Are you saying you actually miss the little slimeballs?

I have seen some under pots and things, but few on the sidewalk and other places they like to hang out. I am keeping a close eye on my potatoes since last year the little beasts ate all but four of my plants.

NOw that you mention it, I haven't noticed very many. Not complaining either. My hostas aer coming up so we'll see if they start coming out in droves.

Heather

Hope it's not a no-no for someone from the east coast of Canada to say hi! I've got a huge slug problem, too - last year was terrible. Our slugs aren't as big as yours out on the west coast (I've seen photos of those!), but they are plentiful. I've already seen a few slugs, and some eggs, as I've been doing my spring clean-up - so, they aren't missing for us on the east coast... in case anyone's interested (lol)! Do you all have earwigs out there?

This is my first spring in this garden so I don't know how many slugs it hosts normally. There are some, but not quite as bad as I would have expected, except I do know that the previous tennants did not water the garden much last summer, which will also reduce slug populations the next spring. That Alberta Clipper in Feb likely did them in as my daffs have been blooming with little damage, but there is some. Don't worry, the slugs will make a comeback with this weather!

Been out in the yard for the last week daily and have found no slugs, but 100's of snails. Can't seem to get rid of them all. I was throwing them in the grass bin until today I found all if not more small ones in the lid. Slug-go will be busy this year. I'm on my 2nd container already. Any other ideas on how to get rid of? Laurie

Very few slugs (which I perhaps mistakenly attributed to diligent use of Sluggo last year and since January) and some snails but those have very thin shells and are very small. Is it the weather? Maybe it's the first sign of whatever natural disaster floats your boat (just laughing - that's always the first answer from my best friend).

As for the slimers, still hate 'em and am showing no mercy. Somebody slimed up my emerging Black Knight delphinium and that got my temper jump-started. No trails visible yet.

They're not missing daffodils this year, doing a pretty good job of finding many of those and spoiling the flowers.

You know, this could be the beginning of a "Ripley's Believe It or Not" low slug year out here. Or perhaps it's just too early to hatch eggs? I too have found very few slugs and one little snail. Two banana slugs in the woods, one pile of eggs, and really none other to mention where normally hundreds dare to slither.

Dee, we can't tell by your accent if your from the East or West coast LOL, so welcome! Yes we have earwigs those little battle axes- hard to kill, they just keep on moving no matter what you do to them.

lol, Poochella, thanks for the welcome. The only reason I mentioned earwigs is because they are just as destructive to my plants as the slugs... just a little bit harder to catch.

As for slugs, some mornings, at peak slug 'season', I'm out there picking up to 200 at a time. I get queasy just thinking about it.

I have found some semi-frozen ones, too, already. Does anyone know if these frozen ones actually come to life once they thaw? Ugh.

Slugs have been way down for me this spring, too -- in fact, I had virtually no damage until the few last weeks. I was plenty glad to not see them sooner! :)

Still have lots of slugs! They are even eating daylilies. I am also finding large gooey caterpillars that are doing a slug like number on emerging perennials! Yuck!!!!

I'm afraid I have found quite a few already, but they are small, just as destructive and harder to spot! Seems to me they reach the population (and size) zenith about May or June. Sometimes the grass is just covered with them and I kill them until my stomach starts to heave. To make things worse I am afraid to use any bait as we have a 15 mo lab who eats indiscriminately. I am experimenting with copper strips and diamataceous(?) earth and me killing as many as possible. I think the hostas have beaten them this year, they are looking good, but the lilies are getting chewed.

I haven't seen significant damage (unless slugs eat lupin seedlings?) in my yard, but there are plenty of half-eaten trilliums in the woods nearby. What's up with that?

Very few slugs in my Willamette Valley neighborhood so far this year, which is fine by me. Maybe it was that late, hard freeze?

derevaun -- Deer love trillium -- could that be the damage you're seeing in the woods?

I did some root-level weeding in the lawn and saw a lot of tiny, tiny slugs. I also saw a pile or two of eggs. My theory is that the last cold snap just delayed them a bit.

They are here alright. Just hiding, biding their time, sort of calm before the storm. They ate some of my herbs. I forgot to put sluggo around those plants and they were attacked.

Note to those of you missing slugs -- they are all over in my yard having a party.

Derevaun, slugs do eat Lupine seedlings.

Went out during a break in the relentless rain to check for slugs and other vermin. Nothing like a lot of rain to bring them out of hiding! I caught 2 big ones on a once lovely hardy ginger! Gave them the big slug toss into the woods! My dog though I was throwing his ball! Sigh...

Not so many slugs, but lots of snails!

Mary

I take it back. Over-optimistic. Grrr. They're here, they're plentiful and you're right, they're a bunch of tiny little things right now. Putting on my stomping boots cuz I'm mad, mad, mad...and then I'll get queasy. lol

Something sliming and acrobatic ate the newley emerged leaves off of Cercidiphyllum japonicum 'Rotfuchs', all the way to the top of the thin little whip planted last year.

Just noticed that ALL the new baby starts on the trunk of my decapitated Cordyline australis 'purpurea' are now only tiny nubbins!!!!!!!!!! How maddening. I found the inch long brown culprit tucked away under the lantana in the same pot. Guess it missed the sluggo on it's way into the greenhouse @#%&)*@!% Needless to say I reduced it to shoe goo!

The worst part is, no matter how much slime and goo you have to endure to 'do them in', they just keep coming back - in droves.

The best part is, no matter how many droves there may be, you can always reduce them to shoe goo and slime. ;-))

Shall I bring some over?

Ron, if you want to step on your slugs in my garden instead of your's, be my guest. ;-))

B.Y.O.S. party?

The May Slug update: There are still far fewer than past years out here. I found a couple this a.m. on Black Eyed Susans. A trio under or in an empty pot. I've put Sluggo out several times and revelled in the few bloated dried mollusk carcasses it left in its wake. (I think they're mollusks?) Something got my new yellow columbine foliage, but the bloom is still pretty. Could have been Bboy's shimmying acrobatic slimer species. Hostas are largely untouched- and how often does that happen?

They've been plentiful at my place, enjoying the Pacific Coast Iris. B*stards! Go out at dusk and you'll see them, like a small army, coming out of nowhere, heading for your favorite plants.

It's a good thing they like Iron Phosphate, too.

funny, i had the same thought,not that many slugs this year. i built a 3 tiered herb/strawberry/bean garden and lined it with deadline slug killer. must have been like an invite to the neighboring slugs to come on out. Gross!

um...you guys jinxed the whole thing, ya know that? Going on about how there weren't any slugs! What were you thinking?! (just kidding, not that superstitious).

But, last night I stepped out onto myfront porch in bare feet and encountered about 20 baby slugs all over the sisal mat. Why?! Why not out eating my Irises? On the mat? So I grabbed the garden scissors that are in the pot by the door and snipped them in half...without thinking about how I was going to get them off the porch in their ooo-ey goo-ey state. I needn't have worried, their kin came later that evening and had them for a snack.

I wonder if it would be too expensive to run a strip of copper tape around the perimeter of my front yard? t could lay right on top of the short conrete wall my fence is built on. Anyone else done this?

Heather

Later I realized the katsura tree was probably nailed by snails. Maybe snail is short for "slugs that nail".

You'd really have to lay out a plot and count every slug within in it each year at the same time(s) to know for sure if their was a difference.

Oh my, they are really bugging me!! I see slimy trails everywhere. I love stomping on the big black ones, they squirt! Is slug go a USA product cause I have never seen it here in Canada. I use Safers slug and snail bait.

Poochella, the critters eating your columbine foliage is most likely a little green worm that will eat your plant till it has nothing left but stems and leaf veins.

I agree that the slug population seems to be lower this year than most.

Best and safest slug / snail bait I've found is Alaska Fish Fertilizer...teaspoon sized glops of the stuff on the ground next to plants (NOT watered in) attract them and they shrivel up like raisins. Safe for pets, plants and other living things. Put it under hidey spots to keep the rain off if you want.

toymkr, does the fish fertilizer stink enough that it would attract dogs? I wonder what its components are that actually harm the slugs.

As a side note, I did nab about ten slugs in or around various plants last night; finally crawling out after the days of rain. So they are here, just not in overabundant numbers.

poochella, high salt content? maybe...

Re: Alaska FF smell....

The stuff is deodorized in the reduction process. Smell is not much different from the smell of wet composting grass cuttings....earthy and a very faint ammonia smell. Dogs and other critters pay no attention.

It was a slow start but the little creeps are making up for lost time. I have murdered about 5000 today. Still more out there. The rain must have plumped them up.

I just found a slug eating my newly planted zucchini plants..there seem to be plenty of slugs here.

Several years ago, a member of my dahlia club told me he went out at night and collected slugs. he would put them in his blender, turun it on and use the results as a slug deterrent. He never told his wife what he was using the blender for...

Christine

I am overrun with EARWIGS this year but I did find a homemade trap that really works! Take a plastic container with lid (I used a small cottage cheese container) and put in 1/4 cup vegetable oil and 1 Tablespoon soy sauce, I punched holes in the lid with hole punch only around the edges. The little critters are attracted to it and go in to have a snack and never come back out! Hope this helps someone! I have more snails than ever so I did a snail hunt two nights in a row, picked the little slime balls up and drowned them in a bucket of soapy water,had a burial the next day. Nanofive

Nana that's a good hint on the earwigs. When you say 'hole punch' do you mean the kind you'd use to punch a hole into papers?

Christine, Never accept a smoothie from the slug blender guy or his wife! The Oster company could go bankrupt if they heard of this travesty.

Nightnurse- 5000! Way to slay! I've had a few skewered on sticks, stones, whatever's handy and yes, evening is the time to kill them. I've been gone for a week and had to leave young dahlias unattended/ uncovered at night. Very little damage was done, thankfully.

Good to hear the fish fertilizer doesn't smell. I've always backed off from buying it because I thought it unappealing smell-wise.

Joyce on Vancouver Isl: I think you're right about the pest eating my columbine- only the yellow one though. The white one is standing tall. Pink too. Who is the little green caterpillar and what can I do to discourage it? The yellow columbine is a string of stalk and yellow bloom- no foliage left, as you predicted.

I haven't seen as many as usual *so far* this year, just little ones. They seem to enjoy sliming over my Blue Star Creeper, but not eating it. The Hostas look good so far, too.

When I was a little (oops, I mean young ;-)) girl, my grandmother used to give me a salt shaker to go slug hunting. Now, my mother uses beer (in tuna cans and the like). Hmmm....

I keep telling you guys -- get a handyman or handywoman to make you a slug gun. Attach a blade of some kind to the right length broom handle and voila - a slug gun that cuts the little creeps in half! It's great hunting at night!

Poochella, yes I just used a hole punch like you would use for paper. I keep the traps set where I see large congregations of earwigs.

They were late showing up for me. All of my hostas leafed out beautifully without holes. However they appear to be making up for lost time the last couple of weeks.
My preferred method of slaughter is to zap them with a spray bottle filled with 1 part ammonia:3 parts water.

Late-July update: It has been a low-slug year, but the spit-bugs seem to be on *everything* this year, even on stuff they don't normally go for, like sedums and rosemary. Usually, I just find them on the peppermint and dandelions.

Maybe we can attribute this to global warming.

I meant "June", not "July".

Plant some dahlias, or new iris! They are here on Vashon