Snails and slugs ... help!

We have the same problem. We live north of Seattle; there are about a bazillion slugs per square inch here.

One thing you can do is make a line of diatomous earth (spelling?) around the borders of your beds - they don't like to crawl over the line because the sharp edges of the particles will cut them.

We take empty coffee cans and bury them to their tops in the soil, then fill the cans with beer. Every morning we find an incredible number of dead slugs in the cans. Its gross to dispose of them. But they like the beer a lot better than the plants.

My grandmother used to put out pie tins of beer. It attracted the snails and slugs. It also killed them. Salt will also kill them.

If you do not live in a wet area, you may have them from over-watering.

Not much help... Sorry...

Janis

I am going to try copper tape this year in my garden along with the beer in pans idea inside my garden plot. I live in the redwood forest so I have the daddy of all slugs. Banana Slugs! I don't want to kill those, just deter them.

My mom also used beer, but in the can it came in, with the top cut off. She would dig a hole to make it even with the top of the soil and in the morning we would find sooooooooooo many slugs. Yuchggghhhchh.

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I think you can buy this at most swimming supply stores, as it is used in some pool filters. You could outline the garden and then use beer to kill off any that are on the inside of the barrier. Then you won't have to pull slugs / snails out of beer cans all summer. It would be cool if it worked!

Wheat bran. Sprinkle a thick ring around the beds, then around indiv. plants or small groups of plants. You need to repeat after it rains, or when it starts to look packed down (like after several waterings). Best part: it's really cheap if you buy it in bulk.