Egg shells!!

I went around with a cup of soapy water and a fork and gave them a nice bubblebath. I musta picked a half a gallon of them last year (stopped counting after that). I found them hiding in the chive plants too, not eating them, just hiding there.

I also gave a pretty good soak with diluted ammonia to hopefully kill some of the eggs. we'll see.

Here in the PNW there are no dry spots! I stab em with a stick, I squish em under my shoe, and I cut em in half with pruners! I also use Sluggo.

I second the crushed egg shells! I'm also going to do the beer bowl this year as well in my biggest trouble spot. I sometimes use a squirt of my vinegar/water cleaner and it shrivels them right up.. just the same way that salt does. Leaves a gosh awful goopy mess though.. ugh

Long about twilight (but still light enough to see) I grab an empty soda bottle with a cap and gloves. I pick off the slugs as they climb out to eat. Put the cap on and throw the bottle in the trash. A few nights picking and no more slugs for weeks. Then repeat.

I also put down Sluggo or complete Home Defense in real bad slug years. If I could get it without paying shipping, I'd put down Esgar-No, just because I love the pun so much. But it is also effective.

Kimka

I tried diamotaceous earth around my newly transplanted rhubarb last year, didn't see any more slugs after that. If you line the outside of your gardens early spring, it will help alot. Reapply after a rain.

Down about Dec 5th in my posting of links to Allelopathic, autotoxic Chemicals in Coffee: - Test Forum - GardenWeb is a reference to someone using caffeine, not coffee grounds, for long term slug control. Read the embedded links if you are interested.

Iron phosphate. I apply at least twice in early spring, before planting out. I don't think I've had any slug damage since starting this routine.

Karen

Beer, bb gun, and tazer. The last two work great. Always heard beer works if you pour it around your plants (if you can bear the smell...eeeww!), but my family don't drink and underaged so I've never tried to kill slugs with it.

At dawn and dusk, when they're on the move, I spray them one by one with a 10:1 blend of water and amonia. I also took the time last summer to remove 3 tons of landscape rock that was an ideal daytime hiding spot which helped too. I've tried coffee grounds and didn't think it worked well. Tuna cans dug down to ground level do work well but the clean up is gross. Good luck!

ha ha i ment i'm underaged. Hey you could always coat your plants with salt! I garuntee that would work! lol If you love your plants, please don't try that!

I'm glad I read this post. I didn't think about slugs getting into the containers! Are there any other pests?

Sure, everything from slugs to squirrels to birds to stray airborne seeds, just like any other outdoor container.

Karen

Yes I use the iron phosphate baits too, have tried both Sluggo and Escar-go. This is safe for pets and wildlife like toads, and work well as long as I remember to apply the slug bait diligently while plants are young. Once seedlings get established and put on some size then you don't have to be so diligent. Also, I usually pull mulch way back away from small seedlings so there aren't moist hiding places nearby for the slugs.

Crush, kill, destroy. Ha. Well, that's actually all I've found to make a dent in the population. I go out on slug hunts and kill dozens a time (like 80 in one go). I'm in the world slug capital here and milder methods do nothing. I haven't had sweet peas or morning glories in years, since the last time I winter sowed, actually, which is why I'm back to planting in my milk bottles this year :)

Last season I tried coffee ground and it worked. Before that I could not grow beans because they ate all the seedlings. But this time when I planted I added coffee ground at the base of seedlings and my beans grew well and had plenty of beans. I don't know slugs died or moved but at the end of the season I didn't see any slugs either.

My grandchildren 4 & 8 love to go out after dark with their flashlights & spray bottles of ammonia. Neighbors must think we are crazy. Last week when they spent the night the youngest asked if we could go out. He didn't understand they aren't out when there is 6" of snow on the ground!

Cayenne pepper. I bet that's misspelled. Several years ago I tried my hand at Wsing. I'm still am a newbie since I had so much to learn and just got to start again this year. Anyway. The slugs were eating my babies left and right. I went to the local dollar tree and bought ground cayenne pepper. Sprinkled it all around my containers and also around the babies after I transplanted them. I had to repeat after rain but never lost another sprout.

I use Iron phosphate too! It does work well.

We use it on the lawn for green and one year we skipped it and I had tons of slugs. They were awful

So now I make sure we use Iron phosphate on the lawn and flower beds.

I also use sluggo or some similar brand in the flower beds about a week before I plant out my little seedlings.

Karen

I'm so sorry you all have such a challenge with slugs. I have to admit, I've seen maybe three slugs in my LIFE here in Michigan. Maybe I just don't pay attention? Maybe you should all move here!

Martha

I found a toad living in my garden this year I had very few slugs this year compared to last year.

:)

Another vote for eggshells. I saved eggshells all winter, crushed them and in April I sprinkled them generously around my emerging hostas and other perennials. I applied the crushed eggshells to tender, newly-planted perennials throughout the growing season and often re-applied them after a heavy rain. The few slugs I did catch on their way to eat something I treated with salt. My hostas & others have very few holes from slug damage this year compared to last year. I thought of using diatomaceous earth but the egg shells were free and readily available plus they add nutrients to the soil as they decompose.

This summer I got into going out at night and patrolling for pests eating my plants. I was amazed at how many were munching away on the plants, mostly slugs, earwigs, and beetles. I used a container of soapy water for the earwigs and beetles, and tried the 10% ammonia solution for the first time on the slugs. It works great! The slugs start dissolving in front of your eyes.

So my tools of choice against slugs (thus far) are the iron phosphate bait like Sluggo or Escargo sprinkled around seedlings, and a diluted ammonia solution for the mature plants.