (u watch the purple one while I follow the yellow one) but I can't imagine anyone hunched over or crawling behind a slug for a whole night. Couldn't use a flashlight either. And why would a slug travel 6 blocks? there had to be some slug-goodies closer than that!

Use a margarine tub
cut square holes about 6 all around the margarine tub
fill it half way up with beer, so it's just below the cut holes because you dont want them crawling out

then the slugs will go bye bye and drown themselves.

AS MENTIONED ABOVE, BEAR IN A SHALLOW SAUCER WORKS. I USE A PIE PLATE BURIED FLUSHED TO THE GROUND SO SLUGS DON'T HAVE TO CLIMB. THEY JUST DROP IN TO THE SAUCER.

SORRY, THAT WAS SUPPOSE TO BE "BEER".

So ome of you think copper is not too effective? I have 3 long raised beds and I was planning on nailing a wide piece of copper flashing along the sides of the beds, so if a snail wanted to get in he'd have to crawl up the frame of the bed and cross about 2" of copper. Would that stop them?

Hee hee... I was trying to picture that "bear" in the shallow saucer. I don't know about slugs, but it would sure deter ME! HA HA....

Seriously though, I too use the plastic soda bottle with the top cut off and then stapled back on turned inside. I put bait inside and wait for the slugs. I've found they (the bottles) blow away if I don't tuck them in the soil a bit though. I imagine if you used glue or caulk you could maybe use beer instead of bait also.

I do lay out bait around my iris... I try to buy the pet friendly kind for that though. Don't want anyone eating it. And if you have a dog that chews pop bottles (like me) you can't leave them outside a fenced area. Most dogs leave them alone though, and it keeps other animals out of the bait too.

i have something better to use my beer for than slugs. there are several commertial slug bates/barriers. i recomend you call your local county extension office. ~Ryan

Diatomaceous earth is very effective against slugs. Sprinkle it in the beds when you are expecting a few dry days & don't water for at least a couple of days. Repeat the application in about a month so you'll get those that hatch out after the first application. It feels like powder in your hands, but the individual particles are sharp and cut the surface of the slugs so they lose moisture and die. I've had great results using this for the last few years.

Sandy

i had slugs last year and i seen one this spring put some slug repealant from ortho out had not seen one since.

I tried Farmer McGregor's snail and slug slaughter and it seems like all it did was kill my violas. It says it's aluminum sulfate - is this much different than the iron phosphate? It also has some pretty stern warnings on the package, for being listed as organic.
CBFindlay

Usually slugs make swiss cheese out of my hostas every year. However, this year I've only picked two off of all of them. The only thing I did different was try a tip I heard on a gardening show that a viewer called in. We have lots of gum ball trees here and she suggested surrounding the plants with gum balls so the slugs will have to crawl over them to get to the plants. It took a lot of gum balls but I've been almost slug free even with all of the rain.

What the heck is a gumball tree. Is that a Liquid Amber Tree? that has those little spiked balls.

I think the baits work, but if you have pets, use caution. Our dog ate snail bait and almost died.

Oy, now I have this vision of a colour-coded snail racing ahead of a snail-ologist along six city blocks (and I thought you Americans measured everything in football fields!), vaulting over strips of copper only to arrive at a hosta that is thickly mulched in brightly coloured bubble gum balls.
An interesting visual for a monday morning!

Beer works well (beer traps), as does DE. You can also try "Sluggo" found in the organic sections of lowes, or nuseries etc. I dont think Home Depot has an organic section (they do not here).

Someone mentioned copper flashing earlier up in the thread and I just wanted to mention that you should be careful when using copper/iron products that are a rusty brown color. Those are usually made from scrap metal or other industrial wastes and contain contaminants like heavy metals. The best iron supplements are (I use Texas greensand coupled with the following) seaweed (Liquid Seaweed too) products that contain liquid iron. These products are buffered to work gently and effectively and not stain as the ferrous sulfate materials do. And certainly never use copper where you have fish.

I can't resist. Liquid Amber Tree must be Liquidambar styraciflua, or sweetgum. It has pretty 5 pointed leaves that turn bright red in fall and the 1" diamater fruit/seed has a very prickly covering. If you ever stepped on one you'd remember - its like nails. But a 1 part ammonia to/20 parts water solution in a spray bottle will do the job in a jiffy. Slugs lay a lot of eggs in the fall down in and around the stems of hosta and prob wherever else water stays. If you spray the leaves and heavily down into the stems and the crown of the hosta you will kill the current slugs and future generations. Better to get a head start on it than let them hatch next spring. I have a lot of hosta and this has worked the best for me.