I make traps out of plastic 2 liter bottles. I cut them in half, put some beer in the bottom and then invert the top so that it sets inside the bottom half. They climb in and don't climb back out. These are cheap enough that you can toss them out each nite after catching a load of slugs.

E-mail me and I can send you some pics.

If you really feel like being vicious, sprinkle some salt on them and watch them m-e-l-t away. I've been known to do this when they've been particularly wicked to a favorite plant. I need to make some traps tho. I saw a few in the dirt around my only brug yesterday - lord knows how many more there were and I don't want to lose it!

Mix up 50/50 solution of sudsy amonia (cleaning amonia) and water in a spray bottle. Spray on the sluggs. Works every time.

I've been using a product by Safer's apparently it's non-toxic and can be used around children and animals.
Any comments?

Just don't hang around and watch. Kinda gross

I stand by crushed eggshells. They impale the slugs. Also, they biodegrade, the birds eat them to get calcium to strengthen their eggs thereby hanging around to eat pests. The baits, iMHO, just invite more and other methods kill beneficial insects too.

I used to use crushed eggshells around my hostas until last year. Animals were attracted to the eggshells and dug up and damaged some hostas. Whatever kind of animal it was, possibly raccoons didn't eat the hostas just uprooted them and ripped the leaves. I think the critter thought the eggshells were an indication of more food buried underground!
Since then I only use slug bait the iron phosphate type, non toxic and works extremely well ( 2 types are Sluggo and Escar-Go). The trick is not to use so much that you're actually drawing in more slugs to your garden. I only sprinkle the bait around the plants I want to protect. I also don't give the slugs any place to hide like leaves or pots. The other nice thing about the non toxic type slug bait is that you don't have to dispose of the slugs, they crawl away to die and the bait doesn't harm any birds or pets. You do have to start applying it fairly early in the season to make a difference so now would be too late for this year and it has to be applied regularly to work well.

stay away from the chemicals. The safers products are good. Kill them by hand and kill them quick. Just pick them up and toss them if yuo cant step on them. Its kinda childish to salt them or bleach them or something like that.

This year I tried sprinkling coffee grounds around the base of my Dahlias that the slugs where eating off to the ground every night. It seems to work. I am now putting cofffee grounds at the base of all my plants that don't mind if the soil is a bit accidic. I sprinkle a fairly thin layer as here in the PNW with all the moisture the coffee grounds (also slug bate) gets moldy if it's to thik.

Take care, Penny

I read that slugs hate to cross any surface that is rough or sharp, prefering smoother surfaces they can slide over. I guess that's why the eggshells or coffee grains do help.

One place I read that placing a ring/circle of aquarium gravel on the soil around a plant might help. I am talking about the gravel that's "crushed", small and sharp edges (sharp, at least, to a slug.)

Actualy the coffee grounds (maybe the caffien in them?) are toxic to slugs. I read an article on it recently but can't remember where. Maybe the Starbucks coffee site. They have lots of info on used coffee grounds and there usese on thier site AND they have a program where they give thier used grounds away.

take care, Penny

Here in Germany, we have a very large red slug that is disgusting, hungry and prolific. I have discovered that if I go out to my compost pile when it rains, I can find boodles of slugs. If I cut every slug I see in half with my pruning shears, it cuts seriously into the slug population. Upside down wooden boards (I use them to carry my weight in the dug up areas) are another of their favorite collection places. I justify the slug slaughter with the thought that they have only recently (last 100 years) moved in from Spain and so there are no local natural enemies to keep them in check. The hedgehogs that eat the little brown or white local slugs seem to think the red ones are too slimy or foreign or something. I believe a fast cut through the middle is more merciful than a slow dissolution through salt, but probably not so much fun as drowning in beer. I shudder to think what ammonia does. But to each his or her own.

Title: Caffeine as a novel toxicant for slugs and snails
Published in: Annals of Applied Biology, volumn 142, pp. 91-97, (2003).
Authors: Hollingsworth R.G.; Armstrong J.W.; Campbell E.
Abstract: "In this study, caffeine is shown to act as both a repellent and toxicant against slugs and snails. This research is the first to document the potential of caffeine as a molluscicide. A drench treatment using a 1% or 2% solution of caffeine caused 100% of slugs (Veronicella cubensis) to exit treated soil, and the majority of these slugs subsequently died from caffeine poisoning. A 2% solution of caffeine applied to the growing medium of orchids killed 95% of orchid snails, (Zonitoides arboreus), and gave better control than a liquid metaldehyde product representing the standard commercial control for this pest. Using leaf-dip bioassays, we discovered that slugs tended to avoid feeding on plant material treated with caffeine solutions 0.1%, and caffeine solutions as low as 0.01% significantly reduced overall feeding by slugs. Due to concerns about chemical residues, available molluscicides generally cannot be applied directly to food crops for control of slug and snail pests. Caffeine is a natural product which is approved as a food additive. Therefore, caffeine may prove useful for protecting food crops from slugs and snails."

Make a slug gun. A wooden handle with a sharp blade attached firmly. Cut the little lovelies in half...it saves getting the pruning shears all gummed up. I think some handyman should start marketting them int he PNW.

wow..just noticed this post, and read with great interest all the different ways to deal with slugs. i had an awful time with them last summer, and dread the thought of another battle with them. (the thought makes my skin crawl...ugh). they just about devoured my marigolds. thanks for all the great input.

Totally new to gardening around slugs. Beer seemed to attract the raccoons. Coffee idea sounded interesting - will spreading coffee grounds about the beds damage the plants?

I tried the coffee trick but unfortunately my dog likes coffee too!!! Cultivating it does not help as he just digs until he gets his buzz.

Do the coffee grounds have to be used ones?

I was using used coffee grinds, but I found that putting old coffee (you know, the stuff that's been sitting in the pot too long and is sorta mud) in a squirt bottle works, too. It hasn't killed any plants, but it will stain white ones (Ex.white pansies).

Saw another link re slugs somewhere. Someone said to boil up couch grass roots and spray the liquid to kill slugs. Never got round to trying it myself, but it's cheap

I like the the sluggo stuff (non toxic to supposedly everything else), use it before you think the slugs will be out in the spring and continue to use it, I can't remember what the box says (14 days maybe) do 10 instead (at least in rainy New England)I had excellent slug control this spring and most of the early summer. I stopped using it when I imported some baby toads and it took a month before I started seeing slug damage, now I have a good population of slugs again but the plants are much bigger as opposed to the Spring.

Now I'd like to import some fireflies back into my yard (and the rest of my neighborhood).

They say a pet duck does a great job of eliminating slugs, it's one of their favorite foods.

Swanz

Where would you get caffeine to use to deter slugs?

Leftover coffee or coffee grinds. My office has a year's supply if you "harvest" grinds in the morning!

Coffee grounds are not as good as sluggo. I now use the coffee grounds in the compost where it really keeps odors down. I found coffee grounds to work for a few days and then the slugs are back. You can get coffee grounds from expresso stands and retuarants. If you know someone who works in these places then you get huge bags of them. I get mine that way. The best thing is to edge your flower beds (we made ours out of cement with rock trim) dig a trench outside of the edging and place rock salt in the trench periodically as it melts from rain and watering. This works well on raised beds. No slugs in the beds and the lawn isn't ruined either as the salt is only in the trench and the slugs die if they try and go through it. It doesn't have to be very wide. I had my friend try it also and she was impressed. You will need to use sluggo to kill the slugs that may be already in the bed but this doesn't take long. You will also have to kill any slugs that hatch from eggs. I would advise buying a large bag of salt and buying a large bag of sluggo to save expenses. I paid $75.00 for the sluggo! Salt is cheaper.

I have dozens upon dozens of hostas and have had slug problems in horrific measure for years. I finally stopped using the chemicals, dumped my beer traps and started putting out LOADS of bird seed. This year I have Wild Kingdom in my backyard with more birds than you can imagine...and I didn't find one hosta leaf with slug holes. :)

If you don't mind the appearance try newspaper. I used to get baled,shredded newspaper very cheap from the recycling center and used it for strawberry mulch. Since then, Ohio State did some research to confirm that it worked as a mulch. But the must notable result I found was the absense of slugs. They can't form their slime to move well over the newspaper if the surface is dry.

I use a combination of beer slug traps and copper tape..the copper tape shocks them and they dont cross it unless they are huge then the beer trap gets em.

Hi! I´m very very new with gardening, and I saw a lot of slugs last fall before we started planting. Now I´m worried about everybody talking about eliminating them, but I´m not sure about what exactly they may do to my plants. I have some bulbs (tulips, gladiolus, crocosmia) and some kind or iris.
Thanks!

The slugs will eat the leaves of some plants. They especially like the tender leaves of young transplants, and seedlings just coming up. Sunflowers, basil, cucumbers, delphinium, seem to be a few of their favorites from my yard. I have been going out with the flash light at night and picking them off and putting them in a container with a lid............slow death. I feel bad, I'm wondering if I should sacrifice one plant, on which i will transplat the slugs to, and just let them eat away. Probably not a good idea. I wish I could get a duck. What are the pros and cons of that guy being around? I don't live it the country, do they make a lot of noise, or will I have to worry about it getting out of the yard?

Get a chook instead,just make sure you wing it and keep it in a pen overnight.

This thread has me laughing! Not sure if it's meant to be funny, but... one poster is rubbing her hands in anticipation of slicing the little buggers in half and another is feeling so bad about the slaughter she/he wants to dedicate a plant just for their eating... ducks, coffee, copper... I too have had my hostas decimated within days by slugs, last year. My best friend said, "beer in a saucer". I figured, a saucer? can't be good enough, so I tried the 2-liter bottle thing, which didn't work, the slugs didn't seem to like the time-consuming climb. But I've found the absolute best, fail proof trap are those little plastic, terra-cotta colored saucers you buy to put under planters, very small, like only 4 or 5 inches in diameter and with slightly sloping (not steep, again, slugs are lazy) edges, and Coors light. I can't say much for their taste in beer (they hate Corona, go figure), but it works like a charm and I haven't seen one hole in my hostas so far. My son and I clap with glee as we count the little sluggie corpses each morning. Simply lift, toss, and pour. Bonus with using the tiny saucers -- use less beer. Cheap and easy!

I have a friend who swears by this method. She makes a ring around her hostas and other slug favorites with the spiky seed pods from a sweet gum tree. It is natural, frugal, and finally solves the problem of what to do with those annoying seed pods.

Heatherine, sounds like you and your slugs have an understanding concerning beer! At least they like the yucky stuff so you can enjoy the good stuff yourself. It would KILL me to give those guys Corona. NOt that I am a "drinker", but I love a good cold Corona and lime in the summer.