I dont know how or where the slugs are coming in?
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Trace the slime trail. Turn off the lights and use a flashlight and you should be able to see a slime trail where ever they have slithered. Follow it back to the opening where they came in.
Get a roll of copper wire from your hardware store and put a line of it just outside your doors and any openings you can find leading into your house. You can also make a row of pennies but that's not as easy to keep in place. They won't climb over copper.
When you find out where they're getting in, bury a jar lid of beer in the yard or garden just up to the rim. They will drink it, fall in and drown.
Slugs are hermaphrodites: they all have male and female reproductive systems. Yes, they can mate with themselves! They can stretch to 20 times their normal length enabling them to squeeze through openings to get at food. Slugs can follow slime trails they left from the night before. Other slugs can also pick up on this same trail creating a slug network to the host plants! Slugs and snails actually both have shells. Slugs' shells are much smaller and not visible as they are underneath the flesh on their back.
Slug eggs are in the soil just about everywhere. They can be there for years and then hatch when conditions are right. That explains how they keep getting in! It actually takes moisture to allow them to hatch. To identify the eggs look for oval shaped white colored eggs in moist soil areas, under rocks, and boards. Eggs are laid in clusters of two dozen eggs each. The adults also overwinter in the soil and can live for many years. In the Northwest they have banana slugs which are bright yellow, grow to 8 inches with some up to 18 inches!
There are at least 40 species of slugs in the US. Some of the more common types are:
Grey field slugs: (Derocereas reticulatum): this is about 1.5 inches in length, grey to tan in color with dark spots and has a light colored belly with a dark streak down the middle. Its' preferred foods are lettuce and cabbage. However they will go after anything.
Black slugs: Large up to 6 inches long with rough bumpy skin and a light colored foot. They are mostly black in color but can also be brown or red. Prefers tender seedlings leaving more mature plants alone.
Common garden slug: This probably the most often observed slug. One inch long, dark skin with a lighter stripe along the side. The foot can be either red or yellow. It can damage stems, roots and slither up plants causing much damage. It borrows in the soil to feed on root crops.
To get rid of them try:
Slug-Stop is applied as a 2 inch wide barrier in the same way that you would use diatomaceous earth. Unlike D.E., Slug-Stop does not have to remain dry to be effective. It is made from a patented blend of soaps from coconuts! It does not kill slugs and snails but keeps them out wherever you use it. After 3 or more weeks as needed you just put down more where there are any breaks in your original barrier. It is recommended that the barrier be outside of the root zone of the plant to be protected as Slug-Stop does contain some naturally occurring salts that some plants may be sensitive to. It has a low impact on the environment. It is claimed that it break down naturally into the soil with no residual problems.
Epsom Salts: Epsom salts sprinkled on the soil will supposedly deter slugs and also helps prevent Magnesium deficiency in your plants. Magnesium helps to deepen color, thickens petals and increases root structure.
Hope this helps! Good Luck -Nay
They can slither through smallest gap. A right pain. Put down salt.
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Cover the entire garden in salt, or just organise a mignight watch. You'll find them then!
Slugs live in the ground (seriously). It doesn't matter how hard you try they will always come back. My nan swears by a beer trap but we've had no luck. Slug pellets are my best best. Or, if your plants are in pots smear vaseline around the top cus they don't like to crawl over it. Or use crushed nutshells. Or salt (they look like melted cheese then!).
Slugs are everwhere. They can travel fairly large distances at night. They will climb over most things and burrow too. Birds will drop the odd one or two, and they breed pretty quick once they are present.
I wouldn't recommend beer traps. They are a lot of work and will attract slugs into your garden from the entire neighbourhood. Slugs may pass over copper and eggshells if they are hungry enough.
The best solution is pellets or a hedgehog. Use a birdsafe pellet and make sure you spread them properly. A pile of pellets will deter, not attract the slugs. The pellets often only paralyse the slugs. So you may want to follow their trails and finish them off.
The best predator of slugs is the hedgehog. You will have no problems if you can persuade one of these beauties, to visit you garden. Blackbirds and frogs and newts will also eat some. So consider a birdbath or pond (without fish) if you don't have one.
Try broken egg shell, they hater them, and also rub vasaline on your pots, this ascts as a slide for them.
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