Yes I am fairly sure they are dead or very sick (I take no chances and I kill them with a stanley blade but I think they are nearly all moribund)

Now I would much prefer it if I could just scatter the pellets in a reasonable way as it advises on the container but no one has told the birds/mice or whatever to please leave them for the slugs.

At this stage of the season there is no longer so much in the garden to protect but I feel (for my circumstances = over run with slugs and without any real dry weather ) that I will have to continue with this (and other complementary methods).

I can't really bring myself to use metaldehyde as I fear that it could be damaging wild life (although I wonder if there are not ways of using it to prevent that happening )