there is a non-poisonous slug killer. Iron sulfate. You can buy boxes of pellets made of the stuff by a company called Worryfree. Green box, about 8 inches tall, 3 inches across. Works great.

The War on Drugs, the War on Terror, the War on Slugs, will it never end?

One of the things I will always remember is pulling up to Grandma’s house and crunching all of the snails in the street. She would throw them into the street as she tended to her garden, and the street was always covered with them. When I do this, Rich tells me that it is mean. I just tell him it is in my blood.

Here's an easy slug solution. Put some beer in your garden. Maybe in a few small containers. They climb in, drink the beer, get drunk and drown.

Yes, really.

Yes, but in Oregon it rains. The beer in the garden would soon turn to water in the garden. :)

I suppose I could rig up some sort of covered containers, though, containers with an elevated "roof" to protect from the rain while allowing the slugs their debauchery...

Hmm...promoting slug debauchery...doesn't seem right. ;)

Like most things in the garden, especially organic measures, you must constantly replenish the beer. Even if it rains, and Oregon isn't the only place it rains, you can still use the beer. You just have to replenish it regularly. Here in California it evaporates. Constant, consistent, success.

Cecily suggests crushed eggshells. Don't know why. She also suggested the thin copper tape.

Ooh! Ooh! I know!

With the thin copper tape, if I'm not mistaken it creates a current and zaps the little buggers.

Now we're just promoting slug torture.

Yes, slug torture. Quite nice. At least at this point I don't hate slugs as much as I hate ants. We have had a minor ant problem in the new house, but faithful use of Terro seems to keep the problem in check. Before we discovered Terro, life with ants was hell. :/

On another gardening note: Jeremy's parents, John and Louise, gave Kris a bunch of plants the other night, including eighteen Hood strawberries. We got most of these planted last night before the Vice Presidential debate; we'll finish planting tonight. The eighteen strawberry plants line the diagonal sidewalk in the rose garden. They're evenly spaced, and I think they look quite nice.

Be warned, slugs like strawberry plants as well...slugs eat just about everything I think - except weeds.

I read in the Home and Garden section of the Oregonian that slugs love to eat coffee grounds but they can't digest them so they die. Though I am sure this must be painful for them, I poked holes in the top of a coffee can and sprinkled it under my plants. It worked well when I sprinkled it out, but I wasn't very good about keeping up on it so the little buggers just re-infested. But, at least I didn't have to worry about my cat lying in the flower bed eating poison or drinking beer.

Around here they give out free (used) coffee grounds at Starbucks for your garden. I imagine that it's to be used as and organic addition to compost, but it guess it would work well against slugs as well if sprnkled like a mulch.

We have used covered slug traps with great success. An easy way to make one is to take a cottage cheese container, cut a hole in the side about 3/4 the way up from the bottom, about 3/4 of an inch in diameter. Fill the container with beer to just below the hole. Put the lid back on, bury it in the ground so the hole is at ground level. Rain proof, and the slugs drown in the beer. You will need to empty it pretty often at first, less once the population diminishes.

If you choose to use the coffee grounds to terminate the life of the slugs, can I have the beer? I promise not to come to your garden at night and eat your fledgling plants if you offer me a fine brew.

I have seen metal strips that include copper and aluminum for controlling slugs. When the slug crawls across, he or she literally turns into a slug battery and dies.
Don't know if it works. Maybe plain copper tape would do the same thing.

I use this:

http://www.safe2use.com/safe-products/diatomaceous/diatomaceous_Earth.htm

Diatomaceous earth is great for some things. But I have heard that, in the soil, it can harm earthworms. You definitely don't want to damage your earthworm population.

Such a shame that we can't all live harmoniously in the garden, eh?

As a member of P.E.S.T. (People for Ethical Slug Treatment), I officially deplore the senseless killing of defenseless slugs. Just say NO! Stop the slaughter!!

For the record, I have had one consistant position on the slaughter of slugs, despite the fact that as a child I took great delight in taking the salt shaker to them. That was the wrong slaughter at the wrong place at the wrong time.

Not sure about the earthworms w/ respect to D.E. I still have some living there, but it would make sense that the D.E. would cut them too. Must do more research . . .

I had slugs that ate up almost everything at my place the first year we moved in. Now I have very few because of a yearlong war I waged on them an won. The slugs on your property are in various stages of their life cycle and you must kill all of them before you will get some freedom from them. If you use slug bait you will kill those that are moving and feeding in the area you use the slug bait in and then the ones in the adjacent areas will move in and take over the newly vacated area. To fully clean up an area of slugs you have to completely slug bait your entire property and then re-bait it every couple of weeks until all of the slug eggs have hatched and have been killed by subsequent applications of slug bait. At that point your property will be slug free and then you only have to keep the perimeter of your property baited to kill migratory slugs trying to make your property their new home. The rest of your property will continue to be slug free as long as your maintain the perimeter baiting regimine.